Subcompact cars very seldom get named top safety picks by federal regulators, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the 2015 Honda Fit a perfect five-star rating in a recent announcement.
Thanks to Honda’s new Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) technology, the 2015 Fit impressed the NHTSA, scoring five out of five stars in front and side crash tests, and four out of five stars in rollover tests. The aforementioned body tech allows Honda’s vehicles to better distribute crash energy in the event of a collision. Also working to the Fit’s benefit were a series of airbags, such as curtain airbags in the front and the rear, front side airbags, and dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags. It also didn’t hurt that Honda’s made rear view cameras a standard feature across all its vehicles. The 2015 Honda Fit’s optional safety features include hill start assist and LaneWatch blind spot monitoring.
Separate from the NHTSA, the Insurance Highway Institute for Highway Safety also gave the Fit a Top Safety Pick designation in 2014, following a product update launched in the summer of 2014 that enabled the car to improve its ratings on small overlap tests.
Aside from the new Fit, the Chevrolet Sonic is the only other subcompact to get a perfect five stars from the NHTSA. Four-star compacts include the Fiat 500, the Ford Fiesta, the Hyundai Accent, the Kia Rio, and the Mitsubishi Mirage.