For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Acura MDX have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Toyota Sequoia doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row 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 MDX are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Sequoia doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The MDX offers an optional Low-Speed Braking Control that use rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The Sequoia doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
Full-time four-wheel drive is optional on the MDX. Full-time four-wheel drive gives added traction for safety in all conditions, not just off-road, like the only system available on the Sequoia.
The MDX Advance has a standard Surround-View Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Sequoia 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.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the MDX 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 Sequoia uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the MDX and the Sequoia have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, 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 and driver alert monitors.
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, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the MDX its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 81 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Sequoia has not been tested, yet.