Hyundai makes some of the safest cars on the road, and Hyundai does that by building some great cars and then giving them a lot of standard features. The Elantra is not any different, and the Elantra is one of the safer cars on the road. Here’s a look at how safe the Hyundai Elantra is and how it compares with its competitors. 

Crash test results

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or the NTHSA, the Hyundai Elantra is a pretty safe car. It got 4 out of 5 stars in both the NHTSA’s frontal and side crash tests. On a couple of tests, the Elantra scored 5 out of 5, and it never scored below a 4 out of 5. That said, the NHTSA wrote that the rear passenger in a side crash could suffer some serious injuries.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, had a more positive review of the Elantra. The IIHS gave the Elantra a “good” rating, which is the highest rating possible, in every category. There were a handful of things that the Elantra didn’t get a “good” rating on, but it still got an “acceptable” rating, which is the second-highest rating possible, on those things.

The one area where the Elantra got a “poor” rating, which is the worst rating possible, had to do with its headlights on certain trims. That said, Hyundai offers better headlights on other trims, and those headlights got a “good” rating. Overall, the IIHS said that the Elantra was very safe, and the IIHS even awarded the Elantra with a Top Safety Pick award. 

The Hyundai Elantra’s safety features

Crash tests are one way to measure a car’s safety, but there are others. Smart safety features can help prevent accidents from happening in the first place, and Hyundai loves to put smart safety features standard on its cars. This is the same story for the Elantra, which comes with many smart safety features as standard. 

For example, U.S. News reported that the Elantra has forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and lane-keep assist as standard. These features are very useful, and Hyundai offers even more smart safety features for owners who are willing to pay for them.

U.S. News also said that the Elantra can also come equipped with blind-spot monitoring, a rear cross-traffic alert system, a pedestrian detection system, and adaptive cruise control. 

These smart safety features, when combined with the Elantra’s good showing in its crash tests, was why U.S. News gave the Elantra a 9.2 out of 10 for safety. While that’s a good safety rating, it isn’t the highest safety rating in its class. 

How the Hyundai Elantra compares with its competitors 

When it comes to compact cars, which is the Elantra’s segment, automakers such as Toyota and Honda tend to dominate the segment. This is the same story when it comes to their safety scores. For example, the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla are both competing in the Elantra’s segment. 

U.S. News’ safety ratings for those two cars were all higher than the Elantra’s. The Civic got a 10 out 10 for safety, while the Corolla got a 9.8 out of 10 for safety. Other cars in the segment, such as the Mazda 3, also scored higher than the Elantra did when it comes to safety scores.

That said, the Elantra is better than a few other cars in the segment, such as the VW Jetta, which got an 8.9 out of 10. These scores mean that the Elantra, while it did get good safety scores, is about average in its class when it comes to safety.