Intelligent Design
Intelligent design. It sounds like such a cliched pair of buzzwords you might hear at a product unveiling, spoken by a sharp, but casually dressed man, possibly with a trendy haircut that looks better on someone half his age as he spouts how innovative his product of planned obsolescence is. And yet after spending a week with the new Santa Fe, it’s the first words that come to mind upon reflection. It’s not without flaw. No car is. But it’s so immediately clear the amount of thought that went into the design of the Santa Fe, it’s hard not to be smitten by it.
Let’s start on the outside. We all judge books by their covers, and vehicles by their exterior styling. In this regard, the Santa Fe is understated, especially parked next to virtually any other vehicle in Hyundai’s lineup. It’s not the most distinct looker. Not that it needs to be, but it feels like it was almost forgotten. As if the deep pond of sharpness, style and attitude the rest of the lineup bathed in had run dry. But this is entirely subjective. Not everyone wants that in a vehicle. We do like the cheese-grater-esque front grille, as well as the square shaped light housings below the main headlights. We like the boxy proportions, plus the funky star-shaped alloys with their attention to detail. But to call it distinct? Maybe not so much. In this regard, the smaller sibling, the Tucson shines far brighter.
But beauty is only skin deep, as the cliché goes. What really matters in the Santa Fe lies inside. Our tester featured a two-tone ‘Coquina Beige’ Nappa leather-laden interior, complete with a panoramic sunroof, heated steering wheel, heated and vented front seats, a number of storage components, clearly labeled dials and buttons and our favourite wireless phone charger in any car to date. The vertically oriented charger lets you slide your phone down into a secure spot. No more worrying about it sliding off the charging pad if you turn a little too briskly. Despite the Hybrid trim’s inability to option the larger 10.25-inch infotainment screen, the smaller 8-inch screen still supports wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, which we would have liked to see in the Tucson as well.
It is refreshing to see a manufacturer retain buttons for functions like audio volume and climate control. Hyundai themselves are guilty of eschewing them for a sleek, flat touch-controlled finish, as seen in the aforementioned Tucson. It’s a little understandable why. It does objectively look nicer. But a tactile button push is always going to be easier to register while driving than a touch-sensitive surface that feels like any other hard plastic panel. It’s not like they look horrible either. Like other Hyundai offerings, the expected gear shifter is replaced with big, bold buttons. It’s a little odd at first but you can adapt quickly – and enjoy an unobstructed centre console while you’re at it. The cabin of the Santa Fe, with the right options like this tester, is a truly pleasant place to be – even for passengers. The rear seats offer a comfortable, heated surface, even for your vertically gifted companions – who can pretend they’re VIP’s by utilizing the concealable sunshades.
That pleasantry extends to the driving experience too. This, being a hybrid, comes with a certain connotation of smooth, breezy, eco-friendliness – and it delivers. In some hybrids vehicles, there is a noticeable jerkiness as the electric motor gives way to the internal combustion engine. It’s quite a smooth transition in the Santa Fe. Despite its petite 1.6L turbocharged engine, when combined with a 44.2 kW electric motor, the Santa Fe feels eager and ready to go. This isn’t a performance SUV by any means, but the one-two punch of electricity and gas helps it feel more powerful and torquey than it really is. There is a sport mode and some paddles behind the steering wheel but we found it best to ignore them and enjoy the firm, but forgiving ride the vehicle provides instead.
Hyundai say the Santa Fe Hybrid can get numbers as good as 7.1 L/100km – quite respectable for something of this size. We never go out of our way to achieve as high a fuel economy rating as possible, because, hypermilers aside, normal people don’t drive this way. The most effort exerted, aside from regular defensive driving, was keeping the car in eco mode. With that, we still averaged about 7.4 L/100km by the end of our week of testing with a mix of city and highway driving. Not a bad number at all – but it does pale in comparison to rival Toyota’s RAV-4 Hybrid, which claims a combined 5.8 L/100km. A plug-in hybrid option is also available, but our tester recharged through regenerative braking.
The Santa Fe Hybrid starts at $36,399, which puts it in the same ballpark as its competitors like the aforementioned RAV-4. Our generously optioned tester in the Luxury Hybrid trim comes in at $43,799 before those pesky taxes and fees. It ends up being a few hundred more than a comparably trimmed RAV-4, but in our eyes, this is the more satisfying vehicle to step out of at the end of a drive.
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