Improved headlights boost 2021 BMW 2 series Gran Coupe to Top Safety Pick
July 8, 2021
The 2021 BMW 2 series Gran Coupe, a midsize luxury car, earns a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety when equipped with newly improved curve-adaptive headlights.
To qualify for Top Safety Pick, vehicles must earn good ratings in all six IIHS crashworthiness evaluations, including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. They must also be available with a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations as well as at least one headlight package that earns a good or acceptable rating. For the higher-tier Top Safety Pick+ award, good or acceptable headlights must be standard across trim levels.
The 2021 Gran Coupe qualifies for the Top Safety Pick award when equipped with the Premium package, which includes curve-adaptive LED projector headlights that earn an acceptable rating. A marginal rating for the standard headlight package prevents the vehicle from qualifying for the “plus.” The award applies to vehicles built after December 2020, when the manufacturer made adjustments to reduce glare on the qualifying headlights.
Before the adjustments, the two headlight systems, the same ones that were available on the 2020 model, earned marginal and poor ratings. For that reason, the 2020 model fell short of an IIHS award.
The 2021 Gran Coupe is available with two different crash avoidance systems, the standard Active Driving Assistant and Active Driving Assistant with Stop & Go Function. Each earns a superior rating in the vehicle-to-vehicle evaluation and an advanced rating in the vehicle-to-pedestrian test.