2018 Audi A4 Allroad, A5 Coupe, A5 Sportback named Top Safety Picks by IIHS

A trio of Audis drove home with safety accolades from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety earlier this week.

Though the three cars bearing the four-ring badge didn’t earn the highest marks from the institute, the 2018 A4 Allroad and redesigned 2018 Audi A5 Coupe and A5 Sportback performed admirably in their latest round of testing.

To be named a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS, a car must get a “good” rating in all five crashworthiness tests – small front overlap, moderate front overlap, side, roof strength and head restraints and seats – and score either an “advanced” or “superior” rating in the crash avoidance category, and an “acceptable” or “good” rating in the headlights category.

Starting in 2018, the IIHS will begin evaluating the passenger side in the small front overlap crash test. The three Audis most recently put to through their paces didn’t get evaluated on the passenger-side test, but will in all likelihood get tested again next year.

While the three cars earned “good” crashworthiness ratings and “superior” crash avoidance ratings, they all fell short in the elusive headlights category. With “marginal” ratings all around, low beams with excessive glare and high beams with inadequate visibility robbed the German trio of the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick+ rating.

Introduced for the 2017 model year, the Audi A4 Allroad wagon made no improvements to its headlights from last year, despite being equipped with high-beam assist. The A5 Sportback and Coupe, welcoming the 2018 model year with full redesigns, struggled to adequately light the road ahead, but didn’t create any glare.

When equipped with Audi’s Pre Sense City automatic emergency braking, the three Audis avoided a collision in the low-speed 12 mph test, and impact speed was reduced by 22 mph in the 25 mph high-speed test.

The three cars come with a wide array of advanced safety features aside from automatic emergency braking, including blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, semi-autonomous Traffic Jam assist, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, collision avoidance assist, turn assist, and high-beam assist.