Improved passenger-side protection boosts Honda Pilot to IIHS Top Safety Pick+

The 2023 Honda Pilot, a midsize SUV, earns a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety thanks to improved performance in the passenger-side small overlap front crash test.

To qualify for Top Safety Pick+ in 2023, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, updated side and original moderate overlap front tests. Acceptable or good headlights must be standard across all trims, and a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations must be available.

In contrast, for the lower-tier Top Safety Pick award, an acceptable rating in the updated side test is enough, and vehicles only need to demonstrate advanced or superior performance in the daytime pedestrian test.

Redesigned for the 2023 model year, the Pilot meets all the requirements for the “plus,” with a standard front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in both the daytime and nighttime evaluations and good-rated headlights supplied on all trims.

The previous version of the SUV missed out on either award in 2022 because it earned only an acceptable rating in the passenger-side small overlap test and received no credit in either pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation.