For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Santa Fe 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 GMC Terrain doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Santa Fe 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 GMC Terrain doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Santa Fe and Terrain 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 Terrain’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 Hyundai Santa Fe has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Terrain doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Santa Fe Limited/Calligraphy 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 Terrain doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Santa Fe 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. A system to reveal vehicles in the Terrain’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Santa Fe has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. GMC charges extra for Rear Cross Traffic Alert on the Terrain and the Terrain’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
The Santa Fe’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 Terrain doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Santa Fe and the Terrain have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.
The Hyundai Santa Fe weighs 648 to 1067 pounds more than the GMC Terrain. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 Santa Fe is much safer than the Terrain:
|
Santa Fe |
Terrain |
Overall Evaluation |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
Structure |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Driver Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Head Injury Criterion |
89 |
131 |
Neck Tension |
223 lbs. |
290 lbs. |
Neck Compression |
-22 lbs. |
112 lbs. |
Torso |
ACCEPTABLE |
MARGINAL |
Shoulder Deflection |
.87 in |
1.73 in |
Shoulder Force |
178 lbs. |
312 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.34 in |
1.69 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
7 MPH |
8 MPH |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
GOOD |
|
Passenger Injury Measures |
|
Head/Neck |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Head Injury Criterion |
64 |
733 |
Head Peak Forces |
no contact |
101 G’s |
Neck Compression |
-45 lbs. |
491 lbs. |
Torso |
GOOD |
ACCEPTABLE |
Shoulder Deflection |
-.87 in |
1.65 in |
Shoulder Force |
268 lbs. |
402 lbs. |
Torso Max Deflection |
1.14 in |
1.57 in |
Torso Deflection Rate |
5 MPH |
7 MPH |
Pelvis |
GOOD |
GOOD |
Pelvis Force |
580 lbs. |
669 lbs. |
Head Protection |
GOOD |
MARGINAL |
The Hyundai Santa Fe achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The Terrain is not a “Top Safety Pick” for 2024.