Study finds many small SUVs have poor-performing headlights

Once mostly found in luxury cars, new headlight technologies such as high-intensity discharge and LED lights as well as adaptive headlights that curve during turns are increasingly available on mainstream nameplates.

Among the 21 vehicles, there are 47 different headlight combinations available and more than 2/3 of them are rated poor, making this group of vehicles even more deficient when it comes to lighting than the midsize cars which we reported on in March.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performs the most rigorous and respected safety testing in the USA automotive market. The tests were conducted on a track after dark.

Other small SUVs with acceptable headlights are the Ford Escape, the Honda CR-V and the Hyundai Tucson.

While the CX-3 boasted a fairly sophisticated headlight setup, the IIHS notes that more sophisticated technology doesn’t necessarily garner better results.

Researchers said low beams should reach 330 feet on a straight road.

Only four models managed an “acceptable” rating, which is one tier below “good” on the IIHS rating scale.

The next IIHS headlight report will focus on pickups.

The IIHS singled out the Mazda CX-3 with the Grand Touring trim package as having the best-performing headlights. The Insurance Institute says next year they won’t give out their highest rating to cars with bad headlights.

This week, IIHS released the finding of headlight testing for the largest family vehicle segment in America, the compact crossover class. The top-selling 2016 Toyota RAV4 finished mid-pack with a rating of “Marginal”. The illumination provided by the HR-V’s halogen low beams and high beams is inadequate on all four curves and on the straightaway.

The Institute considers headlights to be important safety equipment and says that headlight performance in today’s vehicles varies widely.

Among the SUVs that got the worst ranking are the Suburu Forester and the Audi Q3.

The study is, in fact, new.

“If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, we’re hoping that you’ll actually take advantage of this new information that we’re putting out there”, said Matthew Brumbelow, senior research engineer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The high beams perform well on most approaches.

Federal regulations require a certain amount of light to be projected from the headlights, but there is no standard for how far the light must reach.