2018 Hyundai Santa Fe vs Kia Sportage

What's the difference?

It's no secret that there is a new Santa Fe around the corner (relatively speaking), but even though the current car is more than five years old, it certainly hasn't lost anything in that time. In fact, the Series II car represents good value buying for a family looking for a roomy five-seater with seven-seat flexibility.

It pays to be aware of the limitations of luggage and curtain airbags when thinking about using those rearmost seats, and be mindful of its relatively underdone towing specs if a van is in your driveway.

Overall, it's a practical, good looking, understated rig with a bit of style, and it benefits from Hyundai's latest engineering in terms of its drivetrain and active safety.

The Santa Fe Active diesel AWD is the sweet spot in the range, combining a good box set of add-ons with the efficient oiler/all-paw drivetrain at a value-packed price.

The Sportage is a clear example of why people are picking SUVs over hatchbacks. 

The equipment levels and the notable bump in practicality are real boosts to the appeal and, although the Sportage SLi is a tad pricey compared to some competitors, it nails the look and feel most couples or small families are looking for.

While the SLi is our pick of the range, keep in mind there are strong rivals in this crowded price bracket that can offer all-wheel drive, a more comprehensive safety suite or are slightly more practical. So your SUV choice will largely fall to which features are more important to you.

The exterior design of the Santa Fe could be best described as inoffensive. The large seven seat, five door SUV was one of the first models to really benefit from the new design era of the Europeans who came in and turned the Korean company upside down when it came to fresh and exciting exteriors, without resorting to side steps or rear spoilers to get achieve a sporty look.

No body kits are in evidence across the line, though the faux side skirts do add visual bulk down low.

The Santa Fe's lines are bluff, yet still soft enough not to give it a too aggressive feel; it's not an overly macho 4x4 off roader. It's said that good design is invisible, and the Santa Fe is certainly testament to that.

Colours include no-cost white as well as pearl white, black, blue, red and silver, but gold isn’t offered.

As for the interior, the Santa Fe was one of the first products to benefit from a new vision from Hyundai, an attempt to give their cars a more affordably premium feel.

While it's inaccurate to say that the interior has aged, it has been left behind by dint of the new era of interiors that the company has offered up in products like the I30 and the Tuscan. Side-by-side interior images show the Santa Fe is just a bit more bulbous and rounded in areas where other products are softer and more subtle. 

It sounds like a criticism, but it's really not; it's still a good place to be, but Hyundai has moved its own game on. In terms of function and in terms of visual appeal, it's still a great interior, though there is evidence of cheaper materials in eyesight that the newer models have tended to avoid.

If you stare for too long into the Sportage’s insectoid face, you might be forgiven for seeing a touch of Porsche influence. It’s those light clusters that ride on top of the bonnet rather than integrating into the front, and the rear LED light housing that runs horizontally across the back of the boot.

Bold design choices, but they really help to give the Sportage its own personality. It looks nothing like other SUVs, whether you compare it to the delicate lines of the CX-5 or the wacky angles of the CR-V.

The giant alloys are more attractive than the ones available on the previous-generation Sportage, but the chrome bar that integrates into the fog light housings does nothing for the whole bug-like look. 

I pointed it out to a friend who agreed they look like little mandibles with which the Sportage feeds… creepy, but less boring when compared to the pre-facelift model.

Inside is where the SLi starts to set itself apart from the lower grades. The powered leather seats are nice and comfortable and offer an ergonomic seating position that’s not too high up.

Smart little design bits like the asymmetrical centre console that increases knee space for the driver have been carried over from the last Sportage, as well as soft-touch surfaces in tactical positions.

On the negative side, having an 8.0-inch screen embedded in the top of the dash is starting to look a bit dated, and the abundance of similarly-coloured plastics makes it all a little boring to look at.

Another thing I noticed about the Sportage was the solid build quality. All the doors including the boot had a hefty amount of weight and a thick thudding sound when closed. Remember when that was just a European car trope?

How many seats does a Hyundai Santa Fe have, you may ask. Well, Hyundai has equipped the Santa Fe as a seven seater with a third row pair of rear seats that fold completely flat into the floor. How many seats do you need? That’s a question only you can answer…

These seats are quite generously sized and the rear section has its own air vents and bottle holders to make passengers a little more comfortable. The second row of seats slides fore and aft, and the backs can be adjusted to give those rear seaters a little bit more room if required. Being able to juggle the second and third row of seats does mean a little bit more leg room can be found when required - as long as the other passengers aren't too tall.

