Pickup trucks might be much more civilized nowadays, but despite the improvement on on-road manners and refinement, their headlights performance has been found lacking.
Out of the 11 vehicles tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which have a total of 23 possible headlight combinations between them, only the 2017 Honda Ridgeline managed to score a ‘good’ rating.
The agency’s technicians found that the headlamp system on the RTL-E and Black Edition trims provides “fair to good visibility on most approaches”, and where the low beams fail, the high-beam assist takes on, making up for some of the former’s deficiencies.
Following the Ridgeline from an ‘acceptable’ position is the 2016-2017 GMC Sierra, on certain trim levels, while the 2017 Nissan Titan and 2016 Ram 1500 have a ‘marginal’ rating when it comes to their headlights. Disappointing results were achieved by the 2016-2017 Chevrolet Silverado, 2016-2017 Ford F-150, 2016-2017 Toyota Tundra, 2016 Chevrolet Colorado, 2016 GMC Canyon, 2016 Nissan Frontier, and 2016-2017 Toyota Tacoma, which were noted as ‘poor’.
“These latest ratings follow the same disappointing pattern as the other groups. As vehicle safety has improved in recent years, this important equipment has been overlooked“, said IIHS’ Senior Research Engineer, Matthew Brumbelow, referring to the headlight evaluations conducted on midsize cars in March, followed by the small SUVs in July.
From 2017 forwards, a vehicle won’t qualify for a Top Safety Pick+ award unless its headlights are noted either ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’.
