One of the most popular and capable family haulers is now officially one of the safest. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration awarded the 2014 Honda Odyssey an overall safety rating of five stars, the agency’s highest score.
NHTSA’s rating comes after the minivan aced the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s crash tests. Last year, the Odyssey was the first minivan to earn IIHS’s Top Safety Pick Plus award, scorong good in moderate-overlap front, side, seats and rollover tests as well as performing well in the difficult small-overlap front impact test.
The Odyssey got a light update for 2014, and aside from its new in-van vacuum cleaner, saw structural changes including more advanced high-strength steel door frames, floor pan and wheel wells to make the passenger compartment more rigid. Honda also notes that the 2014 Odyssey uses a “new type of side curtain airbag that includes a front chamber design intended to provide additional protection in situations where occupants move in a more angled outboard trajectory, such as those that occur in oblique or offset crashes,” the automaker said in a statement.
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Jennifer Geiger
News Editor Jennifer Geiger joined the automotive industry in 2003, much to the delight of her Corvette-obsessed dad. Jennifer is an expert reviewer, certified car-seat technician and mom of three. She wears a lot of hats — many of them while driving a minivan.