For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Kia Seltos 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 GMC Terrain doesn’t offer height-adjustable front seat belts.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Seltos S Turbo/EX/SX has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Avoidance Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The Terrain doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Seltos’ 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 Terrain doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Seltos and the Terrain have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems 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 Kia Seltos is safer than the GMC Terrain:
|
Seltos |
Terrain |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
109 |
109 |
Abdominal Force |
170 lbs. |
195 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
234 |
288 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
225 |
377 |
Spine Acceleration |
33 G’s |
40 G’s |
Hip Force |
433 lbs. |
730 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Seltos is 1.3% to 1.6% less likely to roll over than the Terrain.
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, with its optional vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its available headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Seltos the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2022, a rating granted to only 141 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Terrain last would have qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2017.