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 Armada are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The XC90 doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Armada has standard Rear Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The XC90 doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
Both the Armada and the XC90 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact 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, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.
The Nissan Armada weighs 545 to 1707 pounds more than the Volvo XC90. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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, results indicate that the Nissan Armada is safer than the Volvo XC90:
|
Armada |
XC90 |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
27 |
51 |
Abdominal Force |
81 G’s |
153 G’s |
Hip Force |
144 lbs. |
255 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
31 |
94 |
Spine Acceleration |
21 G’s |
40 G’s |
Hip Force |
151 lbs. |
608 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.