For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Chevrolet Trax are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Fiat 500L doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
The Chevrolet Trax has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The 500L doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 1 point, IIHS rates the frontal crash prevention system optional in the Trax as “Basic.” The 500L scores zero, and is rated by the IIHS as having no effective frontal crash prevention.
The Trax offers all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The 500L doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Trax LT’s optional cross-path warning system uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. The 500L doesn’t offer a cross-path warning system.
The Trax has standard OnStar®, which uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a cellular system to get turn-by-turn driving directions, remotely unlock your doors if you lock your keys in, help track down your vehicle if it’s stolen or send emergency personnel to the scene if any airbags deploy. The 500L doesn’t offer a GPS response system, only a navigation computer with no live response for emergencies, so if you’re involved in an accident and you’re incapacitated help may not come as quickly.
Both the Trax and the 500L have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available blind spot warning systems and rear parking sensors.
A significantly tougher test than their original offset frontal crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH small overlap frontal offset crash tests. In this test, where only 25% of the total width of the vehicle is struck, results indicate that the Chevrolet Trax is safer than the 500L:
|
|
Trax |
500L |
| Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
| Restraints |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
| Head Neck Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Head injury index |
107 |
228 |
| Peak Head Forces |
0 G’s |
0 G’s |
| Steering Column Movement Rearward |
4 cm |
14 cm |
| Chest Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Hip & Thigh Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
| Femur Force R/L |
3.9/.1 kN |
10.1/3.9 kN |
| Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L |
1%/0% |
63%/1% |
| Lower Leg Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
| Tibia index R/L |
.53/.33 |
.88/.82 |
| Tibia forces R/L |
1.8/.6 kN |
1.8/1.5 kN |
For its top level performance in all IIHS frontal, side, rear impact and roof-crush tests, and with its optional front crash prevention system, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Trax the rating of “Top Pick” for 2016, a rating granted to only 219 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The 500L is not a “Top Pick” for 2016.