Safety
What a difference two years makes. This year's sport/utility crop has more airbags than last month's California gubernatorial recall ballot, as automakers realize how much side curtains do for a vehicle's safety and image. All but three contestants here have some sort of side-curtain bag. The GMC Envoy XUV and Buick Rainier are based on the GMT360/370 architecture that launched two years ago, before side bags were considered necessary. The Mitsubishi Endeavor offers seat-mounted side airbags as standard on the Limited top-trim-level model, optional as part of a package on the XLS, and unavailable on the LS.
Side curtains are standard on the Cadillac SRX. The Caddy's system covers the front and second row, but not the optional third-row seat. Dodge offers side curtains for all three rows as an option on the new Durango. The other two vehicles in our competition that have three rows of seating--the Chrysler Pacifica and Nissan Armada--have three-row side curtains as standard equipment.
BMW doesn't use side curtains, per se, but has its own system, an inflatable tubular structure, that covers the front- and rear-seat passengers of the compact X3. It's offered with optional rear-seat side airbags as well, for a total of eight bags, if you count the inflatable tubes as one bag per side.
All 13 have dual-stage front bags, and most have side bags, mounted in the front seats, either standard or optional. Automakers used to consider seat-mounted side bags superfluous on big, full-frame SUVs. But bags or curtains that keep occupants inside and away from the side glass in case of a rollover have become de rigueur in SUVs.
Besides airbags a-plenty, Xenon headlamps, power-adjustable pedals, three-point belts even in center-row seats, hill-descent control, belt pretensioners, tire-pressure monitoring systems, and stability control are common. All 13 SUVs have Lower Anchors And Tethers for CHildren (LATCH) child-safety seat connectors and four-wheel anti-lock brakes standard, most with electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist.