2013 Infiniti EX37 Journey AWD Review: Safety and Ratings
What’s New:
- The 2013 Infiniti EX37 introduces no new safety features.
The 2013 Infiniti EX Journey AWD model that we drove was stuffed chock full of the options packages required to experience the brand's full range of safety features. The EX comes with seat-mounted side airbags up front, dual forward airbags, and side curtain airbags. Active safety equipment found in our test vehicle included blind sport and lane departure warning and intervention, and adaptive cruise control with distance control assist, forward collision warning, and intelligent brake assist.
The first two systems can be set to provide a visual and auditory alert that one is drifting out of the assigned lane or that a vehicle is lurking in the EX's blind spot, or they can be taken a step further and programmed to pull the vehicle out of harm's way by braking one side of the crossover's wheels. We would have preferred a system that engaged the steering wheel instead of the brakes while intervening, as we found that the EX wasn't pulled strongly enough to actually stay safe without the driver getting involved. Truth be told, we left these systems in 'warning' mode rather than 'intervention' mode for most of our time with the crossover.
The adaptive cruise control system's ability to automatically slow down or accelerate the crossover so as to keep pace with traffic ahead worked well, but when it came to maintaining a steady speed on the highway while sitting behind another vehicle it began to display quirky behavior that we had never before encountered in any other Infiniti model with this feature. Instead of picking a single speed, the EX would apply and release the throttle rapidly, creating a subtle jerk that could be felt through the steering wheel and the seat of one's pants. The effect was so distracting that several times we were forced to turn off the adaptive cruise control feature and use our right feet instead.
We thought that perhaps the issue was a dirty forward sensor, but then during a severe snowstorm the system actually shut itself down when it detected that the receptor at the front of the vehicle was completely covered. If the vehicle's intelligent brake assist feature is rendered inoperative by road dirt, by the way, then cruise control is completely unavailable - it doesn't default to a traditional method of simply maintaining forward velocity, but rather shuts down the entire system.
2013 Infiniti EX37 Journey AWD Crash-Test Ratings: The 2013 EX has yet to be rated by the NHTSA or IIHS in standard crash testing.