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Buying a new luxury SUV can be pretty stressful. They’re expensive, and there are a lot of safety features to consider. Headlights are among the most important. They’re an often overlooked safety feature that can be vital to surviving a serious car accident. If you want one of the safest luxury small 2022 SUVs, you’ll want to know which have good headlights. These are the three luxury small SUVs with the worst headlights you can buy in 2022.

A side shot of a silver gray 2022 Lincoln Corsair luxury compact SUV parked on the side of a street
2022 Lincoln Corsair | Ford Motor Company

1. The 2022 Lexus UX is one of the safest luxury small 2022 SUVs with poor headlights

Another new SUV with poor headlights is the 2022 Lexus UX. Even though it’s a Top Safety Pick, the Lexus UX has six trim levels with poor headlights. You’ll want to make sure that you check the IIHS website to see which trim levels have good headlights, and which ones don’t.

2. The 2022 Lincoln Corsair has acceptable and poor headlights

The 2022 Lincoln Corsair has disappointing headlights because there are no good headlights available. You may choose between acceptable and poor headlights for the newest model of the Corsair. The Standard, Reserve, and Grand Touring trim levels all have poor headlight ratings.

3. The 2022 Audi Q3 doesn’t win any safety award

The 2022 Audi Q3 is a small sport utility vehicle with poor headlights. While it does have good headlight ratings as well, this isn’t enough to earn the Audi Q3 any safety award. If you’re interested in the Audi Q3, you’ll want to pay attention to which trim level you buy to make sure you don’t get poor headlights.

Half of all deadly car accidents happen at night

Half of all fatal crashes occur in the dark, according to the IIHS, and more than a quarter of those crashes happen on unlit roads. As you might imagine, headlights come in handy on unlit roads, unless you have night vision (and you don’t, unless you’re Count Dracula).

Just the fact that a vehicle has headlights doesn’t mean that they’re any good. Headlights have to be bright enough and even point in the right direction to be optimal. Curve-adaptive headlights are fantastic, and help headlights illuminate the path in front of them even around turns and bends in the road. 

There aren’t any rules about headlights

To make matters even more complicated, there’s no consistency surrounding the rules about headlights. That means headlights can vary from poor to good (with marginal and adequate in between). Headlight ratings can keep an otherwise safe vehicle from receiving a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ award. By avoiding these SUVs with poor headlights – or at least the trim levels – you’ll have a better chance of finding a safer SUV.

While there are a lot of safe luxury small SUVs available, these three with poor headlights may be best avoided – or at least the trim levels with poor ratings. After all, being able to see when driving in the dark is important, and that will probably be much more difficult with poor headlights.

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The Best Small 2022 SUVs With Perfect Safety Ratings