In this edition of The Magazine, we look at Hyundai’s Santa Fe and ask – gas guzzling behemoth or capable and sensible?

 

If you suffer from vertigo, then a 4x4 may not be the vehicle for you. You ride above the traffic, looking down on the ant-like autos that surround you as you wait at the lights. Any higher and you’d need oxygen. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but this is my editorial and I’ll say what I like…

The ride height is actually one of the many reasons that people go for a 4x4 – since you are so far above the traffic, you’re afforded excellent visibility. This is aided and abetted by the fact that Hyundai’s designers haven’t put any of the pillars in the way of your vision, so you really can see all the way around. While this pays dividends in the back end of beyond (when there might be the odd grizzly wandering about), it’s of far more importance around town with cyclists, pushchairs, Heeleys and bollards all waiting to spring out.

In recent years, 4x4s have come on in leaps and bounds. No longer do you need arm muscles with riven sinews to change gear nor legs like tree-trunks to push the clutch. In fact, you don’t need to do any of that gratuitous gear shifting in the CDX version I took out – it’s got a tiptronic gear shift linked into a five speed auto ‘box. This means that you can either leave the vehicle to do all of the hard work by itself, or you can flick the shifter into the tiptronic range and nudge it up and down to change gear yourself. Quite nifty.

However, there is one caveat that I discovered while out on the road. Because I’m a manual kind of person, I insisted on using the tiptronic to start off – and found that the central storage box got in the way somewhat. Perhaps I’ve got a bizarre arm ratio, or maybe the box is just that little bit too high… After a while I gave up and let the automatic take over.

Aside from the storage box issue, the general cabin ambience of the Santa Fe is excellent. The seats are electronically adjustable as well as being heated for those cold mornings. The steering wheel also adjusts, meaning that you can get comfortable quickly. Plus there’s dual zone heating – this allows the front passengers to have one ambience and the rear passengers another. And let’s not forget the steering-wheel mounted cruise control – less useful in the Rocky Mountains than on the A27, but still there none-the-less.

Richmond Hyundai lent me the CDX version of the Santa Fe (diesel, to the rest of us). While the thought of a diesel 4x4 might make some less hardly souls blanch, it actually makes a lot of sense. The 2.0-litre displacement gives the Santa Fe a lot of low down grunt and a more than acceptable rate of acceleration for something so large. It’s also pretty quiet, so there’s no need to reach for the aspirin on long drives through the Sussex countryside. And you get a decent fuel economy out of it as well.

For families, the Santa Fe is pretty much ideal if you’re in the market for a 4x4 (or even if you’re not but open to suggestions). There’s plenty of space inside and many useful cubby-holes to stash half-eaten Mars Bars or route maps. There are also some hidden luggage compartments in the floor of the boot for more important/valuable items. Businesses will appreciate the stylish design (which implies a higher cost than the forecourt ticket price) and versatility on offer.

In terms of safety, there are airbags all over the place, ABS and ESP (electronic stability control) to keep you out of trouble and self-levelling suspension on the seven-seat version. It’s a good package, of that there can be no doubt.

If you’re in the mood for an affordable yet capable 4x4 and want a few more refinements than you might normally expect, you could do a lot worse than giving the Santa Fe a blast around Arun. I think that you’ll be pretty surprised by your reaction…