The Safest SUVs from Honda

Safety Ratings

There are two main organizations that score vehicles like these for safety: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Both groups test vehicles for crash safety, but they also evaluate other aspects of modern vehicles to let drivers know which ones are some of the safest SUVs.

While the 5-star system of the NHTSA is pretty straightforward, in order for a vehicle to earn a Top Safety Pick from the IIHS, it must earn scores of “good” or higher in their crash tests as well as have a basic rating for front crash prevention (Top Safety Pick+ requires “advanced” or “superior” levels of front crash prevention).

Here’s how the Honda SUVs fared:

To put things in perspective with competing crossovers and SUVs, even when a vehicle like the 2016 Nissan Rogue’s safety features come close to the CR-V, it still has a tough time earning the same recognition from crash testing organizations—the IIHS ranked 2016 Honda CR-V models with forward collision warning systems as 2016 Top Safety Pick+ models while the Rogue only manages Top Safety Pick.

What Is Honda Sensing?

You might have heard of the Honda Sensing suite of safety features before reading about these new vehicles here, but we think it’s important to go over just what those safety features entail for anyone who isn’t quite sure what makes them so advanced:

Forward Collision Warning: Through a combination of radar and camera systems, select Honda vehicles can sense when a frontal collision is likely and warn you to attempt to avoid it.

Collision Mitigation Braking: The available collision mitigation braking system is able to respond to possible collision threats and apply the brakes if it senses that the driver hasn’t slowed down enough.

Lane Keeping Assist: By monitoring the markings on the road, the vehicle can tell when you start to drift and actually adjust wheel position to keep you in the current lane.

Road Departure Mitigation: The same systems that watch for forward collisions and lane departure can detect objects on the side of the road and work to prevent you from leaving the pavement.

Adaptive Cruise Control: By monitoring the speed of the vehicles around you, the Honda Sensing–equipped SUV can adjust cruising speeds to adapt to the flow of traffic.

No advanced safety measures are a replacement for attentive driving, but with features like these, you can be sure that your SUV has your back. Honda Sensing features are found on CR-V Touring models and are available on Pilot EX, EX-L, Touring, and Elite models.