While adults could clamber in and be safely seated in that area, it is definitely still an area better suited to smaller humans.

Second row passengers will need to share a single 12-volt power outlet on their centre console bin, while their air vents are situated in the B pillars. ISOFIX baby seat mounting points are attached to both outside rear seats.

The interior of the Santa Fe is quite spacious, and even with the standard full length sunroof, headroom in front and back is plentiful, while rear leg room in the middle row is excellent. 

Up front the driver and passenger have plenty of room to get comfortable with broad medium/firm seats. They could be perhaps a little bit lower in the car, but it's only by a couple of millimetres.

Visibility around the car is good with extra-large sized door mirrors and a porthole through the rear most pillar. The rear window aperture is quite narrow, but visibility is still okay.

Combined with that slightly too-high seat is a steering wheel that also sits slightly too low perhaps for taller drivers, although it is adjustable for both reach and height. 

There are a lot of controls in the Santa Fe; there's not a lot of consolidation of buttons with a panel to the right of the driver's hand controlling things like drive mode, lane departure control, parking sensors and hill descent mode. 

The centre console is quite crowded as well and the climate controls could be perhaps a little bit clearer to use, but it only takes a couple of minutes to get familiar with them.

The multimedia system's graphics are quite good, especially for an established model, and the addition of a reasonably seamless Apple CarPlay experience certainly adds to the drive experience of the Santa Fe.

There are plenty of power points at the front with a pair of 12 volt (12V) plugs, along with a USB cable input, and a pair of side by side cup holders reside in front of a medium-deep centre console bin that comes standard with a phone tray in the top. 

There's plenty of storage on all four doors for large bottles and it's nice to see that the pockets are partitioned to stop items from rattling around unnecessarily.

At 1615 litres VDA luggage capacity with the seats down, the Santa Fe’s dimensions lag behind both Toyota’s Prado (1833L) and Kluger (1872L) in total area, but it beats the Prado for boot space when only the second-row seats are in place, and is line ball with the Kluger, at 516L.

However, there is almost no room when the third row is up, which again raises the issue of just how impractical seven-seaters are when actually used as seven-seaters. Luckily, roof rack rails allow for additional storage options to be explored.

The Santa Fe will take a full size bicycle without the wheels removed with the 40/20/20 split-fold seats folded flat into the floor. Hyundai offers a clever recess for the cargo cover underneath the floor, but no cargo liner/tonneau cover is included as standard. A barrier can be fitted aftermarket if required.

A full sized spare tyre resides, 4x4 utility-like, behind the rear bumper under the floor of the cargo area.

Kia shares much of the same philosophy with sister brand, Hyundai, when it comes to cabin storage. It’s smart, and there’s plenty of it.

The nicely-sized centre console has two big cupholders to the side, a deep centre box and a large stowage area underneath the air conditioning controls. Much like Hyundai’s range, the storage available in the doors is purpose built for large bottles (even 1.25 litre vessels aren't out of the question). 

In the back seat, the Sportage continues to shine with ample leg and headroom (an SUV selling point over a hatchback) as well as rear air conditioning vents, and two power outlets. Extra rear-seat luxuries include neat little cargo nets on the back of both front seats, as well as a drop-down armrest with two more cupholders.

Room is such that the middle seat would even be decent for an adult.

Boot space with the seats up is 466 litres. So yes, it’s bigger than a hatchback, most of which top out at around 395 litres. It’s also bigger than the CX-5’s 442L capacity, but is dwarfed by the Honda CR-V with its 522 litre capacity.

On our trip the boot managed to swallow a four-man tent, sufficient supplies for at least two nights of camping, as well as some chairs and recreational items. It was a snug fit. 

This is partially due to the high boot floor which is there to accommodate a full-size alloy spare. This is standard across the whole Sportage range, and allowed for peace of mind when driving those unsealed roads… 

One of the big hooks of today’s SUVs is the often-ridiculous equipment levels they come with. The Sportage is no stranger to this. Since its recent 2018 facelift, it has received even more standard equipment than it had before (and a bump in price).

Standard features on the SLi now include an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as built in sat-nav, JBL eight-speaker audio system, dimming rear view mirror, reversing sensors, reversing camera, massive 18-inch alloys, LED DRLs and rear lights as well as a slew of aesthetic touches over the Si and Si Premium that sit below it.

Total cost for all that is $36,790 before on-roads, but our car is pushed to $37,310 due to the $520 premium ‘Steel Grey’ paint (only ‘Clear White’ is a free colour).

