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 MINI Countryman 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 MINI Countryman doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.
Both the Santa Fe and Countryman 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 Countryman’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.
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 Countryman doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
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 Countryman doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Santa Fe’s standard Downhill Brake Control allow you to creep down safely. The Countryman doesn’t offer Downhill Brake Control.
The Santa Fe Limited/Calligraphy has a standard Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Countryman 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.
The Santa Fe’s blind spot warning system uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. The Countryman doesn’t offer a system to reveal objects in the driver’s blind spots.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Santa Fe’s standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. The Countryman doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.
Both the Santa Fe and the Countryman have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee 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, driver alert monitors and available all wheel drive.
The Hyundai Santa Fe weighs 655 to 1073 pounds more than the MINI Countryman. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
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 Countryman has not yet been fully evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.