For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Cadillac Vistiq 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 iX doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
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 Vistiq are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The iX doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
A passive infrared night vision system standard on the Vistiq Premium Luxury/Platinum 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 iX doesn’t offer a night vision system.
Both the Vistiq and the iX have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, 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 driver alert monitors.
The Cadillac Vistiq weighs 508 to 656 pounds more than the BMW iX. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.