For enhanced safety, the Chevrolet Traverse’s middle 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 middle 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 Traverse 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 Traverse has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The 4Runner doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
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 Traverse as “Superior.” The 4Runner scores zero, and is rated by the IIHS as having no effective frontal crash prevention.
The Traverse (except LS) offers an optional 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 Traverse’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 Traverse’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 Traverse 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 Traverse and the 4Runner have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, 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 Traverse is safer than the Toyota 4Runner:
|
Traverse |
4Runner |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
216 |
267 |
Neck Injury Risk |
15.6% |
47% |
Neck Stress |
198 lbs. |
438 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
53/40 lbs. |
488/468 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
3 Stars |
HIC |
333 |
367 |
Neck Injury Risk |
35.2% |
57% |
Neck Stress |
128 lbs. |
271 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
51 lbs. |
58 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
258/133 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 Traverse is safer than the 4Runner:
|
Traverse |
4Runner |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Neck Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head injury index |
61 |
142 |
Peak Head Forces |
0 G’s |
0 G’s |
Steering Column Movement Rearward |
3 cm |
12 cm |
Chest Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Max Chest Compression |
18 cm |
18 cm |
Hip & Thigh Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Femur Force R/L |
.5/0 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 |
.74/.35 |
.95/.85 |
Tibia forces R/L |
1.4/0 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 Traverse is safer than the Toyota 4Runner:
|
Traverse |
4Runner |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.9 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
161 G’s |
179 G’s |
Hip Force |
204 lbs. |
233 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
14 inches |
20 inches |
HIC |
251 |
507 |
Spine Acceleration |
34 G’s |
43 G’s |
Hip Force |
554 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 Traverse, with its four-star roll-over rating, is 7.7% to 9.6% less likely to roll over than the 4Runner, which received a three-star rating.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, with its optional vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, with its optional vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its available headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Traverse the rating of “Top Pick” for 2021, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The 4Runner is not a “Top Pick.”