For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Titan 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 GMC Sierra Limited doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Titan 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 GMC Sierra Limited doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
The Nissan Titan has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Sierra Limited doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Titan has standard Rear Automatic Braking that use rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. The Sierra Limited doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Titan’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Sierra Limited and is only available on Sierra Limited SLE/SLT/AT4/Denali.
The Titan 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. A system to reveal vehicles in the Sierra Limited’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Titan has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. GMC charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Sierra Limited.
The Titan’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 Sierra Limited doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Titan and the Sierra Limited have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, daytime running lights 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 Nissan Titan is safer than the GMC Sierra Limited:
|
Titan |
Sierra Limited |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
40 |
73 |
Chest Movement |
.7 inches |
.7 inches |
Hip Force |
225 lbs. |
237 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
134 |
255 |
Spine Acceleration |
34 G’s |
47 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.