Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and Land Cruiser have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Santa Fe Hybrid 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 Land Cruiser’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 a Vehicle-to-Vehicle Frontal Crash Prevention 2.0 test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid achieved a “Good” rating - the highest possible - for its performance in forward collision warning and automatic braking systems, demonstrating its excellent capabilities in preventing collisions. The Toyota Land Cruiser has not been tested.
For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Santa Fe Hybrid uses safety cell construction with a three-dimensional high-strength frame that surrounds the passenger compartment. It provides extra impact protection and a sturdy mounting location for door hardware and side impact beams. The Land Cruiser uses a body-on-frame design, which has no frame members above the floor of the vehicle.
Both the Santa Fe Hybrid and the Land Cruiser have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear 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, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is safer than the Toyota Land Cruiser:
|
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
Land Cruiser |
|
|
Driver |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Neck Injury Risk |
28% |
38.7% |
| Neck Stress |
273 lbs. |
517 lbs. |
| Neck Compression |
33 lbs. |
61 lbs. |
| Leg Forces (l/r) |
290/423 lbs. |
393/328 lbs. |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Chest Compression |
.6 inches |
.7 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
32.5% |
38.5% |
| Neck Stress |
105 lbs. |
277 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is safer than the Toyota Land Cruiser:
|
|
Santa Fe Hybrid |
Land Cruiser |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
21 |
25 |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
155 |
332 |
| Spine Acceleration |
38 G’s |
42 G’s |
| Hip Force |
507 lbs. |
702 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Santa Fe Hybrid, with its four-star roll-over rating, is 6.1% to 7.2% less likely to roll over than the Land Cruiser, which received a three-star rating.
The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid (built after November 2024) has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2025 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and a “Good” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Land Cruiser has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2025.