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 Chevrolet Equinox doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Rogue 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 Chevrolet Equinox doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
The Nissan Rogue has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Equinox doesn’t offer knee airbags.
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 Equinox doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
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 Equinox doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Rogue has a standard blind spot warning system that 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 Equinox’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Rogue has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Equinox.
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 Equinox doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Rogue and the Equinox have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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 and around view monitors.
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 Chevrolet Equinox:
|
Rogue |
Equinox |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
95 |
109 |
Chest Movement |
.4 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
99 lbs. |
195 lbs. |
Hip Force |
339 lbs. |
357 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
162 |
288 |
Spine Acceleration |
31 G’s |
55 G’s |
Hip Force |
513 lbs. |
630 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
162 |
377 |
Hip Force |
398 lbs. |
730 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Nissan Rogue is safer than the Equinox:
|
Rogue |
Equinox |
Overall Evaluation |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Neck Tension |
245 lbs. |
290 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
45 lbs. |
112 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
.94 in |
1.73 in |
Shoulder Force |
245 lbs. |
312 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
.94 in |
1.69 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
6 MPH |
8 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Injury Criterion |
455 |
733 |
Head Peak Forces |
89 G’s |
101 G’s |
Neck Compression |
402 lbs. |
491 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Deflection |
1.22 in |
1.65 in |
Shoulder Force |
379 lbs. |
402 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
.87 in |
1.57 in |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Pelvis Force |
535 lbs. |
669 lbs. |
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 Equinox last would have qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2017.