Subaru’s redesigned 2020 Outback wagon and 2020 Legacy sedan both earned safety awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the advocacy organization announced Friday.
The high-riding Outback was recognized with a Top Safety Pick nod, while the four-door Legacy managed to one-up it with a coveted Top Safety Pick+ on the strength of its optional headlights.
Both models aced the IIHS crash testing regimen, earning “Good” ratings in all crashworthiness categories. Both also received “Superior” ratings for their crash avoidance systems, which were able to avoid forward collisions at both 12 and 25 mph.
The reasoning behind their respective headlight scores gets a little murky, considering that both models share essentially the same hardware. The Outback’s Top Safety Pick rating applies to models without the optional curve-adaptive headlights; the Legacy’s Top Safety Pick+ rating, on the other hand, is contingent upon it being equipped with that same package.
The Outback’s curve-adaptive LED projector headlights were improved for models built after October 2019, earning an “Acceptable” rating over the earlier models’ “Marginal” rating.
The Legacy’s units were praised under the same conditions, though the organization noted the presence of “some glare,” which was not an issue with the Outback. Nevertheless, the Legacy’s headlights earned a “Good” rating.
The Legacy has competition when it comes to safety. The mid-size sedan segment boasts several award winners, including the Mazda 6 (Top Safety Pick+), Toyota Camry (Top Safety Pick+) and Nissan Altima (Top Safety Pick).
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