The V90 Cross Country’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Cayenne Coupe doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the V90 Cross Country and Cayenne Coupe have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The V90 Cross Country has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Cayenne Coupe’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Volvo V90 Cross Country offers optional built in child booster seats. They’re more crash worthy than an added child seat because of their direct attachment to the seat. Porsche doesn’t offer the convenience and security of a built-in child booster seat in the Cayenne Coupe. Their owners must carry a heavy booster seat in and out of the vehicle; V90 Cross Country owners can just fold their built-in child seat up or down.
The V90 Cross Country has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Cayenne Coupe doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The V90 Cross Country has standard CTA Auto Brake that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Cayenne Coupe doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The V90 Cross Country’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Cayenne Coupe.
The V90 Cross Country 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 Cayenne Coupe’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the V90 Cross Country’s standard rear cross-path warning system uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. The Cayenne Coupe doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.
The V90 Cross Country’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 Cayenne Coupe doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the V90 Cross Country and the Cayenne Coupe have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights and rearview cameras.
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, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the V90 Cross Country its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Cayenne Coupe has not been tested, yet.