2013 Hyundai Santa Fe is smooth and responsive
PICTON Ont. — Let’s be clear: There’s a big difference between “camping” and “car camping.” The former usually involves you and your significant other, solo hiking through somewhere very remote, with only a backpack containing your food and shelter. While the latter is, well, nothing like that at all.
This was pretty evident during our family’s annual car camping excursion to Sandbanks Provincial Park, on the shores of Lake Ontario. This year — with 17 adults and eight people who can’t cook or clean for themselves (read: children) taking over six sites — our version of car camping was more like four days of tailgating.
With so many mouths to feed, a small propane stove — or an even less reliable open fire — wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, I borrowed my brother-in-law’s Big Ass BBQ (trademark not pending), a Frankenstein-like propane- fired barbecue mounted on a swing-away trailer hitch. Of course, not just any vehicle can tow such a cooking rig. So a call to the nice folks at Hyundai Canada resulted in the loan of a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe XL Limited, with a towing package as standard kit.
When the time came for the Korean automaker to design a new three-row crossover for 2013, the lesser-known Veracruz nameplate was dropped in favour of expanding the Santa Fe family — literally. Compared to the five-passenger Santa Fe Sport, the threerow XL has a longer wheelbase, more room and seats up to seven. It has a V-6 instead of the Sport’s pair of four-cylinder engines, and considerably more towing capacity.
Hyundai admits the $29,999 front-wheel-drive base model Santa Fe XL was designed to attract former Santa Fe owners looking to replace a minivan. Still, all Santa Fe XLs come well equipped, with heated front seats, power windows, six-speaker audio system with Bluetooth, tilt and telescoping steering wheel with audio controls, and cruise control as standard kit. Hyundai also believes Santa Fe XL buyers will opt for the perceived safety advantages of traction at all four wheels, which starts with the $34,999 Santa Fe XL Premium.
Our top-of-the-line XL Limited tester starts at $42,899 and comes loaded with oneinch-larger 19-inch wheels, navigation with a larger central dash display, 550-watt sound system, leather seating and one of those fashionably large sun/moon roofs.
Loaded-up, it was obvious Hyundai’s choice to go with a V-6 for the XL Santa Fe was a wise one. The 3.3-litre V-6’s 290 horsepower is only 26 more than the Sport’s optional turbocharged 2.0-litre four. In fact, the direct injected 3.3’s 252 pound-feet of torque is just 17 lb-ft shy of the 2.0 T’s number. Yet the six-cylinder’s nearly flat torque curve, combined with the six-speed automatic transmission (featured in all Santa Fes) delivers smooth, responsive and stress-free performance.
Fuel economy estimates are competitive, too, with a rating of 11.7 L/100 km in the city and 8.0 on the highway. With the majority of our time spent on the highway, we saw an average of 10.8 L/100 km.