Compare the2024 Hyundai Santa FeVS 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L

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 Jeep Grand Cherokee L doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.

Both the Santa Fe and Grand Cherokee L 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 Grand Cherokee L’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.

With its standard Forward Collision Avoidance Assist, the Hyundai Santa Fe is better at preventing collisions with pedestrians than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

Both the Santa Fe and Grand Cherokee L 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 Grand Cherokee L’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.

Both the Santa Fe and the Grand Cherokee L have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, 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, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.

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 safer than the Grand Cherokee L:

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 Grand Cherokee L’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 Jeep covers the Grand Cherokee L. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Coverage on the Grand Cherokee L ends after only 5 years or 60,000 miles.

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

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Santa Fe for 1 year longer than Jeep pays for maintenance for the Grand Cherokee L (3 years vs. 2 years).

For smoother operation, better efficiency and fewer moving parts, the Santa Fe has an overhead cam design, rather than the old pushrod design of the 5.7 V8 in the Grand Cherokee L.

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 Jeep vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 38 more problems per 100 vehicles, Jeep is ranked 19th, below the industry average.

From surveys of all its subscribers, Consumer Reports’ January 2024 Auto Issue reports that Hyundai vehicles are more reliable than Jeep vehicles. Consumer Reports ranks Hyundai 15 places higher in reliability than Jeep.

The Santa Fe’s 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 54 lbs.-ft. more torque (311 vs. 257) than the Grand Cherokee L’s standard 3.6 DOHC V6.

As tested in Car and Driver the Hyundai Santa Fe is faster than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L V6:

On the EPA test cycle the Santa Fe gets better mileage than the Grand Cherokee L:

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Hyundai Santa Fe uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Grand Cherokee L with the 5.7 V8 engine requires mid-grade for maximum efficiency, which can cost on average about 51.4 cents more per gallon.

In its Green Vehicle Guide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the Hyundai Santa Fe higher (7 out of 10) than the Jeep Grand Cherokee L (5 to 7). This means the Santa Fe produces up to 8 pounds less smog-producing pollutants than the Grand Cherokee L every 15,000 miles.

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 Grand Cherokee L doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

The Santa Fe stops much shorter than the Grand Cherokee L:

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 Grand Cherokee L doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

The Santa Fe Calligraphy AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the Grand Cherokee L Limited 4x4 pulls only .82 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

The Santa Fe is 1 foot, 2.7 inches shorter than the Grand Cherokee L, making the Santa Fe easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The design of the Hyundai Santa Fe amounts to more than styling. The Santa Fe has an aerodynamic coefficient of drag of .294 Cd. That is significantly lower than the Grand Cherokee L (.357) and many sports cars. A more efficient exterior helps keep the interior quieter and helps the Santa Fe get better fuel mileage.

The Santa Fe has 1.3 inches more front headroom, 3 inches more front legroom, .3 inches more front shoulder room, .7 inches more rear headroom, 2.9 inches more rear legroom, .1 inches more rear shoulder room, .4 inches more third row headroom and 1.6 inches more third row shoulder room than the Grand Cherokee L.

For enhanced passenger comfort on long trips the Santa Fe’s middle and third row seats recline. The Grand Cherokee L’s third row seats don’t recline.

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. The Grand Cherokee L doesn’t offer seats that fold into the floor.

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 Grand Cherokee L Summit’s automatic parking system requires operating the brakes and transmission to safely park and it doesn’t offer remote control parking.