At the start of this year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) honored 90 vehicles with a Top Safety Pick, or Top Safety Pick+ award. Unfortunately, the Hyundai Elantra sedan and the Santa Fe SUV couldn’t get a place on that list. However, that has changed now as both of them now have received the second-highest IIHS honor, the Top Safety Pick. That said, the award is for variants featuring LED headlights.

For the new 2021 Santa Fe, this won’t be a problem since all of its variants have LED headlights as standard equipment. The high-end models, including Limited, Calligraphy and Calligraphy 2.5T AWD, even get projector-style LEDs as standard equipment.

However, the LED headlights are not standard for Elantra. These are only accessible on the Limited model, which is the top-of-the-line model. The problem is, the customers can’t even upgrade the SE, SEL or N Line to get these LED lights. It means you can only have the Top Safety Pick Elantra if you buy the most expensive Limited model.

“These top ratings prove our commitment to safety,” says Brian Latouf, chief safety officer for Hyundai Motor North America. “Being an industry leader in safety and IIHS accolades is foundational to our brand, and we continually strive to provide outstanding passenger safety to our customers.”

Hyundai now offers nine vehicles that have garnered either a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ award, even though not all models are equally safe.

Source and Images: Motor1