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.
