The 2016 Mercedes-Benz C-Class has just become the latest winner of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick+ award. Although the C-Class was redesigned for 2015, IIHS only recently evaluated it for crashworthiness.
The midsize luxury car has earned good ratings in all five test categories that it was put through by the the Institute’s crashworthiness evaluations — small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints.
The tests revealed that the C-Class also holds a standard front crash prevention system that got the mid-size sedan an advanced rating in the assessment. An additional, optional system boosts the car’s front crash prevention rating to superior.
In the challenging small overlap test, the car’s structure held up well with a 4-inch maximum intrusion into the occupant compartment. The distortion meant a major improvement over the earlier generation of the C-Class, which permitted an intrusion of 20 inches at the footrest and only resorted for a marginal rating.
The roof strength test also brought positive results for the C-Class. The Mercedes sedan was found to have a strength-to-weight ratio of 7, which is a figure among the highest ever registered. A minimum ratio of 4 is required for achieving a good rating. Roof strength is a decisive factor for protection in a rollover crash.
To qualify for the 2016 Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the five IIHS crashworthiness tests and an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.