That cost pitches it against the Mazda CX-5 Maxx Sport ($36,990), the Honda CR-V VTi-S ($35,490) and the Toyota RAV4 GXL ($38,490). The worst part? At this price point all of those competitors are all-wheel drive (AWD) compared to the Sportage’s front-wheel drive (FWD). To get AWD on the Sportage SLi you’ll need to spend $5400 and switch to diesel.

On the upside, the SLi has power-adjustable leather seats as standard which is part of an option pack on the RAV4 GXL, and unavailable on the CX-5 Maxx Sport.

A lot of the extra cost is down to the significantly boosted standard safety offering, but we’ll get to that in the safety section of this review.

Stepping up to the top-spec GT-Line variant ($44,790) mainly adds equipment luxuries like a sunroof, auto parking assist, heated seats, a Qi wireless phone charger and sporty trim bits. It makes the SLi the pick of the range, but you’ll see there’s a bit of a catch in other parts of this review.

There are three engines on offer across the Santa Fe range with differing specifications and ratings, comprising two petrol powertrains and a single diesel.

A direct injection 3.3-litre V6 petrol engine was added to the range in 2017, which makes the most horsepower at 199kW along with 318Nm. The biggest motor in the range drives the front wheels through an automatic; no manual transmission is available in the Santa Fe (you could previously get a diesel manual model but it was deleted for 2018).

It’s complemented by a four-cylinder petrol with an engine size of 2.4 litres, which drives all four wheels. It makes 138kW and 241Nm, and it’s also backed by a six-speed auto gearbox.

A 2.2-litre turbo-diesel with direct injection is also offered in all-wheel-drive only. Its torque specs are the strongest at 440Nm. No rear wheel drive is offered. It’s also worth noting that a diesel particulate filter isn’t fitted to the Santa Fe, but black smoke isn’t an issue.

A diff lock system enables even distribution of torque between front and rear for off road work.

Oil types and capacity varies across the three, while all three eschew a timing belt for a timing chain. If you’re looking for LPG or a plug in hybrid, you’re in the wrong place.

Gross vehicle weight varies between the models, with the lightest variant weighing 1717kg at the kerb and the heaviest at 1984kg. Towing capacity tops out at 2000kg across all variants, while a relatively low 100kg downball weight limit applies to the tow bar. The un-braked towing capacity for all models is 750kg.

Load capacity, of course, reduces in line with the weight of the trailer you’re pulling. The diesel, for example, has a gross vehicle mass of 2600kg, leaving 600kg of load capacity for people and stuff.

The 2.0-litre petrol engine in our SLi produces 114kW/192Nm. Those numbers aren’t bad, but in reality leave you wishing for just a smidge more oomph once you’ve hit peak torque at 4000rpm. This is especially true with the car loaded up with three passengers and a bunch of camping gear.

Kia has pulled a bit of a sneaky here and made the larger 2.4-litre petrol with 135kW/237Nm available on the top spec GT-Line, only at an $8000 premium. It’s exactly the power bump you’d need, but perhaps not worth the significant extra cost.

For those who don’t mind diesel, you can get your torque fix via an optional 2.0-litre diesel (that’s also AWD only) on the SLi at a $5400 cost. It has a whopping 400Nm of torque.

The SLi drives the front wheels via a six-speed traditional torque converter auto.

Diesel fuel economy is rated at 6.4 litres per 100km on the combined fuel economy cycle, while fuel consumption for the V6 is rated at 8.4 litres per 100km. Mileage for the 2.4-litre four, meanwhile, is rated at 7.5L/100km.

All Santa Fes have the same size fuel tank capacity at 64 litres, and all are equipped with a single battery.

Unsurprisingly, asking a 2.0-litre non-turbo petrol engine to haul a 1532kg SUV comes at a bit of a fuel cost compared to a turbocharged alternative. 

Kia claims the 2.0-litre Sportage variants will drink 7.9L/100km on the combined cycle. Not great, but not bad. 

On my week-long drive over almost two tanks of fuel I landed on a figure of 9.2L/100km. It’s a little over Kia’s figure, but given I asked a lot of the free-revving little engine I was pleasantly surprised it was less than 10.0L/100km.

All petrol Sportage variants happily drink 91RON unleaded and have 62 litre fuel tanks.

