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 Kicks SV/SR are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The 500X doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Nissan Kicks 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 500X doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 5 points, IIHS rates the Automatic Emergency Braking in the Kicks as “Superior.” The 500X scores only 4 points and is rated only “Advanced.”
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Kicks 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 500X doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Kicks’ 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 500X and is only available on 500X Sport.
The Kicks SR has a standard Around View® Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The 500X 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 Kicks 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 500X’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Kicks has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Fiat charges extra for Rear Cross Path Detection on the 500X, and only on the Sport.
Both the Kicks and the 500X 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, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, rearview cameras, available daytime running lights and driver alert monitors.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, rear impact and roof-crush tests, its standard front crash prevention system, its “Good” rating in the new passenger-side small overlap crash test, and its available headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Kicks the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2019, a rating granted to only 192 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The 500X was last qualified as a “Top Safety Pick” in 2017.