For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo V60 Cross Country 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 Toyota Venza doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The V60 Cross Country’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Venza doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the V60 Cross Country and Venza have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The V60 Cross Country has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Venza’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The V60 Cross Country has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Venza doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the V60 Cross Country’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The Venza doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the V60 Cross Country has standard Cross Traffic Alert with Braking Intervention, systems which detect vehicles approaching from the sides and can automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. Only the Venza XLE/Nightshade/Limited offers Parking Support Brake.
Both the V60 Cross Country and the Venza have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and driver alert monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Volvo V60 Cross Country is safer than the Toyota Venza:
|
V60 Cross Country |
Venza |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
25.7% |
29.3% |
Neck Stress |
189 lbs. |
306 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Volvo V60 Cross Country is safer than the Toyota Venza:
|
V60 Cross Country |
Venza |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Hip Force |
212 lbs. |
246 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
14 inches |
Spine Acceleration |
29 G’s |
36 G’s |
Hip Force |
490 lbs. |
835 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the V60 Cross Country, with its five-star roll-over rating, is 5.6% less likely to roll over than the Venza, which received a four-star rating.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard front crash prevention system, and its headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the V60 Cross Country its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2019, a rating granted to only 126 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Venza is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2019.