2014-hyundai-santa fe

 

 

 

Exteriors

Starting with the front of the new 2014 Santa Fe fluidic SUV, you can notice the pronounced and signature fluidic language which we see on all new Hyundai cars including the Verna, Elantra, Xcent etc.
The headlamps have high intensify discharge or HID projector lamps with daytime running LED lamps. These HID lamps also come with washer. The cluster has been nicely designed and also contains the turn indicators. The front grille is loaded with chrome and looks premium. The fog lamp housing is sharp and brings interesting feature where the fog lamps steer the light when you steer the car. It ensures safe driving in the dark at corners. There is large airdam below the grille and a dual colour chin finish. 


There is a black coloured body cladding which runs across the car at the bottom and gives it a really sporty look. The side profile gets pronounced wheel arches which are further highlighted by the black cladding around it. Moving a bit further on the side, you get outside mirrors (ORVMs) with turn indicators. The ORVMs are electrically adjustable as well as power foldable. There is use of chrome lining around the glass windows on the side and also two body- lines running around the side which gives it a dynamic look. From the side you can also notice side sweeping headlamps as well as tail lamps. The tail lamp cluster is also nicely designed, it’s a sleek combination cluster.

 Moving to the rear, you see silver finished body cladding at the bottom with twin tip exhaust finished in chrome. The tail lamp cluster converges towards the centre as reaches the license plate area.  Also there are low mounted fog lamps at rear; these are not mere reflectors, but lamps. The windshield is curved as it moved up to merge with the spoiler provided at the rear which also houses a high mounted stop lamp for higher safety. The windshield has washer, wiper and defogger.

There are sleek body hugging roof rails on the top adding to the sporty aesthetic appeal of the car. There is a small micro antenna mounted towards the rear of the car on the roof.

Interiors and Features

On the interiors, let’s start from the front row of seats and then we will talk about the two rear rows. The front row seats are 12 way eclectically adjustable with height adjust, under thigh support adjust and lumbar support to name a few. Also they use perforated high quality leather for high comfort in hot weather. There are no ventilated seats which could have been a really welcome addition.
The seats are very comfortable bucket seats and offer fatigue free driving experience. The steering wheel comes with tilt adjust and helps get a further relaxed driving position as per driver’s need. It gets a smart looking digital + analogue instrument cluster with coloured driver information system between the two dials. There are controls on the steering wheel to change the information it shows the driver. It allows watching real time mileage, distance to empty and other vital information. There are two more digital dials which show which mode you are driving the car in. You also get phone controls, audio controls and cruise controls mounted on the steering wheel itself.

Specifications, engine and performance

The new 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV comes with a powerful 2.2 Litre CRDI diesel engine which produces impressive torque of around 420 Nm which gives it the much required punch. The engine seems to work well and the car feels very agile besides being fairly large.
On transmission, you get either a 6 speed manual or 6 speeds automatic which offers manual control for the enthusiast drivers who want manual control of the transmission. We drove only the AT version and found it to be very peppy and agile and there is no noticeable turbo lag.In terms of mileage, Hyundai claims around 13 KMPL for AT and 14 KMPL for the automatic. During our test the display showed us around 10L/100Km mileage which is approx. 10 KMPL. This was with AC on all the time and 3 occupants. We drove pretty aggressively, so if it delivers 10 KMPL in real world, it’s really good. There is an Eco Drive mode which mellows down the power delivery to some extent and changes gear shift pattern for better fuel economy just in case you like it that way.

Ride, handling and off-road performance

When it comes to ride and handling, I will start with one of the most impressive parts of the car, which is flexi-steer technology which Hyundai has introduced in 2014 new Santa Fe SUV. The flex steering allows you to change the steering feedback (weight of steering) in 3 preset modes- Comfort, Normal and Sport. You can choose the feel f the steering by the press of a button on steering wheel and I am sure enthusiastic drivers will appreciate this control. In city, you can keep comfort mode on and on high speed drives on highways, you can switch to Normal or Sport mode. Please note that these modes do not alter the suspension behaviour unlike some high end sports cars.

Coming to the handling part, it steers with confidence, the on-demand 4 wheel drive helps to gain good traction on road and save on fuel when it’s not needed. There is a switch provided for permanent 4 Wheel drive model which can be useful for off-roading.
We tried the car on smooth tarmac, bad and rough roads and also some off-road situations like on small rocks and steep inclines with gravel, it did hold pretty well. Also there is hill hold function both for upwards and downwards slopes which prevents the car from rolling up or down when you are launching on a slope or going steep downhill.