Santa Fine
by David Finlay (17 Aug 06)

The more I drive the Hyundai Santa Fe, the more it impresses me. My first experience of the range involved a week behind the wheel of a CRTD turbo diesel with manual transmission and five seats, and you can read about that here. To sum up, though, I was greatly taken by its room, its practicality, its performance, its fuel economy and its on-road behaviour.

I also like its styling, which is quite forceful but curvy enough to escape being too in-your-face. Viewed head-on, though it can be a bit intimidating, and I think this worked against me during an awkward moment at a single-track bridge. I was sure I had reached the bridge first, but the guy at the other end kept going anyway and I had to brake sharply to avoid a confrontation.

I reversed to give him room, but the driver behind left me with only a couple of feet to play with, so the chap on the bridge had to squeeze past, as did the six cars that followed him. If I had been in something quaint and fluffy like a Nissan Micra I might have got away with some pitying smiles.

Instead, the people on the bridge saw the large and threatening Santa Fe almost entirely blocking their exit route, and there was a lot of cussing. I felt like I was the target of my very own anti-SUV campaign.

The Santa Fe's glowering visage is quite at odds with its actual character. Very few cars of this size and type ride so well, and the handling is really very impressive considering there is so much weight so high up. As previously discussed, any visual claims the Hyundai has to off-road ability are exaggerated - it just doesn't have the suspension or transmission to cope with anything too steep, slippery or rock-strewn.

The things that distinguish this car from the one I tested a few weeks ago are the automatic transmission and the fact that it has seven rather than five seats. The disadvantages of the auto box are the same as usual; it puts an extra £1000 on the list price, the performance deteriorates, the fuel consumption increases and the CO2 rating goes up.

More . . .

Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 CRTD Five-Seat Video Test
More Hyundai Santa Fe Photos
Hyundai Gallery
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