Compare the2024 Hyundai Santa FeVS 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander

Both the Santa Fe and Grand Highlander 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 Highlander’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 Grand Highlander doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Santa Fe has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist, systems which detect vehicles approaching from the sides and can automatically apply the brakes to prevent a collision. Only the Grand Highlander Limited/Platinum offers Parking Support Brake.

Both the Santa Fe and the Grand Highlander 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.

A significantly tougher test than their original offset frontal crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH small overlap frontal offset crash tests. In this test, where only 25% of the total width of the vehicle is struck, results indicate that the Hyundai Santa Fe is safer than the Grand Highlander:

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 Grand Highlander is not a “Top Safety Pick” 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 Grand Highlander’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 Toyota covers the Grand Highlander. 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 Highlander ends after only 5 years or 60,000 miles.

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

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Santa Fe for 1 year and 11000 miles longer than Toyota pays for maintenance for the Grand Highlander (3/36,000 vs. 2/25000).

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 Toyota vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 30 more problems per 100 vehicles, Toyota is ranked 17th.

On the EPA test cycle the Santa Fe AWD gets better fuel mileage than the Grand Highlander Limited/Platinum 2.4 turbo 4-cylinder 8-speed Auto AWD (20 city/28 hwy vs. 20 city/26 hwy).

In heavy traffic or at stoplights the Santa Fe’s engine automatically turns off when the vehicle is stopped, saving fuel and reducing pollution. The engine is automatically restarted when the driver gets ready to move again. If the conditions warrant or the driver wishes, the system can be manually disabled at any time for the duration of a trip. The Grand Highlander doesn’t offer an automatic engine start/stop system.

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Hyundai Santa Fe uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Grand Highlander Hybrid Max 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 Grand Highlander doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

For better stopping power the Santa Fe Limited/Calligraphy’s front brake rotors are larger than those on the Grand Highlander:

The Santa Fe stops much shorter than the Grand Highlander:

The Santa Fe SE/SEL’s standard tires provide better handling because they have a lower 60 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the Grand Highlander XLE’s 65 series tires. The Santa Fe Limited’s tires have a lower 45 series profile than the Grand Highlander Limited/Platinum’s 55 series tires.

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

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 Highlander doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

The Santa Fe Calligraphy AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the Grand Highlander Platinum AWD pulls only .80 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

For greater off-road capability the Santa Fe XRT has a greater minimum ground clearance than the Grand Highlander (8.3 vs. 8 inches), allowing the Santa Fe to travel over rougher terrain without being stopped or damaged.

The Santa Fe is 11.2 inches shorter than the Grand Highlander, making the Santa Fe easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The front grille of the Santa Fe uses electronically controlled shutters to close off airflow and reduce drag when less engine cooling is needed. This helps improve highway fuel economy. The Grand Highlander doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

The Santa Fe has 2.6 inches more front legroom, .4 inches more rear headroom, 2.8 inches more rear legroom and .5 inches more third row headroom than the Grand Highlander.

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 Highlander doesn’t offer seats that fold into the floor.

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

The Santa Fe uses gas struts to support the hood for easier service access. The Grand Highlander 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 Limited/Calligraphy’s standard easy entry system glides the driver’s seat back when the door is unlocked or the ignition is switched off, making it easier for the driver to get in and out. The Grand Highlander doesn’t offer an easy entry system.

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 Highlander doesn’t offer an automated parking system.

The Hyundai Santa Fe outsold the Toyota Grand Highlander by almost three to one during 2023.