Compare the2024 Hyundai Santa FeVS 2025 Honda Pilot

Both the Santa Fe and Pilot 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 Pilot’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.

Both the Santa Fe and Pilot have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Santa Fe has Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Pilot’s Cross Traffic Monitor doesn’t automatically brake.

Both the Santa Fe and the Pilot have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear 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, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.

The Santa Fe comes with a full 5-year/60,000-mile basic warranty, which covers the entire truck and includes 24-hour roadside assistance. The Pilot’s 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty expires 2 years or 24,000 miles sooner.

Hyundai’s powertrain warranty covers the Santa Fe 5 years and 40,000 miles longer than Honda covers the Pilot. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Coverage on the Pilot ends after only 5 years or 60,000 miles.

The Santa Fe’s corrosion warranty is 2 years longer than the Pilot’s (7 vs. 5 years).

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Santa Fe for 1 year and 12000 miles longer than Honda pays for maintenance for the Pilot (3/36,000 vs. 2/24,000).

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2024 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Hyundai vehicles are better in initial quality than Honda vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 19 more problems per 100 vehicles, Honda is ranked 10th.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2024 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that Hyundai vehicles are more reliable than Honda With 8 fewer problems per 100 vehicles in the first three years of ownership, J.D. Power ranks Hyundai higher than Honda.

The Santa Fe’s 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 49 lbs.-ft. more torque (311 vs. 262) than the Pilot’s 3.5 DOHC V6.

As tested in Car and Driver the Hyundai Santa Fe is faster than the Honda Pilot:

On the EPA test cycle the Santa Fe gets better mileage than the Pilot:

The Santa Fe offers a standard sequential manual gearbox (SMG). With no clutch pedal to worry about and a fully automatic mode, an SMG is much more efficient than a conventional automatic but just as easy to drive. The Pilot doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

The Santa Fe stops much shorter than the Pilot:

The Santa Fe Limited’s tires provide better handling because they have a lower 45 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the Pilot Sport/Touring/Elite/Black Edition’s 50 series tires.

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the Santa Fe Calligraphy has standard 21-inch wheels. The Pilot’s largest wheels are only 20-inches.

The Santa Fe has standard front and rear gas-charged shocks for better control over choppy roads. The Pilot’s suspension doesn’t offer gas-charged shocks.

The Santa Fe’s drift compensation steering can automatically compensate for road conditions which would cause the vehicle to drift from side to side, helping the driver to keep the vehicle straight more easily. The Pilot doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

The Santa Fe is 9.7 inches shorter than the Pilot, making the Santa Fe easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The Santa Fe has .6 inches more front headroom, 3.3 inches more front legroom, .4 inches more rear headroom and 1.5 inches more rear legroom than the Pilot.

The Santa Fe has a standard Sinking Seat third row seat, which folds flat into the floor. This completely clears a very large cargo area quickly, without having to lift, carry or store heavy seats, like in the Pilot.

Pressing a button automatically lowers the Santa Fe’s second row seats, to make changing between passengers and cargo easier. The Pilot doesn’t offer automatic folding seats.

The Santa Fe uses gas struts to support the hood for easier service access. The Pilot uses a prop rod to support its heavy hood. It takes two hands to open the hood and set the prop rod, the prop rod gets in the way during maintenance and service, and the prop rod could be knocked out, causing the heavy hood to fall on the person maintaining or servicing the car.

The Santa Fe’s standard outside mirrors include heating elements to clear off the mirrors for better visibility. Honda only offers heated mirrors on the Pilot EX-L/TrailSport/Touring/Elite/Black Edition.

The Santa Fe Limited/Calligraphy’s Smart Parking Assist can parallel park or back into a parking spot by itself, starting, stopping and changing direction automatically. Remote Smart Parking Assist will park and retrieve your car remotely: press a button and watch it park itself. This is ideal for tight locations. The Pilot doesn’t offer an automated parking system.

The Hyundai Santa Fe outsold the Honda Pilot by 19% during 2023.