Mixed emotions on the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe
Driving experience lacking, interior design a jumble
In 25 years of playing crash test dummy, I have only had to reference the owner’s manual a handful of times. This is why this often overlooked tome is the newest part of any used car. I was forced to reach for the Hyundai Santa Fe’s manual to turn off the Hunchback of Notre Dame-inspired chimes.
After one opens the driver’s door, hops in and inserts the ignition key, the Santa Fe plays a welcome jingle. Oh, my aching ears! It was corny and sounded as if it had been recorded using a child’s xylophone. It did more of its unwelcome chiming when I turned off the ignition. To say it was as annoying as the Chryslers from yesteryear that reminded the driver the door was ajar is not an understatement. It was not the smoothest introduction to a vehicle I have experienced.
The foibles continued with the jumble of materials on the door panels and dash. There are five different materials — most are hard plastic, one is a soft-touch insert and then there are the accent pieces.
The rest of the cabin was fine. The front seats feature bold, at least for a crossover, base and backrest bolstering, which deliver very good longdistance comfort. Likewise, there’s a lot of rear seat space and a near-flat floor, meaning three can ride there without too much squawking. The Santa Fe also has plenty of cargo space. With the 40/20/40-split/folding seat backs upright, it accommodates 35.4 cubic feet of stuff. Drop the seats flat and it swallows 71.5 cu.-ft. The hitch is the rearward visibility. The undersized windows behind the C-pillars and the tall rear beltline combined to obscure the view and make the sonar-based backup system a needed feature.
Hyundai elected to drop the previous version’s V6 and go with an all four-cylinder lineup. The tester featured the base 2.4-litre inline four. It puts forth 190 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque. It also managed to spin out its wares without getting overly noisy when worked at the top end of the rev range.
The power is fired to the road through all four wheels and a six-speed manumatic transmission. No complaints with the all-wheel-drive system.
The same is true of the transmission. It is smooth as it slips through the gears and quick to kickdown when the driver needs to drop a cog or two. The nit is the manual mode — accessing it requires the shifter to be moved to the right, which is the wrong way. It is preferable to move the shifter to the left because it brings manual actuation closer to the driver.
The real disappointment surfaced in the driving experience. While the engine’s numbers look respectable on paper, when put to the test on the road, the base four left me wanting more and less at the same time.
I wanted more power — it took 9.9 seconds to meander to 100 kilometres an hour and 7.2 seconds to accomplish the more important 80-to-120 km/h passing move. On the flip side, I wanted it to consume less fuel. The trusty trip computer was showing a rather thirsty average of 13.6 litres per 100 kilometres at the end of the drive.
Solving the need for more is very simple — option up to the 2.0L turbocharged fourcylinder. It would, however, add $2,200 to the price of the Santa Fe tested.
The Santa Fe’s rework left me with mixed emotions. I did like the way the frumpy exterior look has gone in favour of something with significantly more road presence. The new model also benefits enormously from the redesigned lift gate — the ungainly handle that has been the Santa Fe’s signature since its introduction has finally gone away. The interior, however, was just too busy and featured far too many materials, which imparted a cobbled-together look. I also learned that this vehicle needs a backup camera to go along with the sonar assistant.
As for those chimes, well, minus the ability to mute them through the settings menu, I think I would have ended up paraphrasing Quasimodo — oh, the chimes!