For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The Chevrolet Equinox doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and Equinox 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 Equinox’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.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Santa Fe Hybrid Limited has standard Parking Collision Avoidance Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Equinox doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
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 Equinox.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Santa Fe Hybrid’s standard Downhill Brake Control allows you to creep down safely. The Equinox doesn’t offer Downhill Brake Control.
The Santa Fe Hybrid has a standard blind spot warning system that 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. A system to reveal vehicles in the Equinox’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Santa Fe Hybrid has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Chevrolet charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Equinox and the Equinox’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The Santa Fe Hybrid’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Equinox doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and the Equinox have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and available around view monitors.
The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid weighs 566 to 953 pounds more than the Chevrolet Equinox. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 Chevrolet Equinox:
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
Equinox |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
16% |
17% |
Neck Stress |
149 lbs. |
190 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
50/51 lbs. |
363/349 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
244 |
376 |
Chest Compression |
.4 inches |
.6 inches |
Neck Stress |
99 lbs. |
153 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
222/167 lbs. |
264/236 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 Chevrolet Equinox:
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
Equinox |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
61 |
109 |
Chest Movement |
1.1 inches |
1.1 inches |
Abdominal Force |
164 lbs. |
195 lbs. |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
148 |
288 |
Spine Acceleration |
54 G’s |
55 G’s |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
376 |
377 |
Hip Force |
576 lbs. |
730 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 3.8% less likely to roll over than the Equinox.
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 Equinox has not been fully tested, yet.