For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Toyota Crown 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 BMW 3 Series Sedan doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Toyota Crown are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The BMW 3 Series Sedan doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the Crown. But it costs extra on the 3 Series Sedan.
The Crown’s 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 3 Series Sedan.
The Toyota Crown offers an optional Bird’s Eye View Camera and it also offers an optional rear camera washer to make backing always safe, regardless of road dirt or grime, while the BMW 3 Series Sedan doesn’t offer a camera washer, requiring manual cleaning.
The Crown 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 and moves the vehicle back into its lane. A system to reveal vehicles in the 3 Series Sedan’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Crown has standard Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Parking Support Brake on the Limited/Platinum/Nightshade automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. BMW charges extra for Cross Traffic Warning on the 3 Series Sedan and the 3 Series Sedan’s Cross Traffic Warning does not include automatic braking.
Both the Crown and the 3 Series Sedan have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors 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 Toyota Crown is safer than the BMW 3 Series Sedan:
|
Crown |
3 Series Sedan |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
179 |
252 |
Chest Compression |
.6 inches |
.6 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
26.1% |
33% |
Neck Compression |
31 lbs. |
74 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 Toyota Crown is safer than the BMW 3 Series Sedan:
|
Crown |
3 Series Sedan |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
32 |
107 |
Chest Movement |
.7 inches |
.8 inches |
Abdominal Force |
130 lbs. |
179 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
157 |
305 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
36 G’s |
39 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.