Santa Fe, perhaps the best SUV value on the market today

Introduction For a company that didn't even offer a SUV in the U.S. three years ago, Hyundai has made an impressive statement with its Santa Fe compact sport ute. So popular is the Santa Fe it, out sells formidable competitors like Saturn Vue, Toyota RAV4 and 4Runner and Nissan Xterra. First introduced as a 2001 model, Hyundai seems to have figured out what customers want, offering a lot of bang for the buck backed by an impressive warranty and what most consider a stylish look.

Model lineup Three Santa Fe models are offered: base, GLS and LX. Base is available in two-wheel drive and four-cylinder engine with a choice of manual or automatic. GLS and LX are available with a choice of six-cylinder engines and either two-wheel or all-wheel drive. Six-cylinder models are only available with an automatic transmission. Hyundai supplied us with the two-wheel drive GLS with the larger 3.5-liter V-6 195 hp engine. All Santa Fe models well equipped with an impressive list of standard equipment including power steering/door locks/windows/outside heated mirrors, air conditioning, AM/FM/CD stereo, three power outlets and more. The base price on our GLS was just $22,089 including shipping charges of $590.

Exterior styling Frankly, I don't care for the curvaceous, bulgy look of the Santa Fe. The exterior appearance seems dated with a particularly odd looking front that strongly resembles a koi with bulging eyes and jutting mouth. The rear view is somewhat more pleasing but overdone with two sets of taillights, one fender-mounted and another of nearly equal size set into the bumper. The pull handle to raise the lift gate seems to be an afterthought, mounted just to the right of the license plate. Most manufacturers do their best to hide the handle. Thankfully, unlike the RAV4 or Honda CRV, the rear hatch hinges from the top rather than on the right. Another nice feature is the flip-up rear window on the lift gate. That said, my opinion was in the minority with most of my passengers and acquaintances liking the looks of the Santa Fe enough to offer unsolicited favorable comments.

Interior features While on the plain and plasticky side, the interior is functional and all controls are large with easy adjustment for the audio and heating/air conditioning systems. The dash is similar in design to the exterior, with excessive curvature and bulges. The center stack seems an afterthought and looks snapped on between the dash and center console. But again, my passengers rather liked the look. The interior is dressed up with bright trim about the dash and doors with chrome trim around the floor mounted shift knob.

There's plenty of room inside the Santa Fe for front and rear passengers. Drivers like me who are over 6'2", will feel cramped and uncomfortable behind the wheel. There wasn't enough leg or wiggle room and I felt I was sitting too high. Maybe it was because of the sharply sloping windshield that kept me tilting my head down to peer under the sun visor.

On the plus side, there is more cargo space than all other compact utes, with the exception of Ford Escape.

Performance/Test drive Our front-wheel drive GLS model handled excellently and never felt tippy like other SUVs I've tested. The 3.5-liter V-6 had plenty of punch and easily out performs all others in this class. The trade off is gas mileage, which is rated at 16 mpg city and 22-mpg highway. My weeklong mostly highway driving averaged just a notch above 19 mpg. But then, the Santa Fe weighs a chubby 3,700-plus pounds. The ride was generally quiet and free of wind and road noise. This is an easy vehicle to drive particularly for shorter drivers who crave good visibility and ease of handling. Around town the seats and driving position were generally comfortable, but on drives to Tucson and Prescott I found the seats to be more uncomfortable the longer I sat in them.

Safety & security Santa Fe, like all others in this class, is a car-based SUV with unibody construction. Front and side air bags are standard. Sorry, no head air bag protection or stability control, but traction control is standard on all Santa Fe models. The Santa Fe earns the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's highest rating of "good" for overall front crashworthiness, "acceptable" for side impact but "poor" for damage to the vehicle for low speed bumper impact.

Summary There are a lot of choices to be had in the compact SUV market, but all considered, the Santa Fe is one of the better ones. It's a nicely equipped, no-nonsense vehicle that offers plenty of room and excellent power, seems well constructed and comes with one of the best new vehicle warranty plans in the business — 10-year/100,000 powertrain, and 5-year/60,000 mile bumper to bumper. Given that, I'm not surprised at its popularity.

In my opinion.. If you're shopping for a smaller SUV like the RAV4, Honda CRV or Ford Escape, Santa Fe is worth a look. As a daily driver for around $20,000 I think you'll be more than pleased with what you find. But if you're seriously considering the Santa Fe, take it for a long test drive not just around a few blocks. The longer I drove the more uncomfortable I became.

Return to the Auto Reviews home page.