2019 Mazda6: Mazda’s Biggest Sedan Big on Safety Features, Ratings
For 2019, Mazda added more standard safety features to its Mazda6 mid-size sedan, and it’s paying off in safety ratings. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today announced that the 2019 Mazda6 earned the Top Safety Pick award, the agency’s second-highest honor.
Related: 2019 Mazda6 Drops Stick, Adds Safety Tech, Bumps Price
The sedan earned good ratings in the driver- and passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests, as well as a superior rating for front crash prevention and an acceptable headlight rating. A good headlight score is required for the Top Safety Pick Plus award, the agency’s highest designation. Since the Mazda6 earned an acceptable rating, it only gets a Top Safety Pick (no “Plus”).
There’s a catch, however. IIHS cautions that only models with the optional curve-adaptive LED projector headlights earned the acceptable rating.
“Its base headlights, which are static LED projectors, earn only a marginal rating because they provided inadequate visibility in several testing scenarios,” IIHS said in a statement.
That headlight rating would return the Mazda6 to its previous crash-test glory. The sedan was rated as a Top Safety Pick Plus for the 2014-17 model years before dropping to a Top Safety Pick in 2018.
Newly standard on all model-year 2019 Mazda6 sedans is the i-Activsense tech suite that includes a front collision system with automatic braking and pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go. Also standard is a blind spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert.
In IIHS testing, the forward collision warning system performed well and avoided a collision in the 12-mph track test, and reduced its speed by 24 mph in the 25-mph test.
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The Mazda6’s competitors also show up big in terms of safety. The 2019 Honda Accord also offers a lot of standard safety features and is a Top Safety Pick. The 2019 Toyota Camry matches the standard safety features but does one better, earning the Top Safety Pick Plus award, though only models with the Adaptive Headlights package qualify.
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