2023 Mercedes-Benz C-Class earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award

The 2023 (and 2022) Mercedes-Benz C-Class just scored a Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. This is the first time the redesigned C-Class has been independently crash tested, as the NHTSA has yet to rate it.

The new C passed all of the IIHS crash tests with flying colors, earning a “Good” in every possible test. Scrolling through the list of IIHS criteria for crash safety, there isn’t a single breakout category where it scored below the best-possible marks. The story gets slightly weirder with the headlight testing. The C-Class’ standard LED projector headlights received the best-possible “Good” score, but the optional Digital Lights from Mercedes only scored an “Acceptable” rating. The IIHS noted that with the Digital Lights, visibility was “inadequate on the left side” of the road. This result is flip-flopped from the usual IIHS headlight testing scores, as a model’s optional headlight package typically does better than the standard setup.

Mercedes’ front crash prevention system for vehicle-to-vehicle crashes got top marks, but the standard system didn’t perform as well as the optional one in the vehicle-to-pedestrian testing. That said, both received passing grades from the IIHS. Lastly (new for 2023), the C-Class scored “Moderate” in the seat belt reminder test. You can read more about this test here, but in short, know that it rates how effective a vehicle’s seat belt reminder system is.

You can read all about the 2023 Mercedes-Benz C-Class in our Buying Guide here.