Both the K5 and Charger have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The K5 EX/GT offers optional 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 Charger’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.
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 K5 are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Charger doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Kia K5 has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Charger doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The K5’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 Charger.
The K5 EX/GT offers an optional Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Charger only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
The K5 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 and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Charger’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the K5 has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Dodge charges extra for Rear Cross Path Detection on the Charger and the Charger’s Rear Cross Path Detection does not include automatic braking.
The K5’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 Charger doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the K5 and the Charger have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, 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 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Kia K5 is safer than the Dodge Charger:
|
K5 |
Charger |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
21% |
26% |
Neck Stress |
180 lbs. |
230 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
21 lbs. |
41 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
444/276 lbs. |
582/440 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.7 inches |
Neck Stress |
147 lbs. |
155 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
20/31 lbs. |
267/469 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Kia K5 is safer than the Charger:
|
K5 |
Charger |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Neck Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head injury index |
78 |
222 |
Peak Head Forces |
0 G’s |
0 G’s |
Steering Column Movement Rearward |
2 cm |
9 cm |
Chest Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Max Chest Compression |
23 cm |
28 cm |
Hip & Thigh Evaluation |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Femur Force R/L |
.4/.1 kN |
3.7/3 kN |
Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L |
0%/0% |
1%/0% |
Lower Leg Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
Tibia index R/L |
.45/.33 |
1.21/.58 |
Tibia forces R/L |
1.9/.1 kN |
3/4.7 kN |
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 Kia K5 is safer than the Dodge Charger:
|
K5 |
Charger |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
110 |
138 |
Chest Movement |
1 inches |
1.4 inches |
Abdominal Force |
190 lbs. |
212 lbs. |
Hip Force |
264 lbs. |
372 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
14 inches |
15 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
32 G’s |
48 G’s |
Hip Force |
589 lbs. |
692 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the K5 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 129 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Charger is not even a standard “Top Safety Pick.”