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 CT4-V are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The RS 3 doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The CT4-V Auto has standard Reverse Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The RS 3 doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The CT4-V (except Blackwing) offers an optional HD Surround Vision to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The RS 3 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.
The CT4-V has a standard blind spot warning system which uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. A system to reveal vehicles in the RS 3’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the CT4-V has a standard rear cross-path warning system, which uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. Rear cross-path warning costs extra on the RS 3.
Both the CT4-V and the RS 3 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available all wheel drive.