For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo V60 Cross Country 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 MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The V60 Cross Country’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Volvo V60 Cross Country 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 MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the V60 Cross Country and Cooper Hardtop 4 Door have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The V60 Cross Country has 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 Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’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 V60 Cross Country has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 6 points, IIHS rates the City Safety in the V60 Cross Country as “Superior.” The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door scores only 4 points and is rated only “Advanced.”
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The V60 Cross Country has standard CTA Auto Brake that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The V60 Cross Country has all-wheel drive to maximize traction under poor conditions, especially in ice and snow. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer all-wheel drive.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the V60 Cross Country’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.
The V60 Cross Country has a standard 360° Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The V60 Cross Country’s blind spot warning system uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a system to reveal objects in the driver’s blind spots.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the V60 Cross Country’s standard Cross Traffic Alert uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side and Braking Intervention automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.
Both the V60 Cross Country and the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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 and driver alert monitors.
The Volvo V60 Cross Country weighs 1119 to 1276 pounds more than the MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door. The NHTSA advises that heavier cars are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts. Crosswinds also affect lighter cars more.
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, with its optional vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the V60 Cross Country its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has not been fully tested, yet.