For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX55 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 Honda Passport doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The Infiniti QX55 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 Passport doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The QX55 has standard Rear Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Passport doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The QX55 Essential/Sensory has a standard Around View® Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Passport 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.
Both the QX55 and the Passport have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Infiniti QX55 is safer than the Passport:
|
QX55 |
Passport |
Overall Evaluation |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
141 |
206 |
Neck Tension |
178 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
Pelvis Force |
1316 lbs. |
1339 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
57 |
206 |
Neck Tension |
45 lbs. |
178 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
.67 in |
.94 in |
Shoulder Force |
201 lbs. |
335 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.42 in |
2.05 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
7 MPH |
12 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Pelvis Force |
402 lbs. |
759 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |