The redesign is almost complete. Hyundai has finally gone through its lineup to jettison the last remnants of the “Buck Rogers in Outer Space” look. For the early part of the firm’s history in North America, that look characterized the products that were designed mostly in Korea and probably did little to popularize the company’s offerings.
It seems like the model debuted decades ago, but there is a new sheriff in town, and he’s riding herd on the design staff. The newly redesigned Santa Fe is one of their first works. First appearing as a 2007 model, it was a welcome change to the vehicle, which needed to feature more North American sensitivities than the previous model.
What is it?
The Hyundai Santa Fe Limited is a Montgomery, Alabama-built five, or optionally, seven-passenger mid-size Sport ‘ute with good safety marks, and a great warranty. Easily configurable in a variety of ways, the Santa Fe can be had as a FWD or AWD package, with a 2.7- or 3.3-liter V6 engine, a five-speed manual or automatic transmission, and so on.
The choices are totally up to the buyer, and depend only on the comfort level of his or her wallet.
What’s It Up Against?
A player in a fairly crowded field, the Santa Fe’s competitive set includes such stalwarts as the Chevrolet Equinox and Trailblazer, Dodge Durango , Ford Escape , Explorer, Honda CR-V , Mazda CX-7 and Toyota RAV4 .
Being well-respected vehicles in their own right, Hyundai has no choice but to bring their “A” game.
Any Breakthroughs?
The major breakthrough, following Hyundai’s redesign over the previous Santa Fe, is the addition of the Navigation package that occupies the largest portion of real estate in the center console.
The inclusion of features considered optional in the Santa Fe’s competition and Hyundai’s ubiquitous 10-year, 100,000 warranty add up to desirable value-added package that tries hard not to break the bank.
How Does It Look?
Uncladded. In a word, that’s the best description to show how much Hyundai design has matured. A fluid, futuristic-looking front grille area and modern headlamp assemblies are perched above rounded bumpers. A softly creased body and greenhouse holds sway further back, which is reminiscent of the recent Buick Enclave . Overall, it’s a nice if conservative design. The Santa Fe shows nothing in the way of groundbreaking shapes, but it possesses a handsomeness that places it firmly in the pack with like-sized, like-designed vehicles from Toyota , Honda and others.
And Inside?
Following the conservative theme, our Santa Fe Limited was outfitted with a grey leather interior that was absolutely functional and able to adapt to many different sizes of driver. The new center stack accommodates the navigation system and Infinity audio system in a tight, well-designed but no-frills fashion, while the wood trim adds to the class-above marketing that Hyundai is trumpeting as of late. A nice added touch is the power-tilt and slide sunroof, which is standard on the Limited version, as is the tilt and telescoping steering wheel with redundant audio controls.
Rear compartment A/C ducts keep rear-seaters cool and the 60-40 fold-down seats allow access all the way forward from the “way back.” Add to that a fold-down armrest in the back seat with dual cupholders. An under-floor rear storage compartment leaves room for a few extra pints of strawberries at the local u-pick-em field.
On the downside, certain portions of the interior appear to have been afterthoughts. Among those is the fit and finish surrounding the under-elbow storage bin/arm rest.
It looks as though it was originally designed too short, then rectified by inserting a bin “extender” to make it taller.
But Does It Go?
The Limited’s 3.3-liter, 242-horsepower, transverse-mounted V6 pumps out 226 lb-ft of torque. The front wheel drive power is transmitted to the road through a five-speed automatic transmission with Shiftronic sport shift mode. With a curb weight of 4,022 lbs, we felt more comfortable shifting on our own than relying on the slushbox’s ability to grind through the gears and get you out of your own way and that of the cars behind you. Handling is served up by MacPherson struts with gas-filled dampers up front, and a multi-link setup with gas-charged shocks at the rear.
Steering is through a power-assisted rack and pinion type arrangement. Braking is aided by discs all around, along with an ABS system with electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD) and brake assist (EBA). Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) are well controlled in the Santa Fe, and it shows in the handling characteristics that this mid-level SUV displays while at speed and passing on a variety of different road surfaces.
For around-town driving, this son of the Hyundai Veracruz is sufficient to get by with an EPA mileage rating of 17 city / 24 hwy, and a combined average of 21 miles per gallon.
Why You Would Buy It?
If you are in the market for a mid-size sport utility vehicle that manages to arrive with no options save for a navigation system, at $29,770, the Hyundai Santa Fe Limited might be your ride.
Oh, let’s not forget the value-adding 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty, too.
Why You Wouldn’t?
It’s a vehicle that does not infer your net-worth, whether high or low.
Words and photos by Mark Elias.
