For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Jeep Grand Cherokee 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 Land Rover Discovery Sport doesn’t offer 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 Grand Cherokee are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Grand Cherokee has standard ParkSense Rear Park Assist with Stop that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
A passive infrared night vision system optional on the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk/Overland/Summit helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer a night vision system.
Both the Grand Cherokee and the Discovery Sport have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee 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, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, available all wheel drive, around view monitors and driver alert monitors.
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 Grand Cherokee its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2023, a rating granted to only 36 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Discovery Sport has not been tested, yet.