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Hyundai's seven-seat SUV embraces boxy design and goes hybrid-only

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Large, seven-seat SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe have generally superseded people-carrier MPVs in Europe. While some may lament the loss of the clever use of space for which MPVs were known, it takes only one glance at the Santa Fe to see why buyers aren’t looking back.

Here stands not a fancy van but something that trades an MPV’s excessive head room for a raised ride height, to give some off-road ability (or its suggestion) and no small degree of road presence.

The latter is enhanced by the Santa Fe’s sheer size, which is close to that of a BMW X5 and makes it the biggest car in Hyundai’s UK range (the even larger Palisade is sold in America). Let’s see if it has the cleverness and sophistication to match the design appeal.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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02 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review front

The new one builds on the foundations of the previous generation Santa Fe, which somewhat unusually had a platform change midway through its life, so it’s not exactly old. This N3 platform is shared with the Kia Sorento and, as a result, the two Korean SUVs have quite a similar engine line-up.

At the core of that sit a regular hybrid and a plug-in hybrid, which both use a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder with 158bhp and an electric motor in the six-speed automatic gearbox (a 58bhp unit in the hybrid, 90bhp in the PHEV).

Hyundai has a weird relationship with its brand name. It no longer appears on the steering wheel, but the headlights boldly display an H as the daytime-running lights, which then turn orange to function as the indicator. LED headlights are not adaptive.

While Kia’s Sorento comes exclusively with four-wheel drive (a mechanical system with a transfer case and a propshaft, rather than one that adds an additional motor on the rear axle, like many hybrids), Hyundai also offers a cheaper front-drive version of the hybrid model. It has killed off all its diesels, though, so anyone after a tow car should look elsewhere – both hybrids are limited to towing 1100kg.

Mechanically the new Santa Fe isn’t so different from the old one, but Hyundai says it has worked on the suspension bushes to improve ride isolation and has retuned the steering for better on-centre feel.

This is primarily a design and interior makeover. The whole car is 45mm longer for additional interior space but – thankfully – the overall width hasn’t grown, remaining at 1900mm without the mirrors.

As we have seen with many of Hyundai’s recent models, the brand doesn’t exactly value design continuity. This new Santa Fe departs markedly from the outgoing one, embracing right angles and looking a little like a supersized Volvo 240. As admirers of the Swedish brick will know, it’s a practical shape that maximises boot space and visibility (Hyundai says the quarter glass has grown by 48%). It certainly stands out from the pebble-shaped modern crowd.

INTERIOR

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10 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review dashboard

While some rivals are engaged in a game of one-upmanship over how many touchscreens they can fit into a cabin while quietly downgrading the material quality and number of features, common sense continues to prevail at Hyundai.

The necessary mod cons are all present. There’s a curved array of two 12.3in screens – a driver display and central touchscreen – with a head-up display on higher trims, but it’s complemented by a selection of physical controls for infotainment shortcuts (including a pair of customisable buttons), climate controls and vehicle functions (auto hold, drive mode). All of that means you need little familiarisation to operate the Santa Fe.

The interior is stylish, brilliantly practical and usable. Two small lapses, though: the offside rear side window creaked in its seals, and there’s nowhere to store the boot’s roller blind cover when using the third row of seats.

None of this comes at the expense of material richness or standard features. Our entry-level Premium test car had particularly comfortable and widely adjustable seats with heating and memory functions, as well as a wireless phone charger and enough charge ports to power a small data centre. Most of the stuff that looks like leather, wood or metal actually isn’t, but that would be too much to ask in this price class. More to the point, it’s all convincing enough.

Neither can the Santa Fe be accused of style over substance, because this is a brilliantly well-considered cabin. The clever MPVs of old may be dead, but their spirit lives on in cars such as this. There are two gloveboxes with a shelf between them, as well as storage space under the centre console and room for two phones. Rear passengers aren’t forgotten: they get an extra drawer and the armrest cubby can be opened from both the front seats and the back.

The style arguably results in substance, because the Santa Fe’s squared-off proportions and straight sides mean that very little space is wasted. It goes without saying that second-row passengers aren’t short of space to stretch out, but the third row isn’t compromised on head room either. Those occupants get their own cupholders, charging ports and an air vent with fan control. Getting in and out isn’t too onerous, either, because the second row slides, mostly manually but with some electric assistance. There are multiple buttons and levers that do the same thing, so you never have to look for the right one.

