The Q50 Red Sport 400’s optional pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Altima doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
The Q50 has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Altima’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Q50 has a standard rear cross-path warning system, which uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. Rear cross-path warning costs extra on the Altima.
Both the Q50 and the Altima have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height-adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available all-wheel drive.
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 Infiniti Q50 is safer than the Nissan Altima:
|
Q50 |
Altima |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
79 |
187 |
Chest Movement |
.9 inches |
1.4 inches |
Hip Force |
320 lbs. |
511 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
46 G’s |
46 G’s |
Hip Force |
415 lbs. |
544 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
36 G’s |
42 G’s |
Hip Force |
634 lbs. |
769 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.