Around town and on country roads, the Santa Fe really is a nice thing to drive. A three-stage drive mode switch offers Eco, Normal and Sport modes, with throttle response and gearbox mapping changed to suit. Sport mode is good around town as well as on the open road, sharpening the shifts from the six-speed automatic that features across the entire line; it can feel laggy when left to its own devices in Eco mode, particularly.

The locally-tuned front MacPherson and rear multi-link suspension is almost perfectly balanced between ride quality and road holding, with the ‘old school’ hydraulic steering adding feel and finesse to the wheel.

Road noise is well surpressed, while its 10.9m turning radius is acceptable for such a big rig. It’s not so much about 0-100 acceleration performance and top speed in the Santa Fe, but its light off road capability adds an extra level of flexibility.

Hyundai doesn’t offer a wading depth figure, but its 185mm ride height is surprisingly less than the Kluger (200mm) and the Mazda CX-9 (222mm).

The front wheel drive (commonly called 4x2) Active X is the least capable off-road, while the on-demand 4x4 with 50/50 front and rear lock mode in the AWD cars gives them more ability when the going gets slippy.

The local engineering edge to the Sportage pays dividends. It’s a pleasure to commute along Australian roads and was pretty impressive on the unsealed stuff.

While it doesn’t quite achieve Volkswagen levels of suspension wizardry, the Korean automaker has relied on German expertise (via ZF Sachs dampers) when it comes to the ride.

The result is a close to giant hatchback ride and drive experience, without some of the nastier surprises that often come with extra weight.

It’s not as soft as the CR-V, but not as stiff as the CX-5, and I think that’s a good middle-ground. Reasonably heavy steering adds a bit of sporty flair, but that’s becoming more common on today’s Korean and Japanese SUVs.

I was expecting the Sportage to become rattled on the unsealed part of my journey, but it stuck to the ground and (laterally and horizontally) coped well with rutted dirt.

I put this down to the large rubber and suspension improvements but will concede the extra weight of three people and equipment on board probably helped.

As mentioned in the engine and transmission part of this review, the 2.0-litre engine could use more power to go with the well sorted road feel. It revs hard, but leaves you wanting more, especially up hills. 

Around town though, it’s responsive and smooth, if a tad noisy. The six-speed torque converter auto is near-unnoticeable. 

The recent update to the Sportage was largely focused on safety inclusions, and the standard kit is now reasonably impressive. Annoyingly, the full active safety kit is still reserved for the top-spec GT-Line.

All Sportage variants now come packed with 'Auto Emergency Braking' (AEB), 'Forward Collision Warning', 'Lane Departure Warning', 'Lane Keep Assist', auto high beams, a reversing camera and rear parking sensors.

Only the Si misses out on front parking sensors, but even our SLi misses out on 'Blind Spot Monitoring', 'Rear Cross Traffic Alert', active cruise, and the wholly unnecessary park assist (which can reverse park for you).

I found the Lane Keep Assist is best kept for the freeway only, as it tends to make frequent micro-adjustments to the steering. It can get a little tiresome for suburban driving. It left me wishing the Blind Spot Monitoring was standard instead…

All Sportages carry a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from 2016 onward.

Big props must be given for the full-size alloy spare which is realistically a safety feature for Aussies who face long distance drives, and there are two ISOFIX child seat anchor points on the outboard rear seats.

You’ll get a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty with your Santa Fe; not quite as good as Kia’s seven years (and not even as good as Hyundai’s own 10-year warranty in the US), but it’s better than average – and you can always purchase an extended warranty.

A lifetime capped price servicing plan is available if you let Hyundai look after your car – service costs equal around $409 every 15,000km or 12 months, whichever comes first, when maintenance is amortised over five years or 75,000km. Just keep that owner’s manual stamped.

The Santa Fe isn’t the subject of complaints or issues, with its drivetrains garnering an admirable reputation for reliability, durability and avoiding common faults and defects. In fact, Hyundai scored top ratings in the latest J.D. Power Australia Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study in 2017.

Transmission problems and issues are almost unheard of, while things like oil pumps, the turbo unit and other parts like suspension hold up well to Australian conditions.

Resale value is reasonable, with a 2014 Elite shedding some $20,000 of its $48,000 initial purchase price. Second hand Santa Fes actually make for pretty good buying in general; the car hasn’t changed much since its introduction in 2012, after all.

Kia’s seven year/unlimited kilometre warranty as always outshines most rivals who have only just updated to five-year unlimited kilometre warranties.

The service schedule isn’t too demanding either, with the SUV requiring attention once a year or every 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Service prices are capped, but vary from $252 for the first service, to $604 for the fourth service.