For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Toyota Rav4 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 Volkswagen Tiguan doesn’t offer pretensioners for the rear seat belts.
The Toyota Rav4 has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Tiguan doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The Rav4’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Tiguan.
The Rav4’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Tiguan doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Rav4 and the Tiguan have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact 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, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors and rear cross-path warning.
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 Toyota Rav4 is safer than the Volkswagen Tiguan:
|
Rav4 |
Tiguan |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.5 inches |
.7 inches |
Hip Force |
246 lbs. |
337 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
146 |
156 |
Hip Force |
508 lbs. |
510 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
299 |
330 |
Spine Acceleration |
36 G’s |
49 G’s |
Hip Force |
835 lbs. |
855 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.