Compare the2025 Hyundai Santa FeVS 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser

Both the Santa Fe and Land Cruiser 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 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.

For better protection of the passenger compartment, the Santa Fe 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 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 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 Land Cruiser has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS 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 Land Cruiser’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 Land Cruiser. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Coverage on the Land Cruiser ends after only 5 years or 60,000 miles.

The Santa Fe’s corrosion warranty is 2 years longer than the Land Cruiser’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 Land Cruiser (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.

As tested in Car and Driver the Hyundai Santa Fe is faster than the Toyota Land Cruiser:

On the EPA test cycle the Santa Fe gets better mileage than the Land Cruiser:

Both the Santa Fe and Land Cruiser have a standard automatic start/stop engine feature to stop unnecessary fuel waste and pollution at stoplights and heavy traffic. The Santa Fe has a standard disable switch for the system, so a driver can keep the engine from shutting off when the vehicle stops temporarily.

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 Land Cruiser 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 Land Cruiser:

The Santa Fe stops much shorter than the Land Cruiser:

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 Land Cruiser 1958’s standard 70 series tires. The Santa Fe Limited’s tires have a lower 45 series profile than the Land Cruiser’s optional 60 series tires.

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the Santa Fe Calligraphy has standard 21-inch wheels. The Land Cruiser’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 Land Cruiser doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

The Santa Fe Calligraphy AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the Land Cruiser pulls only .69 G’s of cornering force in a Car and Driver skidpad test.

For better maneuverability, the Santa Fe’s turning circle is 1.5 feet tighter than the Land Cruiser’s (37.9 feet vs. 39.4 feet).

The Hyundai Santa Fe may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 950 to 1000 pounds less than the Toyota Land Cruiser.

The Santa Fe is 6.2 inches shorter than the Land Cruiser, making the Santa Fe easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The Santa Fe is 8 inches shorter in height than the Land Cruiser, making the Santa Fe much easier to wash and garage and drive (lower center of gravity).

Unibody construction lowers the Santa Fe’s center of gravity significantly without reducing ground clearance. This contributes to better on the road handling and better off-road performance and stability. In addition, unibody construction makes the chassis stiffer, improving handling and reducing squeaks and rattles. The Land Cruiser doesn’t use unibody construction, but a body-on-frame design.

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 Land Cruiser doesn’t offer active grille shutters.

The Santa Fe has standard seating for 7 passengers; the Land Cruiser can only carry 5.

The Santa Fe has 1 inch more front headroom, 11.4 inches more front legroom, 1.1 inches more front hip room, 1 inch more front shoulder room, 1.3 inches more rear headroom and 15.6 inches more rear legroom than the Land Cruiser.

The Santa Fe’s cargo area provides more volume than the Land Cruiser.

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

To make loading groceries and cargo easier when your hands are full, the Santa Fe’s liftgate can be opened just by waiting momentarily behind the back bumper, leaving your hands completely free. The Land Cruiser doesn’t offer a hands-free gesture to open its liftgate, forcing you to put cargo down if your hands are full.

The Santa Fe uses gas struts to support the hood for easier service access. The Land Cruiser 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.

Manual rear side window sunshades are available in the Santa Fe to help block heat and glare for the rear passengers. The Land Cruiser doesn’t offer rear side window sunshades.

Both the Santa Fe and the Land Cruiser offer available heated front seats. The Santa Fe Limited/Calligraphy also has standard heated second row seats to keep those passengers extremely comfortable in the winter. Heated rear seats aren’t available in the Land Cruiser.

The Hyundai Santa Fe stands out above the Toyota Land Cruiser by offering not one, but two Qi-compatible phone chargers. This convenience helps travelers with multiple devices to keep powered up on-the-go. Wireless charging eliminates lost or cluttered charging cables and and two of them provide more flexibililty. Both vehicles also offer Qi charging for the second row passengers.

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 Land Cruiser doesn’t offer an automated parking system.

The Santa Fe is available in both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configurations. The Land Cruiser doesn’t offer a two-wheel drive configuration.

J.D. Power and Associates rated the Santa Fe first among midsize suvs in owner reported satisfaction. This includes how well the vehicle performs and satisfies its owner’s expectations. The Land Cruiser isn’t in the top three.

The Hyundai Santa Fe outsold the Toyota Land Cruiser by over four to one during 2024.