For enhanced safety, the front shoulder belts of the Chevrolet Blazer are height-adjustable, and the rear seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides to move the belt to properly fit children. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages children to buckle up. The Toyota 4Runner doesn’t offer comfort guides on its rear seat belts.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Blazer are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The 4Runner doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 6 points, IIHS rates the Automatic Emergency Braking optional in the Blazer as “Superior.” The 4Runner scores zero, and is rated by the IIHS as having no effective frontal crash prevention.
The Blazer offers an optional HD Surround Vision to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The 4Runner only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The Blazer’s optional blind spot warning system uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. The 4Runner doesn’t offer a system to reveal objects in the driver’s blind spots.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Blazer’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 4Runner doesn’t offer a cross-path warning system.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Blazer uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The 4Runner uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the Blazer and the 4Runner have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available all wheel drive.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Chevrolet Blazer is safer than the Toyota 4Runner:
|
Blazer |
4Runner |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
182 |
267 |
Neck Injury Risk |
22% |
47% |
Neck Stress |
178 lbs. |
438 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
25 lbs. |
54 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
104/435 lbs. |
488/468 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
3 Stars |
HIC |
313 |
367 |
Neck Injury Risk |
43% |
57% |
Neck Stress |
124 lbs. |
271 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
28/2 lbs. |
453/353 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Blazer is safer than the 4Runner:
|
Blazer |
4Runner |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Neck Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head injury index |
90 |
142 |
Peak Head Forces |
0 G’s |
0 G’s |
Steering Column Movement Rearward |
0 cm |
12 cm |
Chest Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Hip & Thigh Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Femur Force R/L |
.2/.1 kN |
3.9/2.4 kN |
Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L |
0%/0% |
1%/0% |
Lower Leg Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Tibia index R/L |
.68/.58 |
.95/.85 |
Tibia forces R/L |
.9/1.1 kN |
5/2.9 kN |
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Chevrolet Blazer is safer than the Toyota 4Runner:
|
Blazer |
4Runner |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.8 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
157 G’s |
179 G’s |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
20 inches |
HIC |
265 |
507 |
Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
43 G’s |
Hip Force |
695 lbs. |
895 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Blazer, with its four-star roll-over rating, is 9.1% to 9.9% less likely to roll over than the 4Runner, which received a three-star rating.
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 Blazer the rating of “Top Pick” for 2017, a rating granted to only 211 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The 4Runner was not even a “Top Pick” for 2016.