2018 Honda Odyssey picks up IIHS Top Safety Pick+ – Roadshow

There’s safe, and then there’s very safe. Given its scores across the battery of tests thrown its way, not only did the 2018 Honda Odyssey earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s top accolade, it damn near aced every single test.

The 2018 Honda Odyssey has earned the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick+ award, which is given out to vehicles that perform well in every crash test, as well as evaluations of its front crash protection systems and headlights. It joins the Chrysler Pacifica in this honor — the only other minivan on the list, the 2017 Kia Sedona, fell short and only earned Top Safety Pick.

The IIHS doesn’t have any pictures of the crash test available, so here’s one of the Odyssey pointed slightly downward, which is close enough, I guess.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

Honda‘s Odyssey earned the best score — Good — in both the small and moderate overlap crash tests, as well as tests of its side and roof strengths. With the optional Collision Mitigation Braking System (a fancy way of saying automatic emergency braking), the Odyssey earned a crash-prevention rating of Superior, the highest rating possible.

The IIHS also evaluates vehicles on their LATCH child seat anchors. With cloth seating, the Odyssey earned a rating of Good+. The two outboard third-row seats were docked for having hard-to-find anchors, but everything was perfect otherwise. It earned the + for having an extra tether anchor in the middle of the third row.

The only non-Good score came in the headlight evaluation. The Odyssey earned the second-highest rating of Acceptable for its optional LED headlights, available on the Touring and Elite trims. The halogen projectors on the EX and EX-L trims were rated Marginal, while the same headlights on the base LX trim were rated Poor due to a lack of automatic high beams.

No matter the trim, the core strengths of the car’s engineering shine through. This minivan is an immensely safe vehicle by IIHS standards — so long as the person behind the wheel possesses at least some part of a brain, of course.