Ford hasn’t fared terribly well in some recently updated testing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), as the automaker received “poor” ratings for its adaptive cruise control and BlueCruise systems over the past couple of months – though in all fairness, it was joined by most other automakers in that regard as well. As for the Ford Escape, prior to its refresh, the popular crossover earned a “marginal” score in IIHS crash testing and flunked the agency’s seat belt remainder test, while the updated 2023 model received a rating of “good” for its updated front overlap crash testing. However, the Ford Escape did struggle in the also-recently-updated front crash testing, too.
IIHS chose to update its vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test to address crashes that occur at higher speeds, as well as those in which the vehicle that gets struck is a motorcycle or large truck. The results weren’t terribly great for the group of small crossovers that were subjected to this test, as out of 10 different models, only one earned a good rating – the Subaru Forester.
The Forester was followed by the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 and their acceptable ratings, while the Ford Escape, Hyundai Tucson, and Jeep Compass received marginal scores. The rest of the group – the Chevy Equinox, Mazda CX-5, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Volkswagen Taos – were all rated poor.
Previously, IIHS front crash testing was conducted at lower speeds of between 12 and 25 mph, but the revised testing includes trial runs at 31, 37, and 43 mph, and also examines performance with a motorcycle target and a semitrailer. These trials use targets to evaluate both the forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems in these vehicles. In each test run, an engineer recorded when the forward collision warning occurred and how much the AEB system slowed the vehicle to prevent or mitigate the impending impact.
We’ll have more on the Escape soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Escape news and non-stop Ford news coverage.
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