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 Grand Cherokee are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The A4 Allroad doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Grand Cherokee has standard ParkSense Rear Park Assist with Stop that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The A4 Allroad doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
A passive infrared night vision system optional on the Grand Cherokee Overland/Summit helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The A4 Allroad doesn’t offer a night vision system.
The Grand Cherokee has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. A system to reveal vehicles in the A4 Allroad’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Grand Cherokee has standard Rear Cross Path Detection, helping the driver avoid collisions. Audi charges extra for Rear Cross-Traffic Assist on the A4 Allroad.
The Grand Cherokee Summit’s 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 A4 Allroad doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Grand Cherokee and the A4 Allroad have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, 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 all wheel drive and around view monitors.
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 Jeep Grand Cherokee is safer than the Audi A4 Allroad:
|
Grand Cherokee |
A4 Allroad |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
87 |
172 |
Chest Movement |
.8 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
192 lbs. |
219 lbs. |
Hip Force |
235 lbs. |
308 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
164 |
277 |
Spine Acceleration |
39 G’s |
56 G’s |
Hip Force |
527 lbs. |
777 lbs. |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
41 G’s |
47 G’s |
Hip Force |
528 lbs. |
666 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.