Hyundai Santa Fe 2009 review

Described by the company as ‘a car for all reasons’, the Sante Fe combines the off-road capabilities of a purpose built 4WD with the practicality of an SUV and the drivability and comfort of a sedan.

Drivetrain

Our Sante Fe was powered by a 2.2litre, single overhead cam, in-line 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine. CRDi stands for Common rail Direct injection. The turbo diesel produces 114kW at 4000rpm and 343Nm at 1800-25000rpm. A five speed automatic with electronic sequential manual mode gets power to the wheels. Fuel figures are decent for a seven seater at 8.2 litres/100km.

Exterior

It’s around a ruler’s length short of five metres long and almost two metres wide and it doesn’t try to be anything too flash. But the Santa Fe is a neat, modern package complete with body coloured and heated external door mirrors, twin chrome exhausts and roof rails with easily adjustable cross bars.

Interior

Inside the SLX is again neat and clutter free.

The multi function leather steering wheel enables easy access to most of the daily necessities and the dash is clean and well laid out, finished subtly with maple wood and aluminium highlights. There is also a trip computer, cruise control.

But seating and cargo and storage space is where the Santa Fe comes into its own. The third row of two seats – to make it a seven seater – are almost invisible as they fold flat into the rear cargo floor when not in use, and are easily flipped up when needed.

There is cool box in the centre console and retractable storage bins in the floor in front of the second row of seats. As well as several cup and bottle holders throughout the cabin, there’s a dash-top lined storage compartment with lid, map pockets and a padded, twin compartment front centre arm rest.

Safety

The Santa Fe SLX achieved a 4/5 star ANCAP crashworthiness rating and comes with a comprehensive airbag package. Other safety features include electronic stability program, traction control, anti-skid brakes and electronic brakeforce distribution.

Pricing

The Hyundai Santa Fe automatic CRDi SLX starts at around $41,990. For more detailed pricing, check with your dealer.

Driving

Okay, on the outside there’s not much difference to the average SUV but that’s where the sameness ends.

The dash is neat and clean and the materials used to put it together look and feel substantial. The leather, wood and alloy trim give it a hint of prestige without going overboard. One small gripe is that the seats are a bit flat and could hug our manly curves a little better but my concern is negligible.

Most of the electronic bits and pieces can be controlled using the multi function steering wheel and everything else you actually have to lift a finger to operate are fairly self-explanatory.

For a big boofy SUV, it drives just like a sedan. You don’t seem to get that ambling sway and worrying body roll when cornering, that a lot of other – more expensive - SUV’s haven’t seemed to have ironed out yet.

The turbo diesel engine has excellent acceleration and it pulls the two and a half tonnes with no trouble, allowing for simple overtaking and merges. The V6 would be nice to try but we were more than satisfied with the torquey oil-burner. We had the five speed automatic with HiVec – unique to the diesel – and there was a pleasing lack of indecision on gear changes, unfortunately still common in a lot of autos these days.

Small to medium-sized bumps and pots were eaten up and not one gouge or rut was followed.

Vision is great all round and barring a little wind noise off the wing mirrors and perhaps the odd grumble from the tyres on dirt, sound-wise the Santa Fe is pretty quiet.

Overall, if you’re after a good, smart-looking and solid family truck from a company going places, you really should give this a try.