2019 Hyundai Santa Fe First Drive: So Long, Old Sport

Nov 03, 2023

Who are you calling Sport now, sport?

When the fourth generation of the Hyundai Santa Fe goes on sale at the end of 2018, the brand will be well on its way to completely relaunching its entire SUV lineup—although this revamp comes with a little confusion. This new Santa Fe is effectively a replacement for the outgoing Santa Fe Sport. Today's longer-wheelbase Santa Fe will continue for one more model year, rechristened the Santa Fe XL, until a new three-row SUV under a new name debuts for the 2020 model year. Along with the new Kona and fuel-cell Nexo, there will be a new Tucson and a smaller-than-Kona crossover by 2021, too. If you’re counting, that's six new or redesigned Hyundai SUVs in half as many years.

For now, the subject is the new Santa Fe no-longer-Sport and, judging by our drive of South Korea–spec vehicles, Hyundai is on a good track. For starters, the new ute looks more grown-up and handsome. The rear glass is more vertical, a boon to headroom for the sort-of-optional third-row seats (more on that later) and cargo space. With shorter overhangs, a longer wheelbase, greater length, and slightly more girth than the ’18 Santa Fe Sport, interior space is up, too. Hyundai increased visibility by employing what it claims is 41 percent more glass area than in the outgoing Santa Fe Sport to nurture the target markets of empty nesters and families moving up from a sedan.

Hyundai calls its new grille design "cascading," although naming facial features is a faux pas unless your name is Rollie Fingers or Ambrose Burnside. The polygonal design is available in black or bright finishes, and its design theme carries over to the interior, echoed in elements like the seat pattern and the speaker covers. It's a nice design touch that partially makes up for some hard-looking and -feeling plastics, particularly on the seldom-touched trim pieces on the lower instrument panel. One thing that hasn't changed is the font Hyundai uses for its switchgear, which reminds some of us of the often-ridiculed Comic Sans. If it doesn't bother you, you’ll love the dashboard's simple, straightforward layout, complete with a standard 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment display (8.0 inches if you opt for navigation). Initially we feared that the volume and tuning knobs, positioned in the lower corners of the infotainment display on the dash, would require a long reach, but both are easily accessed from the front seats.

Base cars will have an instrument panel with a 3.5-inch LCD screen between a conventional tach and speedometer. In upper trim levels, an analog tachometer and fuel and coolant-temperature gauges flank an optional 7.0-inch "virtual cluster" in the instrument binnacle. Depending on the driving mode, this display changes its color theme—blue for Normal, red for Sport, green for Eco—and it can display a digital readout or a facsimile of an analog speedometer. Throttle and transmission calibrations change with these modes, although we found little reason to divert from Normal.

For its first model year, the Santa Fe will come with two familiar inline-four engines—the 185-hp 2.4-liter and the 235-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter found throughout Hyundai's lineup—paired with an unfamiliar and new eight-speed automatic transaxle of Hyundai's own design. All-wheel drive is available across the board. A hot rod the Santa Fe is not, and its zero-to-60-mph times are predicted to be in the seven-second range.

Starting in 2020, the Santa Fe will offer a 2.2-liter diesel inline-four featuring a variable-geometry turbocharger. Opting for the 190-hp and 322-lb-ft diesel also adds the third row that is optional in the rest of the world. The two additional seats subtract one cubic foot of cargo space (36 cubes to the five-seater's 37) and 1.0 inch of second-row legroom. Hyundai admits the diesel Santa Fe's third row is an occasional-use thing. We didn't get a chance to pilot any of the U.S.-spec engines, but the new transmission worked beautifully with the Korea-spec 2.0-liter diesel we drove (an engine not destined for our market), never shuffling gears awkwardly, although we did notice a few jerky starts from a traffic light when the standard stop/start system was active. We adjusted our initial throttle input; problem resolved.

Driving in suburban Seoul's mostly congested traffic, the 2.0-liter diesel was more than enough engine. Granted, the posted speed limits are much lower than we’re accustomed to back home, but our initial gut feeling is that the 180-hp engine would be just fine in the U.S. market. And, if the 2.2-liter operates just as smoothly and quietly, it could help boost acceptance of compression ignition in America.

A steering-column-mounted electric motor provides assistance and keeps feedback from the 19-inch tires (17s are standard, 18s are also available) largely at bay. Despite the big wheels, ride comfort is exceptional from the strut front and multilink rear suspension. Tire and road noise is hushed, too.

It wouldn't be a new car without a litany of standard and optional active-safety features. The new Santa Fe can be had with six airbags, forward-collision warning with automated emergency braking, lane-departure warning and lane-keeping assist, driver-attention warning, automatic high-beams, rear cross-traffic alert, and blind-spot monitoring with avoidance assist. That's a pretty standard package of safety features these days. Two that are less common are Hyundai's new Safe Exit Assist and Rear Occupants Alert. Safe Exit warns of a car, motorcycle, or bicycle approaching from the rear and will keep the doors locked if there is potential for stepping into traffic, an accidental door removal, or a bike-messenger clothesline. The Rear Occupants Alert uses an ultrasonic sensor in the headliner to detect and then warn the driver, with either the horn or through an app on a connected smartphone, when there is movement in the rear of the car by either a child or a pet.

Official pricing and EPA fuel-economy estimates are also pending, but Hyundai has said that it expects an increase in the 3-to-4-percent range. That would put the combined EPA number at about 24 mpg for the roughly $26,000 base, front-drive, 2.4-liter model and 22 mpg for an all-wheel-drive 2.0T. When the Santa Fe hits dealers in the fourth quarter of this year, a loaded 2.0T AWD will cost nearly $40K. By that time, Hyundai's new lineup will be less confusing, we hope.

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, front- or all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door hatchback

ESTIMATED BASE PRICE: $26,000

ENGINE TYPES: DOHC 16-valve 2.4-liter inline-4, 185 hp, 178 lb-ft; turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve 2.0-liter inline-4, 235 hp, 260 lb-ft

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 108.9 inLength: 187.8 inWidth: 74.4 in Height: 66.1 inPassenger volume: 113 cu ftCargo volume: 37 cu ftCurb weight (C/D est): 3600-4100 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):Zero to 60 mph: 7.2-7.8 secZero to 100 mph: 20.2-21.5 secStanding ¼-mile: 15.5-16.2 secTop speed: 130 mph

EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):Combined/city/highway: 22-24/20-22/25-28 mpg

K.C. Colwell is Car and Driver's executive editor, who covers new cars and technology with a keen eye for automotive nonsense and with what he considers to be great car sense, which is a humblebrag. On his first day at C/D in 2004, he was given the keys to a Porsche 911 by someone who didn't even know if he had a driver's license. He also is one of the drivers who set fast laps at C/D's annual Lightning Lap track test.

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