After some very hard times and continuous bad luck, finally GM has something to be proud of and celebrate

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted a series of small overlap front crash tests, where out of nine midsize SUVs, two of its vehicles – GMC Terrain and 2014 Chevrolet Equinox – scored Top Safety Pick+ award. What made GM stand tall today is, Kia, Mazda and Honda with their entries, performing very bad and earning “Poor” ratings in the Overall safety category. Most surprisingly, the only two vehicles that scored “Good” ratings in overall safety category were the Terrain and Equinox.

This is achieved by strengthening the front structure and door-hinge pillars in the latest updates made to the 2014 models, which undoubtedly, helped keeping in a good check on dummy’s movement. Even Toyota Highlander managed to score a Top Safety Pick+ but unlike GM, it only received “Acceptable” for organisation’s Overall, Kinematics, Structure and Restraints categories. A vehicle must offer some kind of front crash prevention technology and receive “Good” or “Acceptable” to earn this accolade. The contestants who managed to receive “Marginal” score in the Overall category are: Ford Explorer, Toyota 4Runner and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Last but not the least, three contestants who performed real bad and received “Poor” scores are: Honda Pilot, Mazda CX-9 and Kia Sorrento. The worst among these three was Honda Pilot which set the worst example of cockpit intrusion during the test, its steering column moved more than 5 inches to the right and the parking brake pedal moved more than 16 inches inwards. In this series of small front crash tests, authorities replicate a collision where vehicle travels at 40 miles per hour and then 25 percent of its front end strikes a barrier. It’s an extremely difficult test for the integrity of a vehicle as a small area gets a lot of focused energy.