For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Mercedes G-Class 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 Levante doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The G-Class’ pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Levante 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 G-Class are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Levante doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Mercedes G-Class 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 Levante doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The G-Class has a standard Post Collision Brake, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Levante 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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The G-Class has a standard Maneuvering Brake that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Levante doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The G-Class’ standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Levante.
Both the G-Class and Levante have rear cross-traffic warning, but the G-Class has Active Brake Assist (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Levante’s Rear Cross Path doesn’t automatically brake.
The G-Class’ driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Levante doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the G-Class and the Levante have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors and rear cross-path warning.
The Mercedes G-Class weighs 484 to 1914 pounds more than the Maserati Levante. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.