For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Acura ZDX 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 Jeep Grand Cherokee doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
Both the ZDX and Grand Cherokee have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The ZDX has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Grand Cherokee’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The ZDX’s standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The Grand Cherokee doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
In a Vehicle-to-Vehicle Frontal Crash Prevention 2.0 test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Acura ZDX achieved a “Good” rating - the highest possible - for its performance in forward collision warning and automatic braking systems, demonstrating its excellent capabilities in preventing collisions. The Jeep Grand Cherokee has not been tested.
Both the ZDX and Grand Cherokee have rear cross-traffic warning, but the ZDX has Rear Cross Traffic Braking (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Grand Cherokee’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the ZDX and the Grand Cherokee have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger 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, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Acura ZDX is safer than the Jeep Grand Cherokee:
|
ZDX |
Grand Cherokee |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Neck Compression |
18 lbs. |
84 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
140/142 lbs. |
482/259 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Chest Compression |
.6 inches |
.6 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
27% |
28% |
Neck Compression |
36 lbs. |
41 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
272/261 lbs. |
400/347 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH moderate front offset crash tests on new cars. In this updated test, results indicate that the ZDX is much safer than the Grand Cherokee:
|
ZDX |
Grand Cherokee |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
POOR |
Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
108 |
252 |
Chest Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Thigh/hip Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Thigh Forces L/R |
45/112 pounds |
180/360 pounds |
Leg/foot Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Thigh Forces L/R |
45/112 pounds |
180/360 pounds |
Leg Forces L/R |
225/382 pounds |
495/607 pounds |
Restraints |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Rear Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck Rating |
GOOD |
POOR |
Chest Rating |
GOOD |
POOR |
Thigh Rating |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Restraints |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
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 Acura ZDX is safer than the Jeep Grand Cherokee:
|
ZDX |
Grand Cherokee |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
55 |
87 |
Abdominal Force |
164 lbs. |
192 lbs. |
Hip Force |
163 lbs. |
235 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
91 |
164 |
Spine Acceleration |
35 G’s |
39 G’s |
Hip Force |
295 lbs. |
527 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
7 inches |
14 inches |
HIC |
402 |
458 |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.