Compare the2025 Ford Bronco SportVS 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe

The Bronco Sport has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.

To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the Bronco Sport. But it costs extra on the Santa Fe.

Both the Bronco Sport and the Santa Fe have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, 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 and available around view monitors.

There are over 3 times as many Ford dealers as there are Hyundai dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Bronco Sport’s warranty.

The Bronco Sport has a standard “limp home system” to keep drivers from being stranded if most or all of the engine’s coolant is lost. The engine will run on only half of its cylinders at a time, reduce its power and light a warning lamp on the dashboard so the driver can get to a service station for repairs. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer a lost coolant limp home mode, so a coolant leak could strand you or seriously damage the truck’s engine.

J.D. Power and Associates rated the Bronco Sport first among small suvs in their 2024 Initial Quality Study. The Santa Fe isn’t in the top three in its category.

As tested in Car and Driver the Bronco Sport Badlands 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder is faster than the Hyundai Santa Fe:

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

The Bronco Sport has a standard cap-less fueling system. The fuel filler is automatically opened when the fuel nozzle is inserted and automatically closed when it’s removed. This eliminates the need to unscrew and replace the cap and it reduces fuel evaporation, which causes pollution. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer a cap-less fueling system.

The Bronco Sport stops shorter than the Santa Fe:

The Bronco Sport offers an optional full size spare tire so a flat doesn’t interrupt your trip. A full size spare isn’t available on the Santa Fe; it requires you to depend on a temporary spare, which limits mileage and speed before replacement.

For greater off-road capability the Bronco Sport Base/Big Bend has a greater minimum ground clearance than the Santa Fe (7.8 vs. 7 inches), allowing the Bronco Sport to travel over rougher terrain without being stopped or damaged. The Bronco Sport’s minimum ground clearance is .5 inch higher than on the Santa Fe XRT (8.8 vs. 8.3 inches).

The Ford Bronco Sport may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 800 to 900 pounds less than the Hyundai Santa Fe.

The Bronco Sport is 1 foot, 5.5 inches shorter than the Santa Fe, making the Bronco Sport easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The Bronco Sport Badlands offers available computer-generated active noise cancellation to help remove annoying noise and vibration from the passenger compartment, especially at low frequencies. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer active noise cancellation.

The Bronco Sport has .4 inches more front headroom and 1.1 inches more rear headroom than the Santa Fe.

The Bronco Sport has a much larger cargo volume than the Santa Fe with its rear seat up (32.5 vs. 14.6 cubic feet).

An optional locking center console keeps your small valuables safer in the Bronco Sport. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer locking storage for small valuables.

The Bronco Sport’s rear cargo window opens separately from the rest of the liftgate door to allow quicker loading of small packages. The Santa Fe’s rear cargo window doesn’t open.

If the windows are left open on the Bronco Sport the driver can close them all from a distance using the remote. On a hot day the driver can also lower the windows the same way. The driver of the Santa Fe can only close the windows from inside the vehicle, with the ignition on.

In case you lock your keys in your vehicle, or don’t have them with you, you can let yourself in using the Bronco Sport’s available exterior PIN entry system. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer an exterior PIN entry system, and its Blue Link can’t unlock the doors if the vehicle doesn’t have cell phone reception or the driver can’t contact the service.

The Bronco Sport’s standard speed-sensitive wipers speed up when the vehicle does, so that the driver doesn’t have to continually adjust the speed of the wipers. The Santa Fe’s standard manually variable intermittent wipers have to be constantly adjusted.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts detailed tests on headlights for their range both straight ahead and in curves and to be certain they don’t exceed acceptable amounts of glare to oncoming drivers. The Bronco Sport’s headlights were rated “Good” by the IIHS, while the Santa Fe’s headlights are rated “Acceptable.”

To help drivers avoid possible obstacles, the Bronco Sport offers optional cornering lights to illuminate around corners when the turn signals are activated. The Santa Fe doesn’t offer cornering lights.

To quickly and conveniently keep personal devices charged without cables tangling and wearing out, the Ford Bronco Sport has a standard wireless phone charging system (Qi) in the center console. Only the Santa Fe SEL/XRT/Limited/Calligraphy offers wireless charging.