Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and RX have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Santa Fe Hybrid 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 RX’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.
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 Santa Fe Hybrid are reminded to check the back seat when a sensor determines the back seat is occupied. The RX doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the Santa Fe Hybrid. But it costs extra on the RX.
Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and the RX have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, 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, driver alert monitors and available 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 Hybrid is safer than the Lexus RX:
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
RX |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
3 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
16% |
33.2% |
Neck Stress |
149 lbs. |
412 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
13 lbs. |
60 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
50/51 lbs. |
433/719 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
HIC |
244 |
305 |
Chest Compression |
.4 inches |
.7 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
27% |
40.1% |
Neck Stress |
99 lbs. |
267 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
222/167 lbs. |
403/457 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 flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is safer than the Lexus RX:
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
RX |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
148 |
165 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Spine Acceleration |
44 G’s |
44 G’s |
Hip Force |
576 lbs. |
685 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 Hybrid is 1.7% to 3.2% less likely to roll over than the RX.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Santa Fe Hybrid its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 126 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The RX is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2022.