Compare the2024 Hyundai Santa FeVS 2024 Land Rover Discovery

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 Land Rover Discovery doesn’t offer height-adjustable 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 Santa Fe are reminded to check the back seat. The Discovery doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

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 Discovery 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 Discovery doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.

Both the Santa Fe and the Discovery have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, 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 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 Discovery has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.

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 Discovery’s 4-year/50,000-mile basic warranty expires 1 year or 10,000 miles sooner.

Hyundai’s powertrain warranty covers the Santa Fe 6 years and 50,000 miles longer than Land Rover covers the Discovery. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Coverage on the Discovery ends after only 4 years or 50,000 miles.

The Santa Fe’s corrosion warranty is 1 year longer than the Discovery’s (7 vs. 6 years).

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Santa Fe for 3 years and 36,000 miles. Hyundai will pay for oil changes, tire rotations, air filter replacements, cabin filter replacement, brake fluid replacement, inspections, and any other required maintenance. Land Rover doesn’t pay scheduled maintenance for the Discovery.

There are over 4 times as many Hyundai dealers as there are Land Rover dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Santa Fe’s warranty.

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 Land Rover vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 52 more problems per 100 vehicles, Land Rover is ranked 23rd, below the industry average.

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 Land Rover With 70 fewer problems per 100 vehicles in the first three years of ownership, J.D. Power ranks Hyundai higher than Land Rover.

The Santa Fe’s 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 16 lbs.-ft. more torque (311 vs. 295) than the Discovery’s standard 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder.

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

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Hyundai Santa Fe uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Discovery requires premium, which can cost on average about 82.8 cents more per gallon.

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 Discovery doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

The Santa Fe stops shorter than the Discovery:

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 Discovery doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

The Santa Fe Calligraphy AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the Discovery Dynamic SE pulls only .79 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

For better maneuverability, the Santa Fe’s turning circle is 2.8 feet tighter than the Discovery’s (37.9 feet vs. 40.7 feet).

The Hyundai Santa Fe may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 500 to 650 pounds less than the Land Rover Discovery.

The Santa Fe is 4.9 inches shorter than the Discovery, making the Santa Fe easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The Santa Fe is 6.8 inches narrower than the Discovery, making the Santa Fe easier to handle and maneuver in traffic.

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 Discovery (.36) 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 1.7 inches more front headroom, 5.2 inches more front legroom, 1.6 inches more rear headroom, 4.9 inches more rear legroom, .7 inches more third row hip room and 6.4 inches more third row shoulder room than the Discovery.

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

The Santa Fe’s cargo area provides more volume than the Discovery.

On a hot day the Santa Fe’s driver can lower all the windows from a distance using the keyless remote. The driver of the Discovery can only operate the windows from inside the vehicle, with the ignition on.

To shield the driver and front passenger’s vision over a larger portion of the windshield and side windows, the Santa Fe has standard extendable sun visors. The Discovery doesn’t offer extendable visors.

Manual rear side window sunshades are available in the Santa Fe to help block heat and glare for the rear passengers. The Discovery doesn’t offer rear side window sunshades.

The Santa Fe XRT/Limited/Calligraphy has a 115-volt a/c outlet, allowing you to recharge a laptop or run small household appliances without special adapters that can break or get misplaced. The Discovery doesn’t offer a house-current electrical outlet.

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

The Santa Fe is available in both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configurations. The Discovery doesn’t offer a two-wheel drive configuration.

The Hyundai Santa Fe outsold the Land Rover Discovery by over 54 to one during 2023.