Honda has announced that the 2015 Honda Fit has been named a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS, but it wasn’t an easy feat.
Honda has announced that the 2015 Honda Fit has been named a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS, but it wasn’t an easy feat. Back in March an early production 2015 Fit was tested, but it only received a marginal score in the small overlap test, which would have prevented it from receiving the top safety rating. Honda’s engineers responded quickly and made a design change to fix the issue.
In the original design, a steel bumper beam was supposed to absorb most of the crash energy in the small overlap test, but in the early testing it was revealed that it broke free during the impact. To fix the issue, Honda’s engineers quickly redesigned the bumper beam and asked the IIHS to re-test the 2015 Fit. The result is that the 2015 Fit now has an Acceptable rating in the small overlap test and a Good rating in the four other IIHS crash tests.
Related: First Drive: 2015 Honda Fit (Review)
Although approximately 12,000 early production 2015 Fits were produced before the bumper issue was identified, Honda says that those early vehicles are eligible for a product update. Honda will replace the front bumper beam free of charge.
Source: Honda
