The 2021 Ford F-150 can be a Top Safety Pick+, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
To nab the safest F-150 with the most effective headlight design, you’ll have to shop carefully.
The IIHS is an insurance-industry-funded non-profit group that conducts an especially rigorous barrage of instrumented crash tests and other safety-related evaluations of passenger vehicles and only bestows its Top Safety Pick+ award to those with effective headlights. In the case of the F-150, that means only higher-trim versions built after June 2021 may qualify for the top rating.
Those upper-trim models are fitted with high- and low-beam LED projector lights with automatic high-beams and a curve-adaptive function pointing their light output in the direction the steering wheel is turned. Related: 2021 Ford F-150 Review.
Those top lights are fitted as standard equipment on Limited, Platinum, and King Ranch trim levels. They’re optional on the Lariat, Raptor, and Tremor trim levels.
Other headlights in the F-150’s lighting arsenal don’t fare quite as well. The LED reflector headlights standard on the Lariat and Raptor and optional on the XLT and Tremor rated “Acceptable,” the second-highest score. The standard halogen lights on XL, XLT, and Tremor versions of the top-selling pickup rate as “Poor” due to subpar low- and high-beam effectiveness.
As far as crashworthiness, however, the IIHS says that the F-150 is top-notch. The truck scored “Good” overall ratings in each category, plus “Superior” ratings for its crash-avoidance tech. See Ford F-150 models for sale