Multimedia

The infotainment in the current generation of Hyundais is carefully considered to simply give you what you need, without any extraneous gimmicks. What’s there works well too. The outgoing generation of Hyundai systems could be a bit laggy and was showing its age in the graphical department, but those issues have been solved now. The new interface looks attractive, responds quickly to prods and swipes, and there’s always the physical shortcut buttons to help you get to where you need to be.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can finally be connected wirelessly, and proved reasonably stable and reliable during our test. Hyundai’s built-in navigation system is excellent, with clear directions and accurate traffic updates. It also has one particular feature we like a lot: as well as the fastest, shortest and most economical routes, you can tell the system to favour motorways.

The standard audio system in our Premium car was all right, though we expect the Bose hi-fi on higher trims to represent a decent upgrade.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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20 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review engine

To an extent, the spec sheet of the Santa Fe Hybrid reads like it might have been compiled by some sort of random number generator. Its system power of 212bhp sounds surprisingly generous for an SUV with no sporting pretensions. It’s also produced by an engine of just 1.6 litres of capacity, albeit assisted by a 58bhp electric motor. Meanwhile, all that power results in only a leisurely 0-62mph time of 9.8sec.

The 1900kg kerb weight (2007kg as tested) undoubtedly dulls the Santa Fe’s performance, but at MIRA proving ground our car actually proved swifter than claimed, by quite some margin. In reality, 0-62mph took just 8.4sec.

Hyundai has a habit of underrating the performance of its piston cars. The Kona we tested last year was 0.8sec quicker to 62mph than advertised, and this Santa Fe took over a second less. Meanwhile, its EVs struggle to match the claims. Weird.

While the timing gear doesn’t lie, the Santa Fe doesn’t actually feel that quick in everyday driving. We have observed similar with other Hyundai and Kia hybrids, and hybrids that are short on electric power in general.

The Hyundai usually tries to set off on the electric motor but, because of its modest power, the engine quickly has to step in. And anyway, with a battery capacity of just 1.49kWh, electric running wouldn’t last long anyway.

When the petrol four-cylinder comes in, it does so with plenty of mechanical thrash – the easy mid-range torque you would want in a car like this just isn’t there. The situation is exacerbated by the wide spacing of the six gears, which means that if you demand even moderate acceleration, the engine will rev quite high before going into the next gear.

Wider test experience tells us that the PHEV doesn’t suffer from these issues as much because it benefits from a stronger electric motor. Compared with its peers, however, it could also do with some more electric power and range. It will of course also need plugging in regularly to work properly.

Most of the time, you can drive around the drivetrain’s prickliness by just taking it very easy. Once up to cruising speed, the long gears prove their worth and the engine quietens down. It’s worth remembering that the Peugeot 5008 Hybrid is similarly afflicted but has less flat-out performance and a Skoda Kodiaq 1.5 is hardly over-endowed with grunt either, although it is better behaved under load. The Nissan X-Trail’s e-Power series hybrid system is the most refined in the class but not very efficient.

This type of car used to be powered by a diesel engine by default, and for good reason. While we don’t miss oil-burners in superminis, hybrids are struggling to fill the gap in big cars.

Braking performance in the dry was as expected, with no notable fade, but a stopping distance of 67.7m in the wet is rather long. Pedal feel in normal driving is nicely progressive, and when not in Sport mode you can use the steering wheel paddles to control the level of regen, which is a nice feature in a hybrid.

RIDE & HANDLING

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21 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review front cornering

The chassis set-up of a heavy seven-seat SUV, particularly one at a price point that doesn’t allow air springs, is a delicate balance. Too soft, and you risk making passengers seasick. Too firm, and you compromise comfort with little gain in driving enjoyment.

In the Santa Fe, it has been struck reasonably well. It’s clearly quite soft overall, so there’s plenty of body roll, but big bumps on choppy roads are ironed out quite deftly, without the whole thing feeling especially floaty.

At the same time, you can fling this car into a corner at relatively high speeds and it will cling on. The steering, while not the most precise, responds intuitively and predictably, and weights up progressively as you load up the chassis. For what it is, the Santa Fe is surprisingly enjoyable down a twisty road.

It helps that despite being 2.2 metres wide across the mirrors, it’s quite easy to place thanks to the long bonnet, the square shape and the tall driving position that lets you see the edges of the car.

Our test subject was equipped with four-wheel drive, which on dry roads doesn’t contribute a great deal. However, on a slippery, wet road, it lets the Santa Fe accelerate positively out of tight corners, and it will give the car a degree of off-roadability.

