General Motors can add the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain to its list of vehicles which have earned a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Terrain and Equinox are the only two midsize SUVs of the nine evaluated which earned the highest possible ‘Good’ rating in the Institute’s small front overlap crash test.
The small overlap test requires 25 percent of a vehicles front end on the driver side hit a 5 foot high rigid barrier at 40mph. It is designed to replicate what happens when the corner of a vehicle clips another vehicle or object like a utility pole.
Equinox and Terrain had already earned the Top Safety Pick distinction, however the criteria for Top Safety Pick+ requires a vehicle to offer a frontal crash alert system meeting IIHS requirements. The available forward collision alert on the Equinox and Terrain uses a camera to detect when a driver is at risk of hitting an object ahead, and will deliver visual and audible alerts to inform the driver of the hazard.
“Having the only two midsize SUVs that earned the Top Safety Pick Plus designation speaks to GM’s focus on improving our vehicles by offering advanced crash avoidance technologies that can help avoid a crash, and by enhancing vehicle structure and occupant protection if a crash occurs,” Gay Kent, director of GM Global Safety Strategy and Vehicle Programs, said in a statement.
The Equinox and Terrain join two other GM vehicles with the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick+ rating, the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu and the Chevrolet Spark.
Comments
I own a Terrain and it Is a very stout platform but at 4100 pounds it better be.
Few cars will pass the over lap test and the few that do are generally giving up something in another area.
Ad for the forward alert system it just came on ours and it was the first thing the wife wanted shut off. It has so many false signals and plus she is one that looks where she is going.
It all goes back to attention and situational awareness. If you are driving pay damn attention and you won’t need the car doing it for you.
But at least the media has something positive to post for once.
Impressive. The heavy weight actually makes it harder for the vehicle to succeed in this test as it is against a rigid barrier. It’s like a partial head on with a vehicle of equal proportions and weight. Physics.
I love the Equinox and Terrain! I hope the third-generation Equinox closely resembles the second because it is great looking! The Terrain should go on the Canyon platform and GMC should get a sportwagon.
We will apparently never know how the 2005-2013 Equinox models perform in the small-offset test, but, based on all the glowing headlines, it was quite wise of GM to make the recent structural improvements to this aging platform so that its 2014 model would pass.
Apparently, the other manufacturers decided, for whatever reasons, not to re-engineer their SUV’s front ends in time, although their next models will no-doubt pass with flying colors.
The 2010-2014 are all the same as they only changed a few trim items and wheels.
The 2005-09 were on the same platform. I am sure they up the stiffness in the latter but this platform was strong from the start. Generally most platforms are good from the start as it is cheaper to replace a platform than fix one.