Best-Selling Truck Lost Important Safety Award
The F-150 full-size truck, as part of the Ford F-Series, is the best-selling pickup truck. Across multiple decades, it has provided the toughness that handles nearly any challenge it encounters. However, for safety, it experienced a downgrade. In 2022, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) named the F-150 a Top Safety Pick. However, in 2023, it’s a different story. The 2023 Ford F-150 didn’t meet the safety criteria, so IIHS dropped it from the list.
2023 Ford F-150 lost its IIHS Top Safety Pick rating
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducts rigorous crash tests and safety evaluations for new vehicles. And each year, it honors the models that do the best in these evaluations — with either a Top Safety Pick+ award or the second-tier Top Safety Pick recognition. Since IIHS is such a trusted car safety authority, these awards carry a great deal of weight.
Unfortunately, the 2023 Ford F-150 didn’t do as well in these evaluations compared to last year. This is due to more rigid testing criteria from IIHS. In 2022, the F-150 earned the second-tier Top Safety Pick award. In 2023, though, the best-selling truck didn’t make the cut.
Safety weakness areas for the 2023 F-150
IIHS conducted an extensive array of safety evaluations, which include preventive safety features and how the vehicle performs in a car crash. Also, to simulate the effect of car accidents on humans, it uses crash test dummies. While the 2023 Ford F-150 did fine in some of these evaluations, it had less-than-stellar results in others.
IIHS docked the best-selling truck in multiple areas. This includes the vehicle structure, safety cage, seatbelts, and LATCH system for attaching child seats. Also, for impact tests using the crash test dummies, the F-150 received lower marks for driver injuries to the torso, pelvis, and legs.
The F-150 isn’t the only pickup truck that IIHS kicked off the Top Safety Pick list in 2023. Its full-size truck competitor, the Ram 1500, lost its safety honor, too — as well as the compact Hyundai Santa Cruz.
Pickup trucks, as a whole, didn’t do well for IIHS evaluations. The only two models that earned an award in 2023 from IIHS are the all-electric 2023 Rivian R1T and the 2023 Toyota Tundra full-size truck. And both of them achieved the highest-possible Top Safety Pick+ award.
F-150 is the best-selling truck in 2022 and 2023
The loss of its safety recognition is a big blow to the Ford F-150. However, it continues to lead the way in sales, per Motor1. It hasn’t lost its title of the best-selling pickup truck.
View the 10 best-selling trucks in 2022:
- Ford F-Series (F-150): 653,957 units
- Chevy Silverado (Silverado 1500): 523,249 units
- Ram Trucks (Ram 1500): 468,344 units
- GMC Sierra (Sierra 1500): 241,522 units
- Toyota Tacoma: 237,323 units
- Toyota Tundra: 104,246 units
- Chevy Colorado: 89,197 units
- Jeep Gladiator: 77,855 units
- Nissan Frontier: 76,183 units
- Ford Maverick: 74,370 units
The 2023 Ford F-150 remains on top as the best-selling truck. It leads the sales charts so far in 2023, too. However, for safety, the full-size model experienced a drop. With unfavorable results in some areas for the most recent safety and crash test evaluations, the F-150 lost its Top Safety Pick honor.
