The 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe has landed in Australia. It sports a new look and
officials say it has undergone a major under-body upgrade. But even then,
those level of changes probably don't do the new model justice. Let's take a closer look.
Bolder and slightly larger, the 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe renews its fight to the Kia Sorento
and other seven seat rivals with a host of new equipment and a fresh new interior featuring a
bridge designed centre fascia. Available in familiar petrol and diesel grades,
pricing for the entry version, known simply as the Santa Fe, has increased by $700, while the top
shelf Highlander diesel all wheel drive, driven here, has increased by $3,500. Hyundai says those
price increases are met with additional standard equipment and safety features across the range.
In the case of the top spec Highlander, those features extend to a 10.25 inch centre
touchscreen display, 10 speaker audio system and a fully digital instrument cluster. To be honest,
it's a shame that not all Santa Fe variants get the new bridge design of the centre stack,
because it really does liberate a lot of usable interior space and oddment storage.
Elsewhere, the Santa Fe is really well resolved in terms of first and second row space,
while the third row is suitable for the occasional sixth or seventh passenger.
The Santa Fe range adopts a new architecture for 2021, shared with its Korean cousin,
the Kia Sorento. Overall, it is 15 millimetres longer, 10 millimetres wider and 5 millimetres
taller than before, liberating small increases in second row interior space and cargo space.
The new platform will allow the Santa Fe to adopt hybrid technology for the first time
in the form of a petrol electric drive train, set to debut locally in the second half of 2021.
As ever, the Santa Fe is just a terrific all-rounder, it's a car that's easy to get
up to speed in terms of spatial awareness and where you sit in the lane. It has great outward
vision and it drives really nicely too, with great throttle modulation, light steering at low speeds
and a decent level of body control. One thing I've always liked about the Santa Fe is that it juggles
sportiness, performance and comfort really well, and that hasn't changed with the latest update.
The Santa Fe is available with the choice of a naturally aspirated V6 petrol that drives
the front wheels or a 2.2 litre turbo diesel four cylinder that drives all four wheels. The big news
for the diesel is the introduction of a new, wet eight speed dual clutch automatic transmission.
The diesel engine really benefits from the new dual clutch automatic transmission,
both in terms of efficiency and performance. We've managed 7.5 litres per 100 Ks,
in a mix of conditions today. And the way that the eight speed works with the engine,
the efficiency of its shifts, is really good in terms of power delivery as well.
You do get that typical little bit of binding upon taking off. But unlike a lot of European units,
it's quite predictable and linear with the way that it puts out its power.
Although the Santa Fe adopts a new architecture underneath,
it still presents a familiar on-road demeanor,
masking its 2-ton curb mass well and offering decent feedback from the surface underneath.
The Santa Fe doesn't really set any new benchmarks in terms of
riding, handling or in terms of noise, vibration and comfort levels. You might be able to hear,
there is a little bit of road noise coming through the cabin, especially on coarse chip sections.
And the ride, with the smaller footprint of this car means that it is a little bit more upset by
bumps in the road, especially sharper obstacles. But overall, it's a really nice balance between
comfort and performance. The steering has a nice amount of weighting and feedback to it. The body,
once it moves its weight to the outside wheels, is really quite well acquitted
in terms of quick changes in direction and it sits flat enough through corners.
The Santa Fe's all-rounder status is reaffirmed for 2021 by a full-sized spare wheel,
an increased towing capacity of two-and-a-half tons and a retained five-star safety rating
from 2018. While so much of the Santa Fe is new, its most redeeming qualities are not.
With the Palisade now taking care of the higher end of the SUV spectrum,
that now leaves the Santa Fe to focus on its core strengths. And it does that really
well. In isolation, these changes really are welcome and help improve the Santa Fe recipe.