For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Rogue 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 Buick Encore doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear 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 Rogue are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Encore doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Rogue Platinum has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Encore doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
The Rogue has standard Automatic Emergency Braking, which use forward mounted sensors to warn the driver of a possible collision ahead. If the driver doesn’t react and the system determines a collision is imminent, it automatically applies the brakes at full-force in order to reduce the force of the crash or avoid it altogether. The Encore offers an available collision warning system without the automated brake feature that would prevent or reduce the collision if the driver fails to react.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Rogue has standard Rear Automatic Braking that use rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. The Encore doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Rogue’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Encore.
The Rogue SL/Platinum has a standard Around View® Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Encore 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.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Rogue has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Buick charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Encore.
The Rogue’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 Encore doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Rogue and the Encore have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, rearview cameras and available all wheel drive.
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 Nissan Rogue is safer than the Buick Encore:
|
|
Rogue |
Encore |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Chest Movement |
.4 inches |
.7 inches |
| Abdominal Force |
99 lbs. |
120 lbs. |
| Hip Force |
339 lbs. |
388 lbs. |
|
|
Rear Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Spine Acceleration |
31 G’s |
33 G’s |
| Hip Force |
513 lbs. |
672 lbs. |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
14 inches |
| HIC |
162 |
382 |
| Hip Force |
398 lbs. |
707 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, and daytime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Rogue the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2023, a rating granted to only 53 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Encore last would have qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2016.