For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Lexus GX 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 L doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.
The GX has a standard Secondary Collision Brake, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Grand Cherokee L 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.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, Full-Time Four-Wheel Drive is standard on the GX. But it costs extra on the Grand Cherokee L.
Both the GX and Grand Cherokee L have rear cross-traffic warning, but the GX has Rear Cross-Traffic Braking (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Grand Cherokee L’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the GX and the Grand Cherokee L 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 Lexus GX weighs 517 to 1186 pounds more than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 Lexus GX is safer than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L:
|
|
GX |
Grand Cherokee L |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
25 |
89 |
| Chest Movement |
.3 inches |
.8 inches |
| Abdominal Force |
82 lbs. |
147 lbs. |
| Hip Force |
109 lbs. |
276 lbs. |
|
|
Rear Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
19 |
92 |
| Spine Acceleration |
20 G’s |
34 G’s |
| Hip Force |
217 lbs. |
375 lbs. |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
332 |
376 |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

