From New York Daily News: Two years after getting renamed and redesigned as the Mercedes-Benz GLC, the German automaker’s compact crossover was once again named an IIHS Top Safety Pick+.

For the second time in as many years, the GLC crossover SUV, which we named a 2017 Daily News Autos winner last spring, excelled in the safety evaluations, passing nearly every test with flying colors.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety deems vehicles worthy of the “Top Safety Pick” designation if they’ve earned top ratings in the five crashworthiness tests – small front overlap, moderate front overlap, side, roof strength and head restraints and seats – acceptable or good ratings in the LATCH ease-of-use category and if there is front crash prevention technology equipped that earns either an “advanced” or “superior” rating.

To be deemed worthy of the highest accolades from the IIHS – the “Top Safety Pick+” designation that is – a vehicle must have acceptable or good rated headlights as well as the aforementioned requirements met.

In the case of the 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC, not only did the crossover excel in the five crashworthiness tests, but it earned a superior crash avoidance technology rating, an acceptable LATCH rating, as well as the highest good rating in the headlights category.

When equipped with optional automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection as part of the Premium Driver Assistance package, as well as standard collision prevention technology, the GLC avoided a collision in both the low-speed 12 mph and high-speed 25 mph tests.

It’s important to note, in regards to the headlight category, that only the LED headlights equipped with high-beam assist (which automatically switches the high beams on and off when an oncoming vehicle is detected) and curve-adaptive technology (which swivels the direction of the headlights in tandem with the steering wheel) got top marks.

The standard halogen reflectors earned a marginal rating due to inadequate visibility on all curves as well as some glare in all driving scenarios, and the LEDs without curve-adaptive technology or high-beam assist only got an acceptable rating.

The IIHS has grown increasingly critical in the headlights category, as not enough illumination or excessive glare blinding oncoming drivers can be potentially dangerous. In a recent study conducted by the safety watchdog, it was found that more than half of the 37 SUVs evaluated in the study had poor performing headlights with only two SUVs earning good headlights.

In that study, the Mercedes-Benz GLC’s larger sibling, the GLE midsize SUV, earned an acceptable rating in the headlights category. While SUVs as a group performed better as a whole than any other automotive segment, the results were telling of how far automakers still have to go to bring safer vehicles to market.

In its inaugural year as the GLC in 2016, the GLC got no recognition from the IIHS as it was a completely redesigned (and renamed) model, so it hadn't gone under a full evaluation. Previously known as the GLK, the crossover hadn’t received any accolades from the institute since the 2013 model year when it was last named a Top Safety Pick, only getting that award for two previous model years since it was first introduced in 2010.

Because the GLC has yet to be rated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are no safety ratings released from the government-backed regulator, which generally tends to be less stringent than the IIHS when it conducts its evaluations. The GLK was never put to the test by the government either, so, curiously enough, there’s no information available on the previous model either.