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 UX are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The A4 Allroad doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the UX deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The UX’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The A4 Allroad’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The UX offers an optional Parking Support Brake that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The A4 Allroad doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
The UX 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 A4 Allroad’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the UX has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Audi charges extra for Rear Cross-Traffic Assist on the A4 Allroad.
The UX’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 A4 Allroad doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the UX and the A4 Allroad have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive and rear parking sensors.
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 Lexus UX is safer than the Audi A4 Allroad:
|
UX |
A4 Allroad |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
52 |
172 |
Chest Movement |
.8 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
149 lbs. |
219 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
96 |
277 |
Spine Acceleration |
46 G’s |
56 G’s |
Hip Force |
633 lbs. |
777 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
292 |
333 |
Spine Acceleration |
44 G’s |
47 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, daytime pedestrian crash prevention, and nighttime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the UX its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2023, a rating granted to only 29 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The A4 Allroad was last a “Top Safety Pick Plus” in 2019 but no longer qualifies.