Both the Santa Fe and Highlander have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Santa Fe has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Highlander’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Santa Fe has a standard blind spot warning system which 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. Only the Highlander LE/XLE/XSE/Limited/Platinum offers a blind spot warning system.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Santa Fe has a standard rear cross-path warning system, which uses sensors in the rear bumper to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. Only the Highlander LE/XLE/XSE/Limited/Platinum has a rear cross-path warning system.
Both the Santa Fe and the Highlander have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive and 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 Hyundai Santa Fe is safer than the Toyota Highlander:
|
Santa Fe |
Highlander |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
16% |
38.2% |
Neck Stress |
149 lbs. |
347 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
13 lbs. |
55 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
50/51 lbs. |
321/243 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
244 |
328 |
Chest Compression |
.4 inches |
.6 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
27% |
28.4% |
Neck Stress |
99 lbs. |
179 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
89 lbs. |
90 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
222/167 lbs. |
545/323 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 post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Hyundai Santa Fe is safer than the Toyota Highlander:
|
Santa Fe |
Highlander |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Max Damage Depth |
14 inches |
15 inches |
Hip Force |
576 lbs. |
664 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Santa Fe is .9% to 2.2% less likely to roll over than the Highlander.