Updates to 2015 Chevrolet Sonic Earn It IIHS Top Safety Pick Nod

Revisions to the 2015 Chevrolet Sonic’s structure and airbags helped this subcompact substantially improve its small overlap frontal crash test score to the top rating of good, earning it the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick award.

Related: Research the 2015 Chevrolet Sonic

The new crash-test score applies to model-year 2015 Sonic sedans and hatchbacks built after February 2015. To earn this improved score, Chevrolet modified the Sonic’s front-end structure, doorsill and door-hinge pillar. It also lengthened the side curtain airbags and reprogrammed them to deploy earlier during small overlap crashes, which simulates a car’s front corner striking another vehicle, a tree or a pole. The 2013 Sonic earned a marginal rating in the small overlap front crash test; IIHS rates crash-test results on a good, acceptable, marginal and poor scale.

In the latest test, the 2015 Sonic’s structural changes helped to maintain the driver’s interior space well with a maximum intrusion of 4 inches at the footrest and footwell. The side curtain airbag deployed early enough to protect the crash-test dummy’s head from hitting the car’s side structure. The 2013 Sonic crash test had a 6-inch intrusion in the lower interior of the driver’s space, which would likely cause leg injuries, and the side curtain deployed too late to protect the dummy’s head.  

To earn the Top Safety Pick award, a car must have a small overlap front test score of acceptable or good as well as ratings of good in the moderate overlap front, side, roof-strength, and head restraints and seats tests. The Sonic has an optional forward collision warning system that received a basic rating for front crash prevention, disqualifying it from Top Safety Pick Plus status. These safety systems are graded on a basic, advanced and superior scale.