Safe! - Acadia, Enclave, Outlook, Traverse top safety picks

Consumer Reports News: August 28, 2008 03:38 PM

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has awarded the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Saturn Outlook its Top Safety Pick designation for exemplary performance in frontal offset, side, and rear crash tests. To be eligible for this distinction, a vehicle also has to have standard stability control.

These corporate siblings are highly rated by Consumer Reports. We liked their combination of ride, handling, smooth powertrain, and space efficiency. With these new crash-test results, the Acadia and Outlook now earn our top-level recommendation, which means they performed well in CR's tests and have average or better reliability. The Enclave is not recommended because we do not have adequate reliability data yet. The Traverse goes on sale in the fall.

The Acadia and its siblings received top scores in the Institute's frontal-offset and side crash tests, and also received top marks for whiplash protection based on the design of their head restraints. The Institute provides a detailed breakdown, rating injury measures for head/neck, torso, leg/pelvis, overall head protection, and structure/safety cage. In all instances for front and side, these SUVs earn the Institute's highest rating of good.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also awarded the vehicles five stars in both their front- and side-crash tests. The NHTSA evaluations are less severe than those performed by the Insurance Institute, but they are considered a valuable measure of safety belt and air bag performance.

The vehicles scored four stars in rollover resistance in NHTSA's test of rollover propensity, a good rating for an SUV.

Learn more about how the Institute and NHTSA perform their evaluations in "Crash Test 101." And see the tests in action by choosing from the more than 250 crash test videos produced with IIHS.

—Eric Evarts