The Armada has standard Active Head Restraints, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Active Head Restraints system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Tahoe doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The Armada 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 and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Tahoe’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Armada has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Intelligent Back-Up Intervention on the Platinum automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Tahoe and the Tahoe’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The Armada’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Tahoe doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Armada and the Tahoe have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact 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 and around view monitors.
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 Nissan Armada is safer than the Chevrolet Tahoe:
|
Armada |
Tahoe |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Abdominal Force |
81 lbs. |
111 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
31 |
88 |
Spine Acceleration |
21 G’s |
24 G’s |
Hip Force |
151 lbs. |
248 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Hip Force |
684 lbs. |
764 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.