2024 Hyundai Santa Fe First Drive: Perception Changer

MotorTrend

The 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe brings a boxy design

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 The 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe got a complete makeover

00:10 and that includes a new design,

00:12 more passenger and cargo space, and a new third row.

00:16 We're here in beautiful Tennessee to get behind the wheel

00:18 and tell you all about it.

00:20 So of course, the big thing about the Santa Fe

00:22 is the new design language.

00:24 And besides how boxy it is and how different it looks

00:27 from the current generation Santa Fe,

00:29 it's this new H language, H design language.

00:32 You see kind of like this H here

00:35 on the daytime running lights.

00:36 You'll also see it across the grill.

00:38 You'll see like different H's all around the place.

00:41 That includes inside, in the front, and in the back too.

00:45 So coming along the profile,

00:46 besides looking at how extended the wheelbase is

00:49 compared to the current generation,

00:51 you can also see the roofline is much longer.

00:54 And then it also includes this grab handle here

00:56 on the C pillar.

00:57 You can either use it to get up here

00:59 with the doorstep like this,

01:02 or you can use it with the wheel itself

01:04 and help you climb to get up here

01:07 if you have a tent or any cargo or anything like that also.

01:11 And then coming up here to the back,

01:13 you'll see the Santa Fe name spelled out

01:15 across the tailgate, the H theme that we talked about

01:18 at the beginning.

01:20 You'll see it here also in the back.

01:21 So it looks indistinguishable.

01:23 You'll know this is a Santa Fe from any angle.

01:25 (upbeat music)

01:28 So right now we're behind the wheel of the XRT.

01:34 This is a new addition to the Santa Fe lineup,

01:37 and it's meant for those outdoorsy enthusiasts,

01:40 those who wanna get on a camping trip on the weekends

01:43 or every now and then go on a trail.

01:45 It is a new addition to the Santa Fe lineup

01:47 and it provides 1.3 inches of additional ground clearance

01:52 compared to the regular Santa Fe.

01:55 It's also only available in all-wheel drive.

01:58 And you do have this button

02:00 that's labeled four-wheel drive lock button

02:03 that locks the center differential for the Santa Fe.

02:06 And that provides basically all-wheel drive

02:09 during the entire time.

02:11 It also has a hill descent assist button,

02:14 and that helps you go down trails.

02:15 Like earlier, we were doing a drive here, a test drive,

02:19 going down a pretty steep hill.

02:21 And you just lightly, with the gas and the brake pedals,

02:24 you control the speed that you want to go down the hill.

02:26 It basically helps you go down the hill.

02:29 The suspension is much more cushier.

02:31 It feels much softer.

02:34 I think the additional ground clearance

02:37 or the additional suspension lift, plus the tires,

02:41 all of that provides a better, just a more comfortable,

02:45 a more cushier ride, if you will, on the trail here.

02:48 So this is not meant to be a rock crawler

02:51 or anything like that.

02:52 This is just going to be for exactly what kind of driving

02:57 we're doing right now, on the trail,

02:58 on dirt roads like this, that are easy to moderate

03:02 for cars like this.

03:03 And so it does the job really well.

03:05 (upbeat music)

03:07 So now we're behind the wheel of the Hyundai Santa Fe,

03:14 and right away, I can feel that this is a pretty good engine

03:19 for the car.

03:19 We're talking about a 2.4 liter turbo four cylinder

03:23 with 277 horsepower and 311 pound feet of torque.

03:28 That's actually a very good standard engine.

03:32 There will also be a hybrid later on

03:34 in about a month or so that will be coming out

03:37 of the same plant in Alabama where the Santa Fe is built.

03:41 But I'll tell you, from what I've experienced so far

03:44 all day today, this engine is very good.

03:47 It does have a little bit of a turbo lag at the beginning,

03:50 but other than that, it provides plenty of torque.

03:53 There's plenty of power.

03:54 It gets you going pretty quickly.

03:56 And for a big SUV like this one,

03:59 you don't need anything more than that.

04:01 And for that to be the standard engine,

04:03 it's also very good and speaks highly of the effort

04:06 that Hyundai is putting in this car.

04:08 The eight speed automatic transmission,

04:11 it's been very smooth.

04:12 It downshifts pretty quickly whenever it needs to.

04:15 You also have the paddle shifters

04:17 in case you want to do it manually.

04:19 But overall, it's pretty good.

04:20 And the ride is very quiet.

04:22 We've been driving on these Tennessee back roads

04:25 all day today.

04:26 We haven't had a chance to go on the freeway,

04:28 so haven't really tested it at freeway speeds.

04:32 But at 40 to 65 miles an hour,

04:37 the cabin is very quiet.

04:38 We'll have to wait until we have it in California

04:43 to get a full first test and tell you more

04:44 about how it is at freeway speeds.

04:47 Now, in terms of technology, there's a lot to like.

04:49 There's this dual screen setup

04:50 that we've seen in other Hyundais.

04:52 And it's a curved display that has one screen for the driver

04:56 and one screen for the infotainment system.

04:59 And it plays really well, really nicely.

05:01 Or right below that, there is another screen

05:04 only for the AC controls.

05:06 Now, what's cool about this is that you have a mix

05:08 of soft buttons and hard buttons.

05:10 So you still have a volume knob.

05:12 You still have a button for the infotainment system.

05:15 And you also have physical buttons for the AC controls.

05:19 So it's really the best of both worlds

05:21 because you have this very clean setup for the displays.

05:24 And then underneath that,

05:25 you have a lot of physical buttons

05:27 that's within easy reach of the driver.

05:29 All right, well, that's a 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe

05:34 that's out in dealerships now, starting at around $35,000

05:38 and maxing out at around $50,000

05:40 like this calligraphy model.

05:42 I'm Miguel Cortina.

05:43 Thank you for watching.

05:44 (upbeat music)

05:47 (upbeat music)

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