The XC60’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The RX doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the XC60 and RX have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The XC60 Plus/Ultra/Polestar 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 RX’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 Volvo XC60 offers optional built in child booster seats. They’re more crash worthy than an added child seat because of their direct attachment to the seat. Lexus doesn’t offer the convenience and security of a built-in child booster seat in the RX. Their owners must carry a heavy booster seat in and out of the vehicle; XC60 owners can just fold their built-in child seat up or down.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the XC60 deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The XC60’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The RX’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
The XC60 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 RX doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the XC60. But it costs extra on the RX.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the XC60 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. Parking Support Brake costs extra on the RX.
Both the XC60 and the RX have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, 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, driver alert monitors and available around view monitors.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH moderate front offset crash tests on new cars. In this updated test, results indicate that the XC60 is much safer than the RX:
|
|
XC60 |
RX |
| Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
| Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
| Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Chest Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Thigh/hip Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Leg/foot Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
|
Rear Passenger Injury Measures |
|
| Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Chest Rating |
GOOD |
POOR |
| Thigh Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
| Restraints |
GOOD |
POOR |