How Does the 2025 Ford Explorer Stack Up Against the 2025 Mazda CX-90 Regarding Safety?

A good crossover goes a long way. These vehicles provide a great solution for families who have outgrown a sedan but aren’t yet ready for a full-size SUV. Compact SUVs are the natural next step up, but in a lot of cases, it makes sense to go straight to a midsize SUV. With a third row of seating, you’ll have more room to grow into the vehicle without needing to replace it just a few years later. While the extra seats naturally come with extra cargo room, the most precious cargo you’ll be hauling in your vehicle is your family. Because of this, your attention is likely not on performance specs, premium fashion cues, or the fanciest option out there. But, you probably are thinking about the safest option out there. Because midsize SUVs are family vehicles, they pay special attention to providing a safe ride at all times. Vehicle safety is a twofold component, as a truly safe vehicle is crafted partly by vehicle architecture and structure and partly by safety technology.

With so many brands and so many models within each brand, it can be hard to determine which vehicle will actually provide the safest ride for your family. So, to help in that discernment process, let’s do a side-by-side comparison of two well-known midsize SUVs on the market: the 2025 Ford Explorer vs 2025 Mazda CX-90. Though there are similarities, there certainly are differences, so you’ll hopefully be able to have a better handle on how to examine vehicle safety features.

Which Model is Best Built for Safety?

Vehicle safety begins with the body. Safety technology certainly is a huge component of vehicle safety (as we will soon discuss), but preventative technology doesn’t mean much if the vehicle can’t withstand a collision. Of course, preventing an accident is always what we aim to do, but sometimes, an accident can happen through no fault of your own, and you want to make sure that your family will still be safe even in the event that an accident does occur.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) carefully tests the crash safety of each vehicle so that you don’t have to. Using a rating system of 1-5, The NHTSA takes essentially each vehicle on the market and puts it through every possible worst-case-scenario to give you an honest assessment of how the vehicle will perform in such a scenario. Of course, certain safety standards need to be met for a vehicle to go to market, but that doesn’t mean that all vehicles are equally well-built, so the NHTSA’s work is certainly well-trusted, and we’ve got their stats on the Explorer and CX-90 for you.

The Ford Explorer has received an overall safety rating of 5 stars. For 2024, the Explorer had standout 5-star ratings in the individual areas “Frontal Crash” and “Side Crash.” The Explorer is tactfully designed with strength in mind. While it may not look like a full-size monster of an SUV, its sturdy architecture and long frontal hood give it the natural ability to mitigate risk in the event that a crash does occur.

The 2025 Mazda CX-90 also does well. The ratings do look slightly different for the CX-90. The CX-90 takes home an overall safety rating of 5 stars as the Explorer does, and while it obtained a 5-star rating in the area of “Side Crash,” it does only have four stars in the area of “Frontal Crash.” The frontal crash rating comes from individual Frontal Barrier Star ratings for both driver and passenger, which is determined by a simulated head-on collision on a flat, rigid surface at 35 mph (that’s certainly not freeway speeds); both driver and passenger obtained individual Frontal Barrier Star ratings, leading to the overall frontal crash rating of 4 stars.

Is 4 stars a low score? No, but the Explorer has five stars in the front and side collision tests. That’s an important thing to consider. Of course, we aren’t just going to say that the Explorer is better because it’s “Built Ford Tough,” we want to prove it to you with the facts. But, now that we’ve done so, you can start to see that the “Built Ford Tough” mantra is more than just a fun slogan; it actually means something.

Who Has the Best Safety and Driver Assistance Suite?

Now, our hope (and we assume yours too) is that the NHTSA safety ratings are never put to the test on your vehicle; those are there to give you insight into the worst-case-scenario, but preventing an accident upfront is really the name of the name of the game. That’s where safety technology comes into play, so let’s take a look at how both the Explorer and the CX-90 help you prevent an accident before it happens.

The 2025 Explorer is armed with Ford Co-Pilot360 technology. This is a standardized Ford package that includes safety features that make the car more intelligent, more aware of your surroundings, and more able to take action when a threat is detected. While most of the features are self-explanatory based on the name, there are a few that we want to highlight.

Ford Co-Pilot 360 includes Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking. With this feature, the vehicle is always monitoring what’s ahead of you, whether it’s another vehicle, a pedestrian, or another obstacle, and will apply the brakes for you if it detects a collision risk. It’s not that the vehicle doesn’t trust you enough to hit the brakes, but we are all human, and sometimes we can’t react quickly enough; so the Explorer acts quicker. Similarly, the Ford CoPilot360 package includes Evasive Steering Assist, which means that the vehicle will provide steering support if it calculates that it is necessary to move out of the way of an obstacle. Don’t worry, the vehicle will only provide this support if it senses a risk, it won’t start steering for you at random times.

The 2025 Mazda CX-90 offers Mazda’s i-Activsense package, which is essentially Mazda’s version of the Ford CoPilot360 suite. If you compare the two, you’ll see a lot of similar features (under slightly different names), but you will notice some differences. While it does offer great safety technology, it lacks a few of Ford CoPilot360’s more innovative features, such as the previously mentioned Evasive Steering Assist as well as Hill Descent Control. While both the Explorer and the CX-90 offer blind spot monitoring, the Explorer also offers a Blind Spot Information Center with Trailer Coverage (yes, the Explorer does offer towing capacity!), making sure that you have the same coverage even with a trailer.

Just like with safety architecture, both the Explorer and the Mazda do well; it’s not that one vehicle is radically safer than the other. But, the Explorer does have a bit of an advantage through offering safety technology that is a bit more innovative and preventative. And when you’re driving with your family, accident prevention is the most important thing.

The Explorer is Designed With Your Family’s Safety in Mind

Driving safely is your job. You know that, of course. But, like we said before, we are all human and subject to human error. Even when we don’t have a moment of human error, somebody else might and you could find yourself in a dangerous situation without doing anything wrong. But there’s no room for your family to be in such a situation. Having a vehicle that works hard to prevent a collision from occurring may just be the best place to put your money when discerning all of the features you could have in a vehicle.

Not only will it save lives, but it may save you a great deal of money as well; investing in the safety package upfront will end up being far cheaper than post-collision vehicle repairs (or a new vehicle altogether). Even when a crash does happen, you want a vehicle that mitigates risk and keeps everyone safe. The Explorer certainly bodes well in that regard, and proves to be an example that there is a twofold nature to discerning a vehicle’s safety features: collision prevention and collision endurance. With that combination, you’ll be able to truly drive safely and enjoy the ride with your family.