For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Jeep Renegade doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
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 Tucson Hybrid are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Renegade doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Tucson Hybrid Limited has a standard Around View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Renegade only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
Both the Tucson Hybrid and Renegade have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Tucson Hybrid has Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Renegade’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.
The Tucson 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 Renegade doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Tucson Hybrid and the Renegade have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is safer than the Jeep Renegade:
|
Tucson Hybrid |
Renegade |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Passenger |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
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, results indicate that the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is safer than the Jeep Renegade:
|
Tucson Hybrid |
Renegade |
OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
Rear Seat |
|
STARS |
5 Stars |
3 Stars |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is much safer than the Renegade:
|
Tucson Hybrid |
Renegade |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Structure |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
121 |
128 |
Neck Compression |
-45 lbs. |
89 lbs. |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Force |
223 lbs. |
245 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.34 in |
1.42 in |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Pelvis Force |
759 lbs. |
1249 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
116 |
289 |
Neck Compression |
-134 lbs. |
134 lbs. |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Deflection |
1.1 in |
1.85 in |
Shoulder Force |
245 lbs. |
446 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.38 in |
1.77 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
5 MPH |
12 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Pelvis Force |
669 lbs. |
982 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Tucson Hybrid is .5% to 6.9% less likely to roll over than the Renegade.
For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, daytime pedestrian crash prevention, and nighttime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Tucson Hybrid its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2023, a rating granted to only 67 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Renegade last would have qualified as only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2019.