A General Motors vehicle finally achieved the status of a Top Safety Pick in the 2025 Top Safety Pick Award of the non-profit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), with the 2o25 Chevy Traverse as one of 12 winners in the “Midsize SUVs” segment alongside assorted Hondas, Mazdas and Kias.
The IIHS gave a good rating to most aspects of safety for the Chevy Traverse, with an overview of the testing process the Traverse and other models were subjected to given in the video you can watch here:
The Chevy Traverse not only made it to the limited circle of Top Safety Picks for 2025 but also did so with more rigorous tests now in place. It was given the IIHS updated “moderate overlap test” which measures the safety of passengers in the second seating row. Its “Acceptable” rating in this regard elevated it to the Top Safety Pick category, though not Top Safety Pick Plus, (Top Safety Pick+), which requires a “Good” moderate overlap rating.
Looking more closely at the moderate overlap performance of the Chevy Traverse, it achieved a “Good” rating in almost every part of the test. This includes injury measures for all body areas (head/neck, chest, thigh/hip, leg/foot) for both the driver and second-row passengers. It was only a “Marginal” rating for rear passenger dummy kinematics, or the overall motion of the crash test dummy, that appears to have dropped its moderate overlap results from Good (Top Pick+) to Acceptable (Top Pick).
The Chevy Traverse also got a solid lineup of Good ratings (the highest rating in the IIHS test) for the “small overlap front” crash for both the driver’s side and passenger side. Crashworthiness was Good for the small overlap front and the side directions, and Acceptable for moderate overlap side. For “Crash Avoidance and Mitigation,” the Bow Tie crossover also got a Good ranking for its headlights and for avoiding vehicle-to-vehicle crashes. Pedestrian crash prevention was Acceptable.
The IIHS president, David Harkey, notes that “automakers are making good progress on offering better back seat protection since we introduced the updated moderate overlap test a couple of years ago.” The Traverse appears to be one of the models in which designers heeded the organization’s warnings. However, smaller pickups and minivans are still generally lacking in rear-seat protection according to the IIHS.
Interestingly, the Traverse’s platform-sharing counterparts didn’t get the same crash test ratings. The Buick Enclave received a “Good” overall rating while the GMC Acadia received an “Acceptable” rating.
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