For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Altima 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 Honda Accord Hybrid doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
The Altima offers all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Accord Hybrid doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
The Altima Platinum has a standard Around View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Accord Hybrid 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.
Both the Altima and the Accord Hybrid have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, 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, driver alert monitors, available daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems and rear cross-path warning.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Nissan Altima is safer than the Honda Accord Hybrid:
|
Altima |
Accord Hybrid |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
171 |
261 |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
114/342 lbs. |
231/338 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Nissan Altima is safer than the Honda Accord Hybrid:
|
Altima |
Accord Hybrid |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
185 |
386 |
Spine Acceleration |
46 G’s |
62 G’s |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
157 |
242 |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.