IIHS: 2013 Ford Fusion Is a Top Safety Pick

After scoring the highest possible grades in a battery of evaluations from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the brand-new 2013 Ford Fusion has been named a Top Safety Pick in one of the country’s most-watched measures of vehicle protection. As is the case with all winners, the Fusion earned the honor for its superior performance in the IIHS’ front, side, rear and rollover crash testing.

“The new Fusion is another example of Ford’s commitment to the highest standards of safety and we are proud that IIHS has recognized these efforts,” said Steve Kenner, global director of the company’s Automotive Safety Office.

Equally impressive, the 2013 Ford Fusion also is another example of Ford’s leadership role in automotive technology, which made for a definite advantage during the Top Safety Pick analysis. The Blue Oval’s strikingly designed mid-size sedan is up near the top of the Top Safety Pick list in terms of both standard safety features and available driver-assist technologies, including those mentioned below.

2013 Ford Fusion: The Personal Safety System

Airbags have been around for a number of decades now, but the 2013 Ford Fusion shows there’s still plenty of potential for improvements. For example, the Fusion features an exclusive suite of airbag technologies called the “Personal Safety System” that's designed to provide a more tailored approach to deployment. The system relies on an exclusive restraint control module to analyze both potential crash forces (via front-mounted crash sensors) and the size of the occupants in the front row of seats (based on factors like the position of the driver’s seat and the weight of the passenger) to determine deployment parameters for the frontal airbags and the seatbelt pretensioners.

The driver’s-side front airbag also has been reconfigured to minimize its deployment impact on the driver’s chest and ribs while still delivering optimum protection.

And new as well is the venting system in the Fusion’s seat-mounted side airbags. Again developed to provide improved protection based on occupant size, these units have vents that allow some of the airbag-deployment gases to escape if a smaller occupant is in the seat, but the vents will be blocked by taller individuals’ shoulders. The result is that folks of nearly all sizes will benefit from improved airbag performance.

2013 Ford Fusion: Driver-assist Technologies

Of course, the 2013 Ford Fusion also can be configured with a number of driver-assist technologies that were engineered to help keep owners out of accidents in the first place. These include Ford’s BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) with cross-traffic alert, which can help alert drivers to other vehicles in their blind spots, both on the road and when backing out of a parking spot. For getting into parking spots with more confidence, there’s the Ford park-assist feature that guides the Fusion into parallel parking spots while the driver only has to manage the gas and brake pedals.

Front and rear park sensors can be added too, to help signal drivers if they’re getting too close to other vehicles or objects when trying to park, and the Fusion further offers:

• A lane-keeping system that helps keep drivers on track while on the road
• Driver Monitoring, which can detect a drowsy pilot and recommend a refreshing pit stop
• Adaptive cruise control, to help keep proper following distances even in the case of sudden stops
• A rearview camera setup that delivers enhanced rear visibility when backing up
• Hill Start Assist, designed to prevent the Fusion from rolling backward as the driver releases the gas pedal while the vehicle is on an incline

Priced from $21,700, the 2013 Ford Fusion is at dealerships now.