The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has announced that the 2018 Nissan Kicks and Sentra have both earned a Top Safety Pick rating, but both models missed out on the highest rating.
To receive the Top Safety Pick rating a vehicle has to have good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also must have an available front crash prevention system that earns a superior or advanced rating and available headlights that receive a good or acceptable rating.
The 2018 Nissan Kicks standard front crash prevention system was rated as superior and the headlights on the SR trim earn an acceptable rating, while the base headlights are rated poor. The Kicks would have received the higher Top Safety Pick+ rating, but its top-rated headlights were better better. The Top Safety Pick+ award requires a good or acceptable rating in the passenger-side small overlap front test and available good-rated headlights. The Kicks earns an acceptable rating in the passenger-side test.
The 2018 Nissan Sentra only received the Top Safety Pick rating, since its headlights were only rated as acceptable headlights on some trims and poor-rated ones on others. Plus the Sentra hasn’t been rated for passenger-side small overlap protection.
Source: IIHS
