For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Mazda CX-90 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 Land Rover Discovery Sport doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Mazda CX-90 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 Land Rover Discovery Sport doesn’t offer height-adjustable 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 CX-90 are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Mazda CX-90 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 Discovery Sport doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The CX-90 offers an optional Secondary Collision Reduction System, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The CX-90 Premium Plus/Turbo S Premium has standard Rear Smart City Brake Support that uses rear sensors to monitor and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a rear collision. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The CX-90 Premium Plus/Turbo S Premium has a standard 360° View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Discovery Sport 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 CX-90 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 Discovery Sport’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the CX-90 has standard rear cross-path warning to warn the driver of approaching traffic and automatically engage the brakes to help avoid a collision. Land Rover charges extra for rear cross-path warning on the Discovery Sport.
Both the CX-90 and the Discovery Sport have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and driver alert monitors.
The Mazda CX-90 weighs 429 to 1138 pounds more than the Land Rover Discovery Sport. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.