POOR HEADLIGHTS SINK PICKUPS IN SAFETY TEST
Four trucks prove sound but fail to earn top honors from IIHS
A new round of testing shows that four midsize pickups are sound in crashes but still have a ways to go when it comes to adequate headlights.
As a result, none of the latest 2017 models tested earned top honors from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The four tested were the Toyota Tacoma, Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier.
The Toyota Tacoma, the crewcab version of the Chevrolet Colorado and the crew-cab version of the GMC Canyon all earned a “good” rating on the IIHS smalloverlap front crash test.
The test measures the vehicle’s performance when it clips an oncoming car or smashes into a pole or tree on the side of the road.
The extended cab versions of the Colorado and Canyon earned “acceptable” ratings. But the Nissan Frontier, which hasn’t had a major overhaul since the 2005 model, received a “marginal” ranking.
The midsize pickups performed better than their full-size cousins, according to IIHS.
But their headlights have much room to improve. All headlight packages on the midsize pickups performed poorly after IIHS recently began ranking headlights based on visibility and glare.
That prevented the trucks from earning the IIHS Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ honors.
Poor headlight performance is a shortcoming for the industry for a variety of factors, including ancient regulations that have prevented engineers from adopting technology that automatically controls lighting dispersal.
“Drivers shouldn’t have to give up the ability to see the road at night when they choose a small pickup,” IIHS executive vice president and chief research officer David Zuby said in a statement.