The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, gave the Mitsubishi Eclipse a commendation for its safety features, but only for a handful of the SUV's equipment. The Eclipse may not be Mitsubishi's foremost and flagship SUV, but it does shine on its own. With the recent commendation from the IIHS, it only cements the company's commitment towards the safety of their consumers.
This week, the IIHS announced that the 2019 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross SUV would receive the institute's second-highest award, Top Safety Pick. For a car to achieve this status, it must excellently perform on a battery of crash tests. Not only that, but its crash avoidance system must also score well for it to snag the Top Safety Pick award.
As for its crash tests, the Eclipse Cross passed it with flying colors. The IIHS puts a car on a series of six crash tests, and this includes the recently implemented small overlap on the passenger-side test. This was added into the test in order to make sure that car manufacturers are building their cars with enough protection both the driver and those sitting on the front seat.
According to the IIHS, the Eclipse Cross received the highest rating of Good in all of the test. However, there is a small caveat to this award. While the SUV received a Superior rating for it crash-avoidance technology, it was awarded to the Touring package and not the base model. That means that if customers want to take advantage of this high rating, they need to add an additional $2,500 in order to get the Touring package. This is a bit of a letdown, as most cars scoring high on the IIHS test are standard and base models, not upgrades like the Eclipse Cross with Touring Package.
The same caveat also hampers the Eclipse Cross' headlights. The halogen headlight of the base model only managed to score Poor in the test. The upgraded LED headlights available only to the SEL model with Touring package managed to score Acceptable. According to the IIHS, if one of the Eclipse Cross' headlights managed to snag a Good rating, the SUV would have earned the coveted Top Safety Pick+ award.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety regularly tests new, upgraded, and revised cars. The institute gives out awards like Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+. The Eclipse Cross is the second car from Mitsubishi to earn one of the coveted IIHS awards; the other one is the Outlander SUV.
