For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The BMW X3 doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Atlas Cross Sport and X3 have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Atlas Cross Sport has Rear Traffic Alert (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The X3’s Cross Traffic Warning doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the Atlas Cross Sport and the X3 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, 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, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.
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 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport is safer than the BMW X3:
|
Atlas Cross Sport |
X3 |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
48 |
64 |
Chest Movement |
.5 inches |
.5 inches |
Abdominal Force |
64 lbs. |
153 lbs. |
Hip Force |
215 lbs. |
275 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
35 G’s |
45 G’s |
Hip Force |
529 lbs. |
794 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
13 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
41 G’s |
43 G’s |
Hip Force |
594 lbs. |
624 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.