Where there is some room for improvement is in the wheel control. Despite the soft suspension and reasonably tall tyre sidewalls, the wheels tend to thump clumsily through potholes. Then again, most rival cars also suffer from a slightly crashy low-speed ride.

Noise refinement is decent but unremarkable at a cruise: 69dBA at 70mph is on a par with the Nissan X-Trail. Under hard acceleration, the Hyundai is actually slightly quieter (73dBA versus 76dBA), but it’s the coarse quality of the engine noise rather than the volume that grates.

Assisted driving

When our test car arrived, we were greeted with a message on the screen that said an over-the-air update was available. Having left it to do its thing overnight, it announced the next morning a new feature had been added. From that point, we could simply hold the mute button on the steering wheel to disable the overspeed warning.

It’s an excellent use of over-the-air update technology, but in this case it’s also a cure for a symptom instead of the disease. It is continually surprising how Hyundai, a company of substantial engineering means, keeps getting assisted driving so wrong.

The speed limit recognition is incorrect a lot of the time (it’s particularly bad at catching national speed limit signs on motorway gantries), and its warning noise quite intrusive. The lane keeping assistance (also easily turned off by holding a steering wheel button) just can’t deal with country roads that lack centre markings and will randomly yank the steering.

The new Santa Fe gets a camera on the steering column to monitor whether the driver is paying attention, but the system is way too sensitive. Even when turned off (which takes a few taps of the centre touchscreen every time you start the car), it will occasionally complain that the sensor is obscured.

The adaptive cruise control is smoother than on previous generations but still a bit too keen to get on the brakes. It also takes quite a bit of menu diving to get rid of the audible warnings for speed cameras (these stay off) and to stop the semi-autonomous lane following from coming on automatically with the cruise control.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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01 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review lead front cornering

The Santa Fe is priced from £46,775 for a front-wheel-drive Hybrid in Premium trim. That’s quite a bit more than a Skoda Kodiaq, Peugeot 5008 or Nissan X-Trail, but then it does come very generously equipped with three rows of seats, heated leather seats with electric adjustment, keyless entry, adaptive cruise control with lane following and 20in wheels. Four-wheel drive, like on our test car, adds a further £2055. Even when specced like for like, most rivals are a bit cheaper, however. At £51,885, the plug-in hybrid costs another £3055 extra.

The hybrid powertrain proved reasonably efficient, recording an average of 37.6mpg over the course of our test, putting it between the very economical Kodiaq and the disappointingly thirsty Nissan X-Trail e-Power. Unlike some hybrids, the fuel tank is quite large too, resulting in a 554-mile cruising range. The 70mph touring economy came out curiously low and we usually saw better during actual motorway usage. Clearly, it makes good use of its regenerative braking.

At five years, Hyundai’s factory warranty doesn’t sound as impressive as Kia’s or MG’s. However, that’s still longer than most, and with no mileage limit, it could be worth more for long-distance drivers.

The PHEV version is looking rather behind the times. Like the related Kia Sorento, it offers seven seats and four-wheel drive, but at the cost of quite a small battery. As a result, it musters only 33.6 miles of EV range, which puts it in the 12% BIK band. Company car drivers would therefore be much better off with longer-range rivals like the Skoda Kodiaq or Peugeot 5008.

VERDICT

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23 Hyundai Santa Fe 2024 review static

As with other recent mainstream Hyundais, the Santa Fe is quite an uneven performer. It handles better than most drivers will ever need it to and is pretty refined at a cruise, but it can’t maintain that refinement away from the motorway, in terms of both comfort and engine noise.

The powertrain lets it down. Flat out it’s quite quick, and it musters acceptable economy, but a mild-hybrid Skoda Kodiaq is more flexible and uses less fuel. The ADAS isn’t good enough either, though the systems are easier to disable than previously.

Facelift fixes? Give the hybrid some more mid-range grunt and get the economy up to diesel level. Improve the ADAS. And add some damping sophistication.

Crucially, the Santa Fe manages to score where it matters for a seven-seat SUV. The interior has all the design and material appeal you could wish for and combines it with clever practicality solutions and excellent usability. It’s cavernous too, and that still earns it a conditional recommendation.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As part of Autocar’s road test team, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews, comparison tests, as well as the odd feature and news story. 

Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s eight-page road tests, which are the most rigorous in the business thanks to independent performance, fuel consumption and noise figures.