Car Reviews
Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid AWD – ROVER ON OVER
Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid AWD
ROVER ON OVER
As I’m sure I’ve noted at some point in the last two decades, the folks at Hyundai have nailed the ‘name game’. At a time when many carmakers are adapting alphanumeric designations, while an equal number abandon their alphanumeric designations, Hyundai takes attractive destinations – Palisades, Tucson, Santa Cruz and this Santa Fe, to name four – and affixes them to increasingly attractive crossovers. No need to remember whether the letter precedes the number (or vice versa). Just open a Rand McNally and, in this instance, look for New Mexico.
Hyundai’s Santa Fe has occupied the midsize rung in the Hyundai lineup since its introduction for the 2001 model year. And while this is twenty-four model years later, today’s 5th gen is even more of a space odyssey than its predecessors. Obviously, Hyundai’s design team had a two-box Rover (or an ’06 Jeep Commander – remember those?) standing by in its design studio, and there are few things more volume-oriented – for both passengers and cargo – than a box. The new Santa Fe’s styling is dominated by its slab sides, and once your eyes get past those you’ve moved on to its somewhat unique front fascia, completely unique taillight treatment and, not incidentally, an undersized wheel-and-tire package. Way undersized.
To the design team’s credit, they seemed to have found a happy balance between the Santa Fe’s interior room and its exterior footprint. From behind the wheel, with its somewhat vertical windshield and – when adjusted for me – bus-like steering wheel angle, you feel as if you’re in command of a right-sized people mover. It doesn’t feel ‘minivan’, but it’s a reasonable duplication of that. Between its box-like proportion and generous greenhouse, you could conduct tours in the city – and hell, get paid for it!
In front of the driver is an expansive fusion of digital gauge cluster and infotainment screen. But the big tech initiative is at the center console, which contains a large flat area providing two (count ‘em, two!) phone chargers, a his-and-hers…or they-and-them. I’m not sure why this took so long, but the advent of two is long past due.
The balance of the interior is appropriately clean and spacious, although I’m still confused by the second-row bucket seats when the premise of a 3-row crossover is hauling people; in most instances, I think these three rows should carry seven people, not six. But ingress and egress is simple – you don’t step up, and you don’t step down – so loading youngsters or oldsters should be equally easy.
Hyundai offers two drivetrains for the Santa Fe, a conventional 2.5 liter turbo four and a 1.6 liter turbo four with hybrid assist. We drove the hybrid, which delivers a total output of 231 horsepower and 271 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels via a 6-speed automatic. Acceleration is adequate (Car and Driver found 60 in 7.8 seconds), but you probably buy a hybrid for its efficiency, and here Hyundai delivers. With all-wheel drive the EPA estimate is 35 City/34 Hwy/34 Combined. And while in its testing Car and Driver saw just 26 miles per gallon, the fuel gauge didn’t go down quickly for me. The bottom line – today – when driving a 3-row crossover: If you can get 30+ miles per gallon you should grab it and go. Far.
Behind the wheel I’m impressed by the serene way the Santa Fe Hybrid goes about its business. The drivetrain is nicely isolated from the interior, while there’s enough connection with the road to know what the Santa Fe is doing on that road. Its upright, almost vertical proportion can’t really be disguised, but this isn’t a lumbering SUV; it’s more correctly a relatively nimble 3-row crossover. Unless towing, it’s doubtful you’ll need more truck. And if you need more room, grab Kia’s Carnival.
At the end of the day, and given a choice between spending roughly $40K on the base SEL trim or over $50,000 on our upscale Calligraphy (yup…really), I’m gonna’ lean toward that $40K base. The upscale trims include a lot of niceties, but at $50K you’re also given a lot of upscale choices, including Mazda’s CX-90, Kia’s Telluride and Hyundai’s own Palisade. And at around $40K you might get it paid off in 60 months, as opposed to the 72 months or 84 months the F&I guy or gal wants to push off on you.
In my view, it should take you no longer to pay off a car loan than it takes to obtain a 4-year degree – which, for many, is five years. For me, of course, it’s approaching 50 years…
