For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX50 have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision. The GMC Terrain doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Infiniti QX50 are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The GMC Terrain doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
The Infiniti QX50 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 Terrain doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The QX50 has standard Rear Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Terrain doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the QX50. But it costs extra on the Terrain.
The QX50 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 and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the Terrain’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the QX50 has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. GMC charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Terrain.
Both the QX50 and the Terrain have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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 and available around view monitors.
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 Infiniti QX50 is safer than the GMC Terrain:
|
QX50 |
Terrain |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
98 |
109 |
Chest Movement |
1 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
151 lbs. |
195 lbs. |
Hip Force |
306 lbs. |
357 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
73 |
288 |
Spine Acceleration |
25 G’s |
55 G’s |
Hip Force |
227 lbs. |
630 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
333 |
377 |
Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
40 G’s |
Hip Force |
339 lbs. |
730 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Infiniti QX50 is safer than the Terrain:
|
QX50 |
Terrain |
Overall Evaluation |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Neck Tension |
178 lbs. |
290 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
89 lbs. |
112 lbs. |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
1.06 in |
1.73 in |
Shoulder Force |
178 lbs. |
312 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Injury Criterion |
57 |
733 |
Head Peak Forces |
no contact |
101 G’s |
Neck Tension |
45 lbs. |
89 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
89 lbs. |
491 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Deflection |
.67 in |
1.65 in |
Shoulder Force |
201 lbs. |
402 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.42 in |
1.57 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
7 MPH |
7 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Pelvis Force |
402 lbs. |
669 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the QX50 is .9% to 3.8% less likely to roll over than the Terrain.