In an era where automotive safety is more scrutinized than ever, Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) has set a new benchmark, achieving the most Top Safety Pick+ awards of any brand. This accolade, announced on February 27, 2024, by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), underscores Mazda’s commitment to meeting and exceeding safety standards, reflecting its dedication to protecting vehicle occupants and pedestrians.
A Sweep of Top Safety Accolades
Mazda’s remarkable accomplishment in the 2024 IIHS safety awards includes five models bestowed with the Top Safety Pick+ honor, the highest award in vehicle safety. These models—the Mazda3 Sedan, Mazda3 Hatchback, CX-30, CX-50 (built after August 2023), and CX-90—embody Mazda’s holistic approach to safety, integrating advanced safety features as standard across its lineup. Additionally, the CX-90 PHEV earned the Top Safety Pick award, with aspirations to reach the higher accolade soon, following updates to its moderate front overlap test performance.
Raising the Bar for Vehicle Safety
The 2024 IIHS awards have significantly raised the bar for safety criteria, introducing more stringent standards for front and side impact protection and emphasizing crash prevention more. These enhanced requirements now include rigorous evaluations in scenarios involving pedestrians, ensuring vehicles are equipped to prevent accidents in both daylight and nighttime conditions. This year’s enhancements represent a comprehensive approach, urging automakers to adopt more advanced safety technologies and designs to protect the vehicle’s occupants and those outside it, including pedestrians and cyclists. David Harkey, President of IIHS, lauded this year’s winners for their exemplary level of protection, underscoring their pivotal role in pushing the boundaries of vehicle safety. The acknowledgment of these achievements by IIHS highlights the importance of continual innovation in safety features and technologies, encouraging manufacturers to strive for excellence in protecting lives on the road.
Beyond the Basics: Mazda’s Safety Innovations
Mazda’s success in these rigorous tests can be attributed to its innovative safety features, including rear seat belt pretensioners, load limiters, and advanced side impact airbags, enhancing protection in diverse crash scenarios. However, Mazda’s focus extends beyond the occupants to consider the safety of pedestrians, employing crash avoidance systems finely tuned to detect pedestrians under various lighting conditions, even in low visibility. This comprehensive safety strategy also integrates active braking and collision warning systems, demonstrating Mazda’s broader commitment to engineering vehicles that contribute to a crash-free society through proactive and preventive safety measures.
A Commitment to a Crash-Free Future
MNAO President and CEO Tom Donnelly expressed gratitude for the IIHS’s continuous efforts to reflect real-world crash scenarios in their testing protocols. He emphasized safety as a paramount concern for Mazda, stating that the evolving challenges presented by the IIHS motivate the brand to prioritize and enhance occupant safety through thoughtful design and engineering.
About Mazda North American Operations
Mazda, founded in Hiroshima, Japan, and now headquartered in Irvine, California, continues to innovate with a human-centric approach. It aims to enrich the lives of those it serves through superior craftsmanship and innovation. With approximately 795 dealers across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Colombia, Mazda is poised to continue its legacy of delivering vehicles that combine safety, performance, and design in ways that move people physically and emotionally.
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