2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport Awarded Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) TOP SAFETY PICK+

2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport Awarded Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) TOP SAFETY PICK+

Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) is honored to learn that the company's best-selling model – the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport compact crossover vehicle – has today been named a 2013 "Top Safety Pick+" award winner by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The Outlander Sport's 2013 IIHS "Top Safety Pick+" award comes in addition to the two straight IIHS Top Safety Pick awards the handsome 5-passenger compact crossover has already received in 2012 and 2013.

The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport was one of only two vehicles in the Small SUV category named a "Top Safety Pick+" by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) from a field of 13 vehicles.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is now awarding the new "Top Safety Pick+" designation as its highest accolade for vehicles that offer superior crash protection. The 2013 Outlander Sport's "Top Safety Pick+" achievement indicates that it meets the tougher crash safety standards set forth by the non-profit vehicle research and crash test ratings agency that are now necessary to receive its highest accolade.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rates vehicles as "good," "acceptable," "marginal" or "poor" based on performance in a moderate overlap frontal crash, small overlap frontal crash, side impact, rollover, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear impacts. The "Top Safety Pick+" requires a vehicle to score a "good" rating in at least four of the five tests and no less than an "acceptable" in the fifth test.

Added just last year, the small overlap test "replicates what happens when the front corner of the vehicle strikes another vehicle or object like a tree or utility pole," according to the IIHS. A full 25% of the front of the vehicle on the driver's side hits a 5-foot-tall barrier at 40 mph.

Two-thirds of the vehicles in the Small SUV category that were evaluated by the IIHS scored a lowly "poor" rating for vehicle structure.

The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport's exceptional IIHS "Top Safety Pick+" rating can be attributed to numerous advanced high-tech design features, particularly to a key safety technology engineered into every Mitsubishi Motors vehicle – Reinforced Impact Safety Evolution (RISE). RISE is Mitsubishi Motors' patented safety body construction system featuring integrated energy-absorbing crumple zones and engineered reinforcements strategically placed within the body/chassis that provide maximum protection to the vehicle's occupants in the event of an impact by absorbing and/or dispersing a great deal of this energy from the cabin.

With a starting MSRP of only $19,170, the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport is powered by a capable 148 horsepower 4-cylinder engine that achieves an EPA-rated 31 mpg highway and includes a long list of welcome standard features.