For enhanced safety, the front shoulder belts of the Chevrolet Blazer are height-adjustable, and the rear seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides to move the belt to properly fit children. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages children to buckle up. The Jeep Cherokee has only front height-adjustable seat belts.
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 Blazer are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Cherokee doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Blazer offers an optional HD Surround Vision to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Cherokee 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.
Both the Blazer and the Cherokee 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, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive, blind spot warning systems and rear cross-path warning.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Chevrolet Blazer is safer than the Jeep Cherokee:
|
Blazer |
Cherokee |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
182 |
204 |
Neck Injury Risk |
22% |
38.2% |
Neck Stress |
178 lbs. |
408 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
25 lbs. |
41 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
104/435 lbs. |
368/516 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 Chevrolet Blazer is safer than the Jeep Cherokee:
|
Blazer |
Cherokee |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
251 |
264 |
Spine Acceleration |
45 G’s |
53 G’s |
Hip Force |
673 lbs. |
938 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
14 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
43 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Blazer is 1.4% to 2.7% less likely to roll over than the Cherokee.
For its top level performance in all IIHS frontal, side, rear impact and roof-crush tests, and its standard front crash prevention system, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Blazer the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2017, a rating granted to only 231 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Cherokee has not been tested, yet.