CARS.COM - The redesigned 2016 Kia Optima earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's top designation, Top Safety Pick Plus. The Optima scored well in IIHS' crash tests - small-overlap front, moderate-overlap front, side impact, roof strength, and head restraints and seats - and garnered a top rating for the performance of its forward collision warning system with automatic emergency braking.
Related: 2016 Kia Optima: First Drive
Kia says the redesigned Optima is the first model from the brand to earn a Top Safety Pick Plus under IIHS' revised - and more challenging - qualifications. It's one of several 2016 family sedans from various makers to earn the accolade. However, to get the automatic emergency braking that fully qualified the car for Top Safety Pick Plus status, you have to step up to the SX or SXL trim levels. Those are the top two trims among five Optima trim levels. Automatic emergency braking is optional on the SX and standard on the SXL.
The designation may be short-lived, however, as the Optima scored poorly in the agency's just-released headlight evaluations. Those tests don't count in the qualifications for the institute's safety picks for the 2016 model year, but IIHS spokesman Russ Rader told Cars.com they will factor into the 2017 picks in some form.
IIHS has not published any results for Latch car-seat tests on the 2016 Optima.
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