Hyundai Santa Fe

While the exterior design of the Hyundai Santa Fe can be polarizing, the cabin layout feels much more sophisticated with its universally accepted, new-age design. The Malaysian-spec Santa Fe comes with an all-black leather upholstery in the higher-spec Max variants, with the Plus variant featuring a black cloth upholstery. 

The Hyundai Santa Fe gets a three-spoke multi-functional steering wheel with silver inserts and a 12.3-inch full-TFT instrument console behind it for its driver’s cockpit, with the latter 8-inch screen displaying information in various display modes, depending on the drive mode selected. Moving towards the centre console, the Hyundai Santa Fe has a floating 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system at the top, with the lower centre console having wireless smartphone connectivity options and two sleek AC vents. 

The lower centre console has a large and bulky-looking design with a layout for the prominent buttons for dual-zone automatic climate control, electric parking brake, transmission lever and buttons for drive modes and other functions. The cabin of the Hyundai Santa Fe also gets more premium features in the form of power, heated and ventilated front seats, a 6-speaker audio system and a powered tailgate. The panoramic sunroof on offer increases the sense of space on the inside, however, the third row of seats is best suited only for children.

Hyundai took its ‘sensuous sportiness’ design language to new heights with the fourth-generation Santa Fe facelift, in which the SUV adopted a bolder design language. With this facelift, the Hyundai Santa Fe became sharper and more extroverted, though some people might find this extreme design language a bit polarizing. 

At the front, the Hyundai Santa Fe has a wide horizontally stretched octagonal front grille flanked by rectangular headlamp housings with curved outer edges. The Santa Fe has a blingy appearance due to the shiny chrome-finished T-shaped inserts in the front grille and a chrome lower lip stretching towards the lower part of the headlamps. The all-LED headlamps of the Hyundai Santa Fe have a split design, with the upper part featuring daytime running LEDs that stretch down to the lower rectangular part housing the main projectors for the headlamps. 

Moving towards the side profile, and the overall boldness of the design of the Hyundai Santa Fe tones down a bit. The SUV has a majestic stance looks majestic, with it being offered with choices of 17-inch to 20-inch alloy wheels across the lineup. The window surrounds, door handles, and garnishes on the lower parts of the door panels have a chrome finish that further uplifts the premium appeal of the Santa Fe. 

Compared to the front, the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid has a functional and less dramatic-looking appearance at the rear. The SUV here gets a nice, eye-pleasant design for its edgy LED tail lamps that have LED inserts within them and a connected LED light bar flowing between them. More chrome can be seen over the rear bumper corner protectors and the lower part of the rear bumper.

With Macpherson struts at the front and a multi-link setup at the rear, the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid delivers a plush and composed ride quality. There are four different drive modes on offer in the Hyundai Santa Fe – Comfort for usual driving, Eco for a fuel-efficient drive, Sport for faster acceleration and Smart for optimal gear shift intervals. 

The Hyundai Santa Fe comes standard with a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain featuring a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and an electric motor with a battery setup. This hybrid powertrain claims a maximum power output of 230 bhp, while the peak torque output is rated at 350 Nm. There is also a 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine on offer, which churns out 193 PS of maximum power and 440 Nm of maximum torque.

The petrol-electric hybrid powertrain is paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission and a front-wheel drive system and claims 8.9 seconds for the 0-100 kmph run. Meanwhile, the diesel engine comes standard with an 8-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive and can do 0-100 kmph run in 9.2 seconds. 

The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid is equipped with a bunch of safety features like six airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, electronic stability control, multi-collision braking, hill start assist, downhill brake control, front and rear parking sensors, ISOFIX mounts for child seats, tyre pressure monitoring system and reverse camera. The suite of ADAS features in the Santa Fe includes adaptive cruise control, forward collision avoidance assist, lane keep assist, lane following assist, driver attention warning, leading vehicle departure alert, high beam assist, blind spot collision avoidance assist, blind spot collision warning, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance assist, safe exit warning and rear occupant alert. 

The Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid ticks all the right boxes when it comes to offering a great blend of luxury and practicality. Its premium visual appeal inside and out and the long list of equipment on offer make it a great choice. It is also well-sorted in its performance and ride quality, making it a perfectly balanced SUV for both everyday urban and weekend drives.