Both the K5 and Legacy 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 Legacy’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 K5 EX/GT offers an optional Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Legacy 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 Legacy’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. Subaru charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Legacy and its not available on the Base and the Legacy’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
Compared to metal, the K5’s plastic fuel tank can withstand harder, more intrusive impacts without leaking; this decreases the possibility of fire. The Subaru Legacy has a metal gas tank.
Both the K5 and the Legacy have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, 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 Subaru Legacy:
|
K5 |
Legacy |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
21% |
26% |
Neck Stress |
180 lbs. |
281 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
21 lbs. |
57 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.6 inches |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
20/31 lbs. |
161/137 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Subaru Legacy:
|
K5 |
Legacy |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Abdominal Force |
190 lbs. |
216 lbs. |
Hip Force |
264 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
202 |
220 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
14 inches |
14 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
32 G’s |
38 G’s |
Hip Force |
589 lbs. |
681 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.