The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) today released its assessment of the 2021 4-door Ford Bronco. While the vehicle did well in most testing categories, it did not earn one of the nonprofit’s safety awards due to headrests and headlights.
IIHS Criteria
The IIHS evaluates two aspects of safety: crashworthiness and crash avoidance/mitigation.
Within the crashworthiness category, it runs six tests:
- Driver-side small overlap front (seen above)
- Passenger-side small overlap front
- Moderate overlap front
- Original side
- Roof strength
- Head restraint
To qualify for one of its two awards, an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK or TOP SAFETY PICK+, a vehicle must be ranked as Good in these six tests, as well as earn an Advanced or Superior rating in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention. Finally, it must meet an Acceptable or Good in available headlights for a TOP SAFETY PICK and Acceptable or Good in standard headlights for a TOP SAFETY PICK+.
Bronco Rankings
The 4-door Bronco earned the Good rating in five crashworthiness tests but Acceptable in the head restraint evaluation.
IIHS says the Bronco’s headrests meet criteria for geometry, but come short in providing enough support for an occupant when the vehicle is struck from behind by a similar weight vehicle going 20 mph.
In crash avoidance and mitigation, the Bronco meets criteria with Superior and Advanced ratings in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian test.
The last criteria, available or standard headlights, is where Bronco picked up its second mark keeping it from an award: IIHS states that “both headlight systems available on the Bronco earn marginal ratings because their low beams do not illuminate the road to a far enough distance on curves.”
Related Vehicles
Bronco was not alone is missing out on an award. Car and Driver reports that the Bronco’s “biggest competitor, the Jeep Wrangler, also did not achieve the honor. In the case of the Jeep, its head restraints were rated Good. But while the Bronco was rated Good in the driver's-side small overlap crash test, the Jeep only got Marginal—'due to tipping onto its side.’”
However, the 2021 Bronco Sport did well in testing, becoming a TOP SAFETY PICK+ in the Small SUV category.
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