For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX80 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 Hyundai Palisade doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
The QX80 Sensory’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Palisade doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
For enhanced safety, the front and middle seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX80 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 Hyundai Palisade doesn’t offer height-adjustable middle seat belts.
The Infiniti QX80 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 Palisade doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The QX80 has standard Active Head Restraints (AHR), which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the AHR system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Palisade doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
Both the QX80 and the Palisade have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available all wheel drive.
The Infiniti QX80 weighs 1195 to 1914 pounds more than the Hyundai Palisade. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 Infiniti QX80 is safer than the Hyundai Palisade:
|
QX80 |
Palisade |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Abdominal Force |
81 lbs. |
113 lbs. |
Hip Force |
144 lbs. |
303 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
31 |
189 |
Spine Acceleration |
21 G’s |
36 G’s |
Hip Force |
151 lbs. |
189 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
45 G’s |
Hip Force |
684 lbs. |
724 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.