For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Mercedes GLE 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 Maserati Grecale doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The GLE’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Grecale 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 GLE are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Grecale doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The GLE offers optional Post-Collision Brake, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Grecale 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.
Earlier warning of stopped traffic, traffic signals, dangerous road conditions, weather, or accidents, can keep driver's safer and prevent crashes. The GLE has Car-to-X Communication, a system that seamlessly communicates important warnings to the driver about impending danger, if they're available. The Grecale doesn’t offer a system that can receive automated systems from other vehicles.
The GLE 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 Grecale’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the GLE has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and Active Brake Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Maserati charges extra for Rear Cross Path on the Grecale and the Grecale’s Rear Cross Path does not include automatic braking.
Both the GLE and the Grecale have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, rearview cameras and available lane departure warning systems.
The Mercedes GLE (with optional crash prevention) has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2024 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and an “Acceptable” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Grecale has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.