2014 Honda Odyssey Earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+ Award

The hits keep rolling for Honda's minivan. Cars.com's 2013 Family Car of the Year pick continues to rack up the accolades; today, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced that the 2014 Odyssey earned its top score, the Top Safety Pick+ award, and is the first minivan to do so. In front, side, rear and rollover crashes, the Odyssey earned a score of Good; it was also the first minivan to undergo the agency's tough new small front overlap test, acing this crash as well. The Odyssey was lightly updated for 2014 and although its exterior styling carries over unchanged, its structure has been updated, the IIHS said. New, more advanced high-strength steel door frames, floor pan and wheel wells make the passenger compartment more rigid, the agency reported. In its report, the IIHS also notes that the side curtain airbags extend farther forward for better head protection. "Injury measures on the dummy indicated a low risk of injury in a crash of this severity. Because the structure helped keep the steering column stable, the front airbag stayed in front of the driver dummy during the crash to provide good protection," it said in a statement. Although other minivans haven't undergone the small front overlap test and thus don't qualify for the Top Safety Pick+ designation, many of the Odyssey's competitors are Top Safety Picks, including model-year 2013 versions of the Toyota Sienna, Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan. Related Several Compact Crossovers Fail IIHS' Small Overlap Test 2014 Honda Odyssey at the 2013 New York Auto Show Cars.com's Ultimate Minivan Shootout from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

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