The QX80 Sensory’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The CX-9 doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front and middle seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX80 are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Mazda CX-9 doesn’t offer height-adjustable middle 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 QX80 are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The CX-9 doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The QX80 has standard Active Head Restraints (AHR), which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the AHR system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The CX-9 doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
Compared to metal, the QX80’s plastic fuel tank can withstand harder, more intrusive impacts without leaking; this decreases the possibility of fire. The Mazda CX-9 has a metal gas tank.
Both the QX80 and the CX-9 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, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available all wheel drive.
The Infiniti QX80 weighs 1269 to 1512 pounds more than the Mazda CX-9. 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 Infiniti QX80 is safer than the Mazda CX-9:
|
QX80 |
CX-9 |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
27 |
88 |
Abdominal Force |
81 lbs. |
98 lbs. |
Hip Force |
144 lbs. |
195 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
31 |
208 |
Spine Acceleration |
21 G’s |
54 G’s |
Hip Force |
151 lbs. |
582 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.