The completely redesigned 2014 Subaru Forester earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) top award for good performance in its moderate overlap frontal, side, rollover and rear impact evaluations. This distinction has helped Subaru become the only automaker to earn a 2013 Top Safety Pick for every model it builds.
Top Safety Pick recognizes vehicles that, in IIHS testing, do the best job of protecting people in front, side, rear, and now rollover crashes based on ‘good’ ratings in each category. The IIHS ranks in terms of Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor, with ‘good’ as the top rank possible in Institute tests. Winners also must have electronic stability control.
“For four consecutive years, Subaru is the only automotive manufacturer with the distinction of earning IIHS Top Safety Pick awards for every model it builds,” said Institute president Adrian Lund. “Subaru deserves praise for making safety a top priority.”
To qualify for a Top Safety Pick, vehicles must have good ratings for occupant protection in the moderate overlap frontal, side impact, rollover and rear tests. IIHS rates vehicles as good, acceptable, marginal or poor based on performance. The Institute’s frontal crashworthiness evaluations are based on results of a 40 mph moderate overlap frontal crash. Side evaluations are based on performance in a crash test in which the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph. The barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV.
Rear crash protection is rated according to a two-step procedure. Starting points for the ratings are measurements of head restraint geometry – the height of a restraint and its horizontal distance behind the back of an average-size man. In the roof strength test, a metal plate is pushed against one side of a roof at a displacement rate of 0.2 inch per second. To earn a good rating for rollover protection, the roof must withstand a force of four times the vehicle’s weight before reaching five inches of crush. This is called a strength-to-weight ratio.
