2009 Acura RL Earns Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's TOP SAFETY PICK Award

ARLINGTON, Va.--(Business Wire)--
The 2009 Acura RL, a large luxury car, earns the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety's TOP SAFETY PICK award. Winners afford
superior overall crash protection among the vehicles in their classes.
To qualify, a vehicle must earn the highest rating of good in the
Institute's front, side, and rear tests and be equipped with
electronic stability control.

"Criteria to win are tough because TOP SAFETY PICK is intended to
drive continued improvements such as good crash test ratings and rapid
addition of electronic stability control, which is standard equipment
on the RL," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "Recognizing
vehicles at the head of the class for safety helps consumers
distinguish the best overall choices without having to sort through
multiple test results."

The RL is the fourth Acura and ninth model from Honda to earn TOP
SAFETY PICK.

Better protection in rear crashes: Honda redesigned the RL's
seat/head restraints to improve the rating for protection in rear
crashes from marginal for 2005-08 models to good for the 2009. "You
don't know what kind of crash you're going to be in," Lund says, "so
it's important to choose a vehicle that will protect you in all kinds
of crashes."

In 2007 the Institute made the criteria to earn TOP SAFETY PICK
tougher by adding a requirement -- winners must be equipped with
electronic stability control (ESC). Known by different names and
called Vehicle Stability Assist on the RL, ESC helps drivers maintain
control in the worst situation -- loss of control at high speed -- by
engaging automatically when it senses vehicle instability and helping
to bring a vehicle back in the intended line of travel. ESC lowers the
risk of a fatal single-vehicle crash by about half. It lowers the risk
of a fatal rollover crash by as much as 80 percent.

The RL is available with other crash avoidance features such as a
forward collision warning, emergency brake assist, and adaptive
headlights. The Institute recently evaluated the possible benefits of
these features (see Status Report, April 17, 2008). The system with
the most potential is forward collision warning. On the RL, depending
on the closing rate, the system may first sound an alarm and flash a
light to warn the driver of a hazard. Then safety belts are tightened,
and if a crash is imminent brakes are applied with progressively more
pressure. In an urgent situation, the system may apply heavy braking,
tighten the safety belt, and alert the driver immediately. Such
systems could be relevant to more than 2 million frontal crashes each
year.

How vehicles are evaluated: The Institute's frontal
crashworthiness evaluations are based on results of 40 mph frontal
offset crash tests. Each vehicle's overall evaluation is based on
measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury
measures recorded on a Hybrid III dummy in the driver seat, and
analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system
controlled dummy movement during the test.

Side evaluations are based on performance in a crash test in which
the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph. The
barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV. Ratings reflect
injury measures recorded on two instrumented SID-IIs dummies,
assessment of head protection countermeasures, and the vehicle's
structural performance during the impact.

Rear crash protection is rated according to a two-step procedure.
Starting points for the ratings are measurements of head restraint
geometry -- the height of a restraint and its horizontal distance
behind the back of the head of an average-size man. Seat/head
restraints with good or acceptable geometry are tested dynamically
using a dummy that measures forces on the neck.

For more information go to www.iihs.org

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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Russ Rader, 703-247-1530
Mobile: 202-257-3591
rrader@iihs.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008