2017 Hyundai Elantra Earns Top IIHS Award

CARS.COM — The redesigned Hyundai Elantra has stepped up its safety game significantly for the 2017 model year. Structural improvements and new safety features have earned the compact sedan a place among the most-crashworthy cars on the road as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s latest Top Safety Pick Plus designee.

Related: 2017 Hyundai Elantra Review

The outgoing model earned only an acceptable score in IIHS’ stringent small overlap front crash test, preventing it from receiving the Top Safety Pick or Plus designation. The 2017 version, however, earned the necessary good score in the small overlap front test, as well as in the other four tests, including moderate front overlap, side, roof strength, and head restraints and seats. The 2017 model also added a superior-rated front crash prevention system as optional equipment and received an acceptable score for ease of car seat Latch anchors compared with the previous version’s marginal score.

“The earlier model’s structure did not fare well in the test, with maximum intrusion into the occupant space of 9 inches,” IIHS said in a statement. “In contrast, maximum intrusion in the new Elantra was only 2 inches.”

IIHS noted that the 2017 Elantra’s latest safety rating applies only to 2017 models built after March, when the automaker strengthened the junction between the door sill and hinge pillar, and modified the frontal airbag.

To qualify for a Top Safety Pick Plus designation, a car must earn good ratings across all five crashworthiness evaluations, as well as have an available front crash prevention system that earns an advanced or superior rating.

Against competitors (all last rated for the 2016 model year), the Elantra now competes head-to-head with the Honda Civic, which received identical safety scores from IIHS, and the Mazda3, also a Top Safety Pick Plus but with a slightly lower advanced score for front crash prevention. Other rivals, including the Kia Forte, Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus, failed to receive a Top Safety Pick or Plus designation for 2016.