Hyundai Santa Fe

It is only after entering the cabin of the Hyundai Santa Fe that you realise how urban it looks. The head-up display stands right up at the line of sight of the drive for the least time off the road. The three-spoke steering has multiple control buttons. The driver’s display is a digital-analog unit and looks very attractive.

The steering wheel is wrapped in premium leather and feels good on the touch. The SUV gets dual-zone automatic climate control, along with a 7-inch touchscreen display for the connectivity and entertainment. The connectivity setup includes Bluetooth, AUX, and Bluetooth. However, even the top of the line model lacks a sunroof, which should have been an inclusion at this price point.

The Hyundai Santa Fe looks extremely attractive. It has a smooth appearance at all ends. The front end is donned by a chrome-laden grille that gets a big mesh design. The headlamps are placed lower down on the bumper, while the conventional lighting cluster has the sleek DRLs.

The side profile is highly contoured and the window line gets chrome borders. The 19-inch alloy wheels are attractively carved. The rear profile is another very interesting aspect of the car. There is a very prominent roof spoiler and the split LED taillights are amazing too. However, the most attractive addition of the rear profile is the bulked up skip plate on the lower bumper, which houses the sporty rectangular exhaust outlet.

The Hyundai Santa Fe is a class-apart SUV when it comes to ride quality. The suspension setup is nicely dampened to work with all seven occupants on board. The suspension is never too soft, or too lifeless and you get comfortable glides over potholes without much effort.

Up next is the throttle response, powered by the insane amount of torque that is generated from the 2.2-litre CRDi. The fueling is smooth and the power is linear all across the rev range. You barely feel any lag in the automatic transmission, be it at high or low speeds.

The Hyundai Santa Fe gets just one engine option for its two variants. However, this engine boasts of power and acceleration capabilities. Right from the onset, the 2.2-litre CRDi engine is capable of producing a maximum power of 200 hp at 3,800 rpm, while churning out a peak torque of 441 Nm at just 1,750 Nm.

The produced power is channeled to the front wheels via an 8-speed automatic gearbox in both the trims. There is no all-wheel-drive offered, not even as an option.

The range-topping model of the Hyundai Santa Fe has a good number of airbags, which includes for the front occupants, sides, and curtains. As for the braking, the SUV gets disc brakes for all the wheels, along with the addition of an anti-lock braking system and electronic brakeforce distribution.

In addition to this, the Hyundai SUV even gets stability control, cruise control, and electronic door lock. ISOFIX is also given as an option. And needless to say, rear parking sensors are great in order to increase the convenience of the drivers.

The Hyundai Santa Fe is surely an amazing 7-seater SUV to be available in the Philippines if not the best. It is attractively designed and could be the eye candy on the road. Moreover, performance is not compromised too, especially the high amount of torque from the CRDi mill that offers grunt at low engine revs.

The bottom line is, if you could spare PHP 2.5 million on a 7-seater SUV, the Hyundai Santa Fe is a good choice.