For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Toyota Land Cruiser 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 Dodge Durango doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
The Land Cruiser’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Durango doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
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 Land Cruiser are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Durango doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Toyota Land Cruiser 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 Durango doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The Land Cruiser has standard Secondary Collision Brake, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Durango doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Land Cruiser has a standard Parking Support Brake that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Durango doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, Full-Time Four-Wheel Drive is standard on the Land Cruiser. But it costs extra on the Durango.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Land Cruiser’s standard Downhill Assist Control allows you to creep down safely. The Durango doesn’t offer Downhill Assist Control.
The Land Cruiser’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Durango and is not available with SXT.
The Land Cruiser offers an optional Multi-Terrain Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Durango 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 Land Cruiser and Durango have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Land Cruiser has Parking Support Brake (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Durango’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
The Land Cruiser’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 Durango doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Land Cruiser and the Durango 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, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.