The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class, a midsize luxury SUV, earns a TOP SAFETY PICK+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for vehicles equipped with specific headlights built after July.
To qualify for a 2019 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award, a vehicle must earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. It also needs an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention and a good headlight rating.
The redesigned GLE-Class earns good ratings in all six of the Institute’s crashworthiness evaluations.
The SUV is equipped with a standard front crash prevention system and is also available with an optional system. Both systems earn superior ratings in IIHS tests, but neither performed flawlessly. The standard system reduced the vehicle’s impact speed by an average of 10 mph in the 12 mph test and by an average of 14 mph in the 25 mph test. The optional system, part of the Driver Assistance 2 package, avoided a collision in the 12 mph test and reduced the vehicle’s impact speed by an average of 21 mph in the 25 mph test.
Both systems also earn credit for their forward collision warning components, which meet the criteria set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The GLE-Class earns a good headlight rating for its available curve-adaptive LED projector headlights with high-beam assist on vehicles built after July 2019. High-beam assist is a system that automatically switches between high beams and low beams, depending on the presence of other vehicles. Its base headlights — static LEDs — earn an acceptable rating.
The 2019 GLE-Class was previously announced as a 2019 TOP SAFETY PICK+ award winner when equipped with optional front crash prevention and specific headlights.
SOURCE: IIHS
