Both the Santa Fe and Rav4 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 Rav4’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 are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Rav4 doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
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. A system to reveal vehicles in the Rav4’s blind spot costs extra.
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. Rear cross-path warning costs extra on the Rav4.
Both the Santa Fe and the Rav4 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, 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 Rav4:
|
Santa Fe |
Rav4 |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Driver |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
Neck Injury Risk |
16% |
29.3% |
Neck Stress |
149 lbs. |
306 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
13 lbs. |
56 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
50/51 lbs. |
400/388 lbs. |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
244 |
284 |
Chest Compression |
.4 inches |
.4 inches |
Neck Injury Risk |
27% |
37.4% |
Neck Stress |
99 lbs. |
258 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
89 lbs. |
95 lbs. |
Leg Forces (l/r) |
222/167 lbs. |
340/190 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 is safer than the Toyota Rav4:
|
Santa Fe |
Rav4 |
|
Front Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
HIC |
61 |
83 |
|
Into Pole |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
Hip Force |
576 lbs. |
835 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
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 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 112 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Rav4 is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2022.