The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recently tested the technically similar Acura ZDX and Honda Prologue, two electric utility vehicles produced by General Motors on a GM platform with GM battery technology. Both of them sadly missed out on Top Safety Pick awards due to an acceptable rating in the small overlap front crash test.
To qualify for Top Safety Pick or the more coveted Top Safety Pick+ accolade, a vehicle has to earn good ratings in all crashworthiness tests. Although the ZDX and Prologue did perfectly fine in the side impact and moderate overlap front crash tests, the nonprofit organization was not pleased with their performance in the small overlap front test.
In the passenger-side small overlap front crash test, the head of the front passenger dummy moved into the gap between the frontal and side curtain airbags, therefore increasing the risk of contact with the passenger-side A pillar. To this effect, the safety boffins couldn't do better than a marginal rating for front passenger restraints and dummy kinematics.
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