For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Nissan Frontier 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 Colorado doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The Nissan Frontier 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 Colorado doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Frontier has standard Rear Automatic Braking that use rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. The Colorado doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
The Frontier 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 Colorado’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Frontier has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Colorado.
The Frontier’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 Colorado doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Frontier and the Colorado 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, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available four-wheel drive and around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Nissan Frontier is safer than the Chevrolet Colorado:
|
|
Frontier |
Colorado |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Chest Compression |
.7 inches |
.8 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
32% |
34.9% |
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 Nissan Frontier is safer than the Chevrolet Colorado:
|
|
Frontier |
Colorado |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
3 Stars |
| HIC |
58 |
129 |
| Chest Movement |
.9 inches |
1.6 inches |
| Abdominal Force |
170 lbs. |
186 lbs. |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Max Damage Depth |
13 inches |
14 inches |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.