For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Ford Mustang 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 Chevrolet Camaro doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
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 Mustang are reminded to check the back seat. The Camaro doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Mustang has standard Pre-Collision Assist, which use forward mounted sensors to warn the driver of a possible collision ahead. If the driver doesn’t react and the system determines a collision is imminent, it automatically applies the brakes at full-force in order to reduce the force of the crash or avoid it altogether. The Camaro offers an available collision warning system without the automated brake feature that would prevent or reduce the collision if the driver fails to react.
The Mustang has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Camaro 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.
The Mustang’s 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. The Camaro doesn’t offer a lane departure warning system.
The Mustang 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 Camaro’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Mustang has standard Cross Traffic Alert and Cross Traffic Braking automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Camaro and its not available on the LT1 and the Camaro’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The Mustang’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 Camaro doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Mustang and the Camaro have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights and rearview cameras.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) performs roof strength tests. In that test the Mustang earned the top rating of “Good” because its roof supported over four times the Mustang’s weight before being crushed five inches. The Camaro was rated lower at “Acceptable.”