For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the BMW X3 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 Alfa Romeo Stelvio doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The X3’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Stelvio doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
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 X3 are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Stelvio doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The X3 has a standard front seat center airbag, which deploys between the driver and front passenger, protecting them from injuries caused by striking each other in serious side impacts. The Stelvio doesn’t offer front seat center airbags.
The X3 has standard Active Head Restraints, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Active Head Restraints system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. The Stelvio doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The X3 has a standard PostCrash iBrake, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Stelvio 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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The X3 has a standard Active Park Distance Control that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Stelvio doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The X3 offers an optional Surround View to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Stelvio only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The BMW X3’s optional Surround View offers available integrated front and rear camera washers, ensuring clear, all-weather visibility without the need for manual cleaning. In contrast, the Alfa Romeo Stelvio lacks camera washers, requiring you to manually clean the cameras for optimal performance.
Both the X3 and Stelvio have rear cross-traffic warning, but the X3 has Cross Traffic Warning with braking function (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Stelvio’s Rear Cross-Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
Both the X3 and the Stelvio have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, plastic fuel tanks, 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 and rear cross-path warning.