In March of this year, Honda submitted its 2015 Honda Fit to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for its blessing in crash testing.
The Fit received a 'good' rating in four of five IIHS crash tests, but only a 'marginal' score in the challenging small overlap frontal crash test.
What Honda did next is kind of remarkable. The company stopped production on 2015 Fits, and asked engineers to re-fashion front bumper of the car to strengthen it for another round of IIHS testing. The all-stop order did hurt Fit sales, still down about 13 percent over last year.
Engineers engineered a Fit fix, and soon thereafter, Honda resumed Fit production in Mexico, adding stronger welds to a reinforced steel beam under the front bumper skin. Newly emboldened, Honda brought the Fit back to IIHS and subsequent testing proved the mettle of the new bumper.
As a result, Honda saw the Fit's disappointing 'marginal' score upgraded to 'acceptable.' That may not bring exultation and joy to most companies, but for Honda, it meant that they were now given the IIHS "Top Safety Pick" designation for the 2015 Fit, which is a valuable marketing tool, especially in the subcompact category.
The IIHS has cast a disapproving eye on the Fit in that crucial small front overlap test in the past. They judged the 2013 Fit to be 'poor'in that area, also sending Honda scrambling for a means to upgrade that to 'marginal' as a stopgap. No Top Safety Pick that year. Consumer Reports recanted its recommendation of the 2013 Fit after the crash tests fared poorly.
Here's the fun part. Honda decided to recall approximately 12,000 2015 Honda Fit models that were unleashed into the world prior to the IIHS smackdown. These vehicles will be retrofitted, by Honda dealers at no charge to customers, to the new bumper standard.
"Though there is no regulatory requirement to do this, in keeping with Honda's long-standing commitment to safety and focus on its customers, Honda has voluntarily engineered a produce update which will allow all early-production vehicles to share the 2014 Top Safety Pick rating," said Art St. Cyr, VP of Auto Operations at American Honda.
To qualify for a Top Safety Pick rating, a vehicle must earn a good or acceptable rating for small overlap protection and a good rating in IIHS's four other crash tests.
"We commend Honda for its quick response to the test and for taking the additional step of replacing the bumper beams on early-production vehicles," says IIHS President Adrian Lund.
