2020 Toyota Highlander earns IIHS Top Safety Pick
March 26, 2020
The 2020 Toyota Highlander, a midsize SUV, earns a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety when equipped with specific headlights.
To qualify for a 2020 Top Safety Pick award, a vehicle must earn good ratings in six crashworthiness evaluations, including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs advanced or superior ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention, as well as an acceptable or good headlight rating.
The redesigned Highlander has a standard front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian interactions. In IIHS track evaluations, the Highlander avoided collisions in vehicle-to-vehicle tests at 12 and 25 mph and avoided or significantly mitigated the severity of collisions in all pedestrian scenarios.
The Highlander is available with three headlight options. Its available curve-adaptive LED projector headlights earn a good rating. Static LED projector headlights, which come with the Limited and Hybrid Limited trims, rate acceptable. The Highlander's base headlights — static LED reflectors — rate poor due to both deficiencies in visibility and excessive glare.
If not for the poor headlight rating, the Highlander would qualify for the higher-tier Top Safety Pick+ award, which goes to models that meet all the criteria for the regular award but also come standard with good- or acceptable-rated headlights.