2015 VW Golf, Golf GTI Capture Top Safety Pick+ Honors

The four-door models of the all-new 2015 VW Golf—including the high-performance 2015 VW Golf GTI—have earned Top Safety Pick+ ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

As a reminder, that means the 2015 VW Golf was able to achieve top grades in IIHS testing for small and moderate front-overlap impacts, side-crash impacts, roof strength, and head-restraint and seat performance, all in addition to offering some form of front-crash prevention technology. In the case of the Golf, that would be Volkswagen's Forward Collision Warning system that alerts drivers if they're closing too quickly on oncoming traffic. The 2015 VW Golf roster offers a park-control system as well, in addition to at least six airbags, three-channel anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control and the company's "Automatic Post-Collision Braking" feature.

That latter system automatically applies the brakes after an initial impact to help prevent the Volkswagen vehicle from rolling into another.

Said Mark McNabb, chief operating officer, Volkswagen of America, Inc.: "To have IIHS recognize both the Volkswagen Golf and Golf GTI as a Top Safety Pick+ is a great statement for the brand. The seventh-generation Golf and GTI models are the ideal combination of Volkswagen design, performance, innovative safety and world-class engineering.”

It's also worth noting that the Top Safety Pick+ recognition offers a notable competitive advantage for the 2015 VW Golf, since, at this stage in the game, the only other honorees from the Institute's "Small Cars" segment are the Honda Civic sedan, Mazda Mazda3 and Toyota Prius.

The 2015 VW Golf GTI is at dealerships now, priced from $24,995, with the rest of the lineup due in August and stickered from $17,995.