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Ford Escape Earns Superior Rating For Rear Crash Protection

The Ford Escape – like most small crossovers on the market – has struggled in some recently updated crash testing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). In fact, the Escape’s most recent performance in that agency’s revised vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test left it with a rating of “marginal,” though in all fairness, only one of ten small crossovers – the Subaru Forester – managed to secure a superior rating of “good.” However, that wasn’t the case for the Ford Escape in recent IIHS rear crash protection testing.

In this round of testing, the IIHS looked at eight different small crossovers, and seven of them performed admirably. The Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Subaru Forester earned the highest rating of “superior,” in fact, while the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4, and Volkswagen Taos were rated “advanced,” and the Hyundai Tucson managed only a “basic” rating. To determine these ratings, IIHS looked for the presence of parking sensors, rear cross-traffic alert systems, and automatic emergency braking systems, and evaluates the performance of each in a series of track tests conducted at speeds of four miles-per-hour.

According to the IIHS, while crashes of this type at this speed don’t typically result in injuries, they can lead to thousands of dollars in damage. In fact, this type of crash accounted for around 30 percent of all accidents in the U.S. in 2022, with the average claim coming in at $4,000. However, the presence of rear cameras, parking sensors, and rear AEB combined reduced the incidence of police-reported backing crashes by a whopping 78 percent, while rear cross-traffic alert alone reduced such collisions by 22 percent.

“Since 2018, new vehicles have been required to come with a rear camera that makes it easier to see where you’re going when you’re backing up,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Rear automatic emergency braking systems aren’t required, making the feature far less common. That’s too bad because our research consistently shows that technology that intervenes on behalf of the driver is more effective in preventing crashes than other types of solutions.”

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.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

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