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 Soul are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Eclipse Cross doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Soul’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 Eclipse Cross doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Soul and the Eclipse Cross have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available lane departure warning systems, 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 Kia Soul is safer than the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross:
|
Soul |
Eclipse Cross |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
253 |
290 |
Neck Injury Risk |
26% |
35.1% |
Neck Stress |
168 lbs. |
467 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
38 lbs. |
65 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
49/286 lbs. |
239/273 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, results indicate that the Kia Soul is safer than the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross:
|
Soul |
Eclipse Cross |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
142 |
145 |
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 Soul is 3.8% less likely to roll over than the Eclipse Cross.
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, with its optional 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 Soul the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2022, a rating granted to only 141 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Eclipse Cross has not been fully tested, yet.