New Hyundai Santa Fe is more luxurious and better equipped than before. But how is it to drive?
Open the doors, and you are greeted by a genuinely luxurious cabin. There's a very pleasing mix of beige and brown plastics that contrast well with the silver accents in the cabin. Even small things like the fine stitching on the seats make this cabin comparable to a German car's. It betters the Honda CR-V on this front and is miles ahead of the Toyota Fortuner that will be its chief competitor. The dashboard is attractive but the touchscreen for the audio system is small. It's not only well styled, it’s a well thought out cabin too. The front seats offer good support while middle row passengers will love the space and comfort on offer. Access to the third row is not all that convenient because the middle seat only slides forward and cannot be flipped forward to ensure easy entry. But once settled in, it is at par with the best seven seaters. There is decent space but, as in other SUVs, it’s not a place you'd like to spend extended periods of time. However, what adds a great deal of versatility to the Santa Fe is that the last row seats fold flat, in addition to which the middle row splits 40:20:40 to maximise luggage space. But perhaps more than this, buyers will be interested in the long list of features standard on the Santa Fe. In addition to the xenon headlamps and touchscreen interface mentioned above, the Santa Fe gets dual zone climate control, air-con vents for all three rows, push-button start, cruise control, a rear view camera and 6 airbags (2 on the 4x2 models).
The driver's seat also gets 12-way powered adjust but curiously the front passenger's seat only allows for manual adjustment. The passenger's seat does without height adjust altogether and this makes it difficult for shorter passengers to get a good view of the road ahead. There's no sunroof on any version either.