2018 Hyundai Sonata Receives Top Safety Pick of 2017

No beating around the bush. We’ll give you more reason to love the 2018 Hyundai Sonata: it recently received the 2017 Top Safety Pick+ award in California, the highest possible rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) which is a non-profit institute that tests and rates vehicles for their level of crash protection.

The question is, what qualifications did the Hyundai Sonata have for it to earn the highest accolade from the institution? Well, for a vehicle to receive the highest award, it must earn good ratings on all of IIHS’s crashworthiness tests, earn advanced or superior rating for its front crash prevention system, and earn no less than an acceptable rating in their headlights test.

According to the rating of IIHS, the 2018 Hyundai Sonata earned “good” ratings on all five of their crash-worthiness tests – small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, and head restraint & seats. It also received an overall “superior” rating for its standard front crash prevention with its optional Automatic Emergency Braking installed. Finally, the cherry on top is the “acceptable” rating it received on its headlights.

In its press release, Hyundai Motor America’s corporate and digital planning vice president Mike O’Brien emphasized the role of safety in engineering Hyundai vehicles. “Above all other things, the safety of the occupants is the single most important factor when designing and engineering Hyundai vehicles. The IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ award is a testament to our emphasis on safety at every price point and we pride ourselves on providing our customers with ‘better’ because it is what drives us.”

Truly, the rating is well-deserved with how many safety features the 2018 Sonata hides in its metallic sheets. The new 2018 Sonata offers seven standard airbags (dual front, side, and curtain, and driver’s knee) as well as a lot of safety techs like Vehicle Stability Management, Electronic Stability Control, Traction Control System, Anti-lock Braking System, Electronic Brake-force Distribution, Brake Assist, Tire Pressure Monitoring System, Blind Spot Detection with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning System, and Lane Keep Assist.