Volvo XC90 grabs IIHS Top Safety Pick+ on its way out

The Volvo XC90 may be the oldest car in Volvo's lineup, with 2013 being the last year for the XC90 before it's replaced by an entirely new model, but it has just captured the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Top Safety Pick+ award. The award is a relatively new title, requiring a car or truck to achieve "Acceptable" or "Good" ratings on each IIHS test.

Crucial to the Volvo XC90's achievement of this award was its performance in the new small overlap front tests, which test how a vehicle behaves in an front offset crash with a stationary object at high speeds. This type of test is designed to replicate one of the most dangerous real life car collisions, and is essentially a glancing impact as you can see in the video above. Crash tests from years ago tended to focus on frontal impact with a stationary object, but in reality there are relatively few car accidents that unfold this way. The small overlap test was added to the institute's lineup of vehicle safety evaluations just last year.

"The XC90's structural performance was good in the small overlap front test, and the driver's space was maintained well. Injury measures recorded on the dummy indicate low risk of any significant injuries in a crash of this severity. The dummy's head made good contact with the front airbag, which stayed in position during the crash. Both the side torso airbag and the side curtain airbag deployed" the IIHS said in a press release.

The XC90 has been on the market since 2003, receiving very few changes along the way. The XC90 is Volvo's first SUV, and its first passenger vehicle to feature a V8 engine, a compact 4.4-liter unit developed by Yamaha and shared for a time with the Volvo S80. The V8 is no longer available in the XC90, the sole engine offered being the 3.2-liter inline-six. The XC90 will be replaced by an all new model in 2014, and if previews of its safety technology are ay indication, it'll be as impressive in this area as the outgoing model.

By Jay Ramey