The all-new and all Skyactiv crossover from Mazda may have only made its way to dealership floors recently, but it’s already earning awards. After an extensive crash testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has given the 2013 CX-5 its highest ranking: a Top Safety Pick. In order to achieve the status, Mazda engineers put countless hours into the little SUV and even injected their latest technology into the body and chassis. The frame, subframe, panels and suspension have all been made up of high strength but light weight materials such as high-tensil steel. These Skyactive bits and pieces along with six airbags, tire pressure monitoring and multiple crumple zones helped the CX-5 earn its stripes.
“Earning a ‘Top Safety Pick’ distinction from the IIHS further exemplifies Mazda’s dedication for creating products that offer the best of everything that consumers want: fuel economy, performance, handling and, most importantly, safety,” said Jim O’Sullivan, president and CEO of Mazda North America. In 2010, the IIHS revised their testing to not only make it more thorough, but even more difficult for a vehicle to earn a Top Safety Pick. Alongside the already in play front, side and rear crash testing, the evaluation group added a roof strength test to its bag of tricks. This was done to determine how safe a vehicle would be in a potential rollover, a risk generally higher in a crossover and or SUV. To get a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must receive a Good rating in all four tests; something the 2013 Mazda CX-5 certainly did.
Source: Mazda
