The hidden terminal problem is often said to be the major limiting performance factor in vehicular ad hoc networks. In this article we propose a definition of the hidden terminal problem suitable for broadcast transmissions and proceed with a case study to find how the packet reception probability is affected by the presence of hidden terminals. Two different medium access control methods; carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) from IEEE 802.11p and self-organizing time division multiple access (STDMA), are subject of investigation through computer simulations of a highway scenario with a Nakagami fading channel model. The results reveal that the presence of hidden terminals does not significantly affect the performance of the two MAC protocols. STDMA shows a higher packet reception probability for all settings due to the synchronized packet transmissions.