The 2022 Subaru Forester joins the 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross and 2022 Toyota RAV4 Prime as the latest crossovers to earn a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the insurance-industry funded nonprofit announced Thursday.
The refreshed Forester once again aced the toughest safety and crash-test criteria in the industry. The compact crossover earned top “Good” ratings in all six crash tests, and its standard driver-assist features and adaptive LED headlights across the lineup earned top marks as well.
New evaluations of the Forester’s automatic emergency braking system with pedestrian detection earned “Superior” ratings at stopping before impact with another car or pedestrian at speeds of both 12 mph and 25 mph. The standard headlights also shone brightly in the IIHS latest testing.
The Forester joins the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, Subaru Outback, Subaru Legacy, and Subaru Ascent as 2022 TSP+ honorees, upholding Subaru’s reputation for safety. The Impreza and Crosstrek earned TSP awards when equipped with continuously variable automatic transmissions instead of the base models’ manual transmissions. (Here’s the complete list of 2022 Top Safety Pick winners.)
2022 Toyota Corolla Cross
Earlier in the week, the IIHS announced that Toyota’s latest model, the 2022 Corolla Cross, and its most in-demand model, the 2022 RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid, also earned TSP+ recognition for meeting the same criteria as the Forester. They earned “Good” ratings on all six crash tests, and their standard automatic emergency braking systems rated at “Superior” in stopping in vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian tests.
There was a difference between the two models in headlight ratings, however. The standard LED projector lights on the Corolla Cross rated at “Acceptable” for all trims except the top XLE with an adaptive light package. The IIHS noted that on gradual curves the standard LEDs had inadequate visibility. The well-equipped RAV4 Prime had a similar fault but overall rated clearer and brighter.
To earn the agency’s highest award, the headlights must rate at least “Acceptable” across all trims. Night-time crashes account for the majority of incidents, which is why headlights have become a source of renewed focus for the IIHS.
The gas and hybrid versions of the 2022 Toyota RAV4 earned a Top Safety Pick due to “Marginal” standard headlight ratings. The bestselling crossover earned “Good” scores on all six crash tests. But in a new side-impact test that will be instituted for 2023 models, it earned an “Acceptable” rating. That test hadn’t been updated in nearly 20 years, and is consistent with the IIHS improving safety standards as more automakers meet strengthening criteria.
About half of the 220 models tested for 2022 earned at least a TSP award, with 72 scoring a TSP+. The automatic emergency braking and crash test criteria get tougher next year.
Keyword: 2022 Subaru Forester, Toyota Corolla Cross earn Top Safety Pick+ nods