An adjustment made to headlight aiming with the revised 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander has led the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) giving the compact SUV its highest possible Top Safety Pick+ (TSP+) rating.
The American agency specified that the higher rating applies to Outlanders built June 2021, point at which the Japanese automaker made an adjustment to the directionality of the vehicle’s headlights, which results in less glare for other motorists. The manufacturer points out that owners of 2022 Outlander built prior to this date can bring their vehicle to a dealer to have the headlight aiming adjusted, at no cost.
The IIHS’ TSP+ designation is awarded for models meeting all six IIHS crash-worthiness evaluations including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side impact, roof strength and head-restraint tests. On addition, vehicles must be available with a front-crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations, and for vehicles built after June 2021, possess good or acceptable headlights across all trim levels.
In recent years, we’ve seen a number of models’ ratings depend on the performance of their headlights, with some moving up, or down a notch to the IIHS’ TSP rating, and this is just the latest example.
As more 2022 model-year vehicles hit the market, the IIHS has been able to carry out more tests and deliver its verdicts. Here are the 2022 vehicle models that thus far have earned the highest possible TSP+ rating:
2022 Acura MDX
2022 Honda Insight
2022 Honda Odyssey
2022 Hyundai Santa Fe (built after July 2021)
2022 Hyundai Tucson
2022 Kia Stinger
2022 Mitsubishi Outlander (built after June 2021)
2022 Subaru Ascent
2022 Subaru Impreza
2022 Subaru Legacy
2022 Subaru Outback
2022 Volvo S60
2022 Volvo S60 Recharge
2022 Volvo V60 Cross Country
2022 Volvo XC40
2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge
2022 Volvo XC90
2022 Volvo XC90 Recharge
