Slotted between the Tucson and Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Sport is the shorter variant of the latter model. The mid-size crossover isn’t just a good family car, it’s also as safe as a mid-size crossover can be.
In the latest round of testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety put the updated Hyundai Santa Fe Sport through its paces. Whereas the pre-facelift Santa Fe Sport failed to impress (the structure failed to hold up in the small overlap crash test), the 2017 model year proved its crashworthiness.
The jump from “marginal” to “good” in the small overlap test and the availability of an Automatic Emergency Braking technology is what convinced the IIHS to award the Top Safety Pick+ to the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. To dial back the maximum intrusion from 10 inches to only 3 inches, Hyundai beefed up vital parts of the occupant compartment.
In the moderate overlap front, side, head restraint, and roof strength tests, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rated the Santa Fe Sport “good.” In the case of the available automatic braking feature, the IIHS tells that the system avoided collisions at 12 and 25 mph. Hence, the front crash prevention system earned a superior rating, the maximum it can be awarded. On the downside, the Institute evaluated the child seat attachment as “average” because “other hardware could be confused for anchor.”
The list of standard safety equipment on the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport also includes goodies such as seven airbags, traction control, four-wheel disc brakes and ABS with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) and Brake Assist, Vehicle Stability Management (VSM) with Electronic Stability Control (ESC), and Hill-start Assist Control (HAC) with Downhill Brake Control (DBC).
Editor’s note: The Top Safety Pick+ rating of the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport doesn’t apply to the larger Santa Fe model. The seven-seater Santa Fe has yet to be tested by the IIHS.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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