For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 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 Volkswagen Taos 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 Eclipse Cross are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Taos doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Taos doesn’t offer knee airbags.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, Full-Time Four-Wheel Drive is standard on the Eclipse Cross. But it costs extra on the Taos.
The Eclipse Cross SEL has a standard Multi-View Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Taos only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
Both the Eclipse Cross and the Taos have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact 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, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available blind spot warning systems and rear cross-path warning.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross is safer than the Volkswagen Taos:
|
Eclipse Cross |
Taos |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
248 |
285 |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
215 |
224 |
Chest Compression |
.7 inches |
.7 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
39.7% |
45% |
Neck Compression |
55 lbs. |
207 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
331/198 lbs. |
643/432 lbs. |
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 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross is safer than the Volkswagen Taos:
|
Eclipse Cross |
Taos |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.5 inches |
.6 inches |
Hip Force |
292 lbs. |
394 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
162 |
393 |
Spine Acceleration |
55 G’s |
69 G’s |
Hip Force |
464 lbs. |
673 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
44 G’s |
46 G’s |
Hip Force |
622 lbs. |
939 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates the general design of front seat head restraints for their ability to protect front seat occupants from whiplash injuries. The IIHS also performs a dynamic test on those seats with “good” or “acceptable” geometry. In these ratings, the Eclipse Cross is safer than the Taos:
|
Eclipse Cross |
Taos |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Restraint Design |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Dynamic Test Rating |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Seat Design |
Pass |
Fail |
Torso Acceleration |
10.6 g’s |
13.3 g’s |
Neck Force Rating |
Low |
Low |
Max Neck Shearing Force |
0 |
0 |
(Lower numerical results are better in all tests.)