Hyundai Santa Fe 2020 review: Active X Diesel

The Santa Fe is a mid-sized SUV but a biggish one with seven seats and measures 4770mm long. That’s part of the appeal because most of the vehicles in this segment don’t have a third row, but more on that later.

This fourth-generation Santa Fe arrived in 2018 looking a lot different to the model before it. Tough and interesting to look at, the Santa Fe sports the new Hyundai ‘upside down’ face with the headlights low and high-placed daytime driving lights flanking an enormous grille. It’s a similar look worn by smaller new-gen Hyundai SUVs such as the Venue and Kona.

This fourth-generation Santa Fe arrived in 2018 looking a lot different to the model before it.

Sleek tail-lights fit the prestige styling, and this high-end feel extends into the cabin even on this Active X grade with a stylish sculptured dash and leather upholstery.

The Active X has a more premium feel to the Active below it thanks to 18-inch alloy wheels, satin chrome exterior door handles with courtesy lights, puddle lamps, privacy glass, power folding mirrors fabric rooflining and quilted leather seats.

The Active X wears 18-inch alloy wheels.

The Santa Fe is a mid-sized SUV but one of the things which makes it a bit special is that it has seven seats, whereas most have five. That said, the rear two seats don’t offer much room, and somebody my height (191cm/6'3") won’t want to be squished back there for long.

The rear two seats don’t offer much room.

Kids will like those seats, but they also like sitting in carboard boxes. Still the third row is more for occasional seating, so if you have a large family then a Hyundai iLoad or Kia Carnival would be better.

The second row is far more accommodating and there's plenty of room for my legs and great headroom, too.

The second row has plenty of room for my legs and great headroom.

I found the pilot’s seat up front, spacious with good shoulder- and elbow room.

Also making the Santa Fe special is its great cabin storage. We loved the little shelf above the glove box to throw phones and wallets while driving, the centre console bin is large and there are six cupholders (two in each row). We also found trays and hidey holes throughout which ended up full of shells, sand sticks, rocks and Pokémon cards.

I found the pilot’s seat up front, spacious with good shoulder room.

Only the door pockets seemed too small. Really, they’re just bottle holders.  

We had those third-row seats folded flat the entire time we had the Santa Fe Active X and that gave the boot 547 litres of cargo capacity. If you need to use those back seats, then there’s still a bit of room. Take a look at the images and you’ll see we easily managed to fit a small suitcase in the space.

All Santa Fe models come with roof rails, too, and the Hyundai website lists heaps of genuine accessories from roof pods and baskets to bike and surfboard carriers if you run out of room inside.

There are some excellent family-friendly features to the Santa Fe. There are plenty of power outlets – a 12V point and USB port up front and two USB ports in the second row and Active X, plus a 12V in the cargo area. There are directional air vents in all three rows with a fan speed dial for the very back seats.

Both of those back seats can be lowered automatically with buttons in the cargo area, too.

There are directional air vents in all three rows.

The Active X adds more great features we found useful, such as push button start and a proximity key which means you’ll never need to take the key out of your pocket or handbag to lock, unlock or start the car.

The Active X also adds the leather upholstery which parents know wipes clean a lot easier than cloth. Then there’s the privacy glass, to keep the sun off kids’ faces.

Front parking sensors are also part of the Active X grade and those helped in the tight spaces around our place in the city.

The cabin ergonomics are great, with interior door handles in the right places for easy opening, comfortable and large seats with a great driving position, great visibility all around with a good reversing camera.

The Hyundai Santa Fe was given the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was tested in 2018.

Coming standard on the Active X is AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection along with blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, lane keeping assistance, plus active cruise control.

The blind spot warning also includes collision avoidance, which will steer you back into your lane if the system senses you veering into the path of another vehicle coming up the side.

The Active X misses out on some of the family-focused safety tech that comes on the higher grades such as the rear occupant alert and safe exit warning system.

Also disappointing are the curtain airbags which cover the first two rows, but only cover the windows of the third row. This really confirms those third-row seats are for occasional use only.

For child seats you’ll find three top tether points and two ISOFIX mounts across the second row.

Some good news. There’s a full-sized spare wheel. This was reassuring when we were 40km into a muddy and rocky road out the back of Lithgow as the sun was going down. We never needed the spare, but knowing it was there meant we could confidently take this trip.

Well, almost confidently, we had 40km of slow-going remote road to cover before we made it back to civilisation, but only about 40 minutes of light left before we were plunged into winter darkness.

I knew the Active X didn’t have LED headlights, and the standard ones are woefully dim in the bush. So, there was a slow rising panic that we wouldn’t make it before last light, but we made good time and safely found the bitumen easily.

The diesel version of the Santa Fe Active X lists for $50,050 which is $3K more than the Active X with the petrol engine. The diesel is all-wheel drive and the petrol is front-wheel drive, and I think it’s worth the extra money if you’re planning to head onto muddy, dirt roads like we did.

The Santa Fe is covered by Hyundai’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

The Active X diesel needs servicing annually or every 15,000km and Hyundai offers three plans: three years/45,000km for $1305, four years/60,000km for $1804, and five years/75,000km for $2239.

As for fuel, the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel in the Active X used 51.47 litres of fuel after 628.4km of every type of road you can think of – city and suburban streets, country roads and muddy tracks, motorways, peak hour traffic, you name it.

The mileage came out to be 8.2L/100km. Hyundai’s official fuel economy is 7.5L/100km, but I doubt they did that with a family on board, with daycare drop offs, a weekend away loaded up with pillows, food and 80km of off-road goodness thrown in. Still, very good fuel economy in the real world.