2024 Mazda3 and CX-30 Earn Highest Possible Safety Rating From IIHS

Mazda’s smallest sedan and hatchback plus its smallest crossover all earn the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety’s highest possible score following updated testing. 

The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick + rating is the highest score any North American automobile can earn in safety testing. Following a new updated round of testing by IIHS, Mazda’s CX-30, its Mazda3 Sedan, and the Mazda3 hatchback have all earned this safety designation.

The test is now harder for 2024. Despite already having the most robust criteria for safety evaluations, IIHS made its side-impact test much harder for the new year. The group is committed to continuous safety improvements, and the new side testing has uncovered a lot of vehicles that could be safer. Mazda’s CX-5 crossover was among the first vehicle models to earn a score of Good on this test. Now, three of the company’s smallest vehicles have followed suit. 

Related Story: New Test From IIHS Proves Again That Mazda Builds the Safest Vehicles

In addition to earning a score of Good on the new side crash test, a vehicle must also perform at the very highest levels in the following IIHS evaluations:
-Driver-side small overlap front,
-Passenger-side small overlap front, 
-Original moderate overlap front and updated side tests. 
-Acceptable or good daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian detection and impact mitigation

In addition to the above list of tests, the vehicle must also score well in headlight evaluations. The Mazda3’s two headlight systems, one rated Good, the other Acceptable, meet the requirements for the higher-tier award with all standard equipment. Both of the available headlight systems in the CX-30 earn a score of Good. 

For more details on the IIHS safety evaluations, visit the group’s site. 
 

Image of CX-30 courtesy of IIHS

John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter, and connect with him at Linkedin.