For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Ford Mustang 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 Dodge Challenger 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 Mustang are reminded to check the back seat. The Challenger doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Ford Mustang 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 Challenger doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The Mustang has standard Pre-Collision Assist, 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 Challenger offers an available collision warning system without the automated brake feature that would prevent or reduce the collision if the driver fails to react.
The Mustang has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Challenger 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.
The Mustang’s 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. The Challenger doesn’t offer a lane departure warning system.
The Mustang 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 Challenger’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Mustang has standard Cross Traffic Alert and Cross Traffic Braking automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Dodge charges extra for Rear Cross Path Detection on the Challenger and the Challenger’s Rear Cross Path Detection does not include automatic braking.
The Mustang’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 Challenger doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Mustang and the Challenger have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights and rearview cameras.
A significantly tougher test than their original offset frontal crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH small overlap frontal offset crash tests. In this test, where only 25% of the total width of the vehicle is struck, results indicate that the Ford Mustang Fastback is safer than the Challenger:
|
|
Mustang |
Challenger |
| Overall Evaluation |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
| Head Neck Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Peak Head Forces |
0 G’s |
0 G’s |
| Steering Column Movement Rearward |
5 cm |
8 cm |
| Chest Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Max Chest Compression |
25 cm |
26 cm |
| Hip & Thigh Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L |
0%/0% |
0%/0% |
| Lower Leg Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
| Tibia index R/L |
.74/.66 |
1.46/1.01 |
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performs roof strength tests. In that test the Mustang earned the top rating of “Good” because its roof supported over four times the Mustang’s weight before being crushed five inches. The Challenger was rated lower at “Acceptable.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates the general design of front seat head restraints for their ability to protect front seat occupants from whiplash injuries. The IIHS also performs a dynamic test on those seats with “good” or “acceptable” geometry. In these ratings, the Mustang is safer than the Challenger:
|
|
Mustang |
Challenger |
| Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
| Head Restraint Design |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Distance from Back of Head |
18 mm |
61 mm |
| Distance Below Top of Head |
26 mm |
28 mm |
| Dynamic Test Rating |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
| Seat Design |
Pass |
Fail |
| Neck Force Rating |
Low |
Low |
| Max Neck Shearing Force |
73 |
83 |
(Lower numerical results are better in all tests.)