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 Tiguan doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row 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 Tiguan 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 Tiguan 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 Tiguan.
Both the Eclipse Cross and the Tiguan 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, around view monitors 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 Tiguan:
|
Eclipse Cross |
Tiguan |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
248 |
260 |
Neck Compression |
33 lbs. |
80 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
184/324 lbs. |
408/641 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
Chest Compression |
.7 inches |
.7 inches |
Neck Stress |
182 lbs. |
261 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
55 lbs. |
62 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
331/198 lbs. |
428/471 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 Tiguan:
|
Eclipse Cross |
Tiguan |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Movement |
.5 inches |
.7 inches |
Hip Force |
292 lbs. |
337 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Hip Force |
464 lbs. |
510 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
44 G’s |
49 G’s |
Hip Force |
622 lbs. |
855 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.