Hyundai Santa Fe 4WD AT (Part 2)

The seats can all be adjusted individually, which means you can choose between carrying people and luggage more efficiently. The boot is huge since the third row seats can be folded and buried into the floor. The second row can also flip forward to give you one mother of a loading bay. However, getting in and out of the third row requires a bit of gymnastic agility. Yes, best leave it to the kids.

Seven seats, Santa Fe gets bragging rights with three rows of seats. Last row is only good for kids, though.

In front is that all-too-familiar, new-age Hyundai dashboard, reeking of good quality. Corners have been cut in terms of equipment – no paddle shifts, no power controls for the front passenger seat etc – but thankfully, some of the best materials have gone into the plastic, leather and chrome bits here.

They’re all nicely finished too, adding to the sense of luxury. For example, the waterfall-style front console layout, the twin-pod instrument cluster, and the array of buttons that look elegant and make life easy for the occupants without confusing them. There are no baffling systems to go through to switch on the rear air-con, or to manually override to permanent 4WD. Almost everything is just a button away. The cabin is well insulated, and at cruising speeds, even the engine is just a distant hum.

Quality interior: Classic waterfall layout for dashboard. Elegant and quite functional at the same time.

Speaking of which, the powertrain is the only bit that’s been carried over here. It’s the same 2.2-litre common-rail diesel unit with the same power and torque figures – 194bhp and 436Nm. But overall weight is down by almost 125kg. While the earlier Santa Fe borrowed extensively from the Sonata platform, this gets a new lightweight one.

This weight loss helps propel the new Santa Fe from standstill to 100kph in just under 10 seconds. That’s not too bad for a 1.85-ton SUV. Top whack should have been better but the massive torque makes up for the lack of outright bhp.

In automatic guise, the Santa Fe needs some initial waking up before the H-matic gearbox goes up a couple of cogs, meets the torque surge – which starts from as low as 1,800rpm – and attacks the horizon with a vengeance. The ease with which the cogs move in varying traffic speeds makes you appreciate its overall effectiveness, despite the initial hesitation. Paddle shifters would have been nice here, although there is an additional stick shifter on the auto but it is too vague to use.

The new Santa Fe is surprisingly well-behaved. Body roll is impressively controlled for an SUV, although the steering feel isn’t quite up there. But now, there’s the option of ‘simulating feel’. Flex Steer is the name of this new gimmick. It toggles between Comfort, Normal and Sport via a steering wheel-mounted switch to offer varying degrees of power assist for anything from rush-hour traffic to open highways.

Good road manners:  A bit sluggish at the start, but on the move, the Santa Fe will dice through traffic and curves with ease.

More importantly, the new Santa Fe doesn’t mind being rushed into a corner, or chucked in and out of traffic. Even on the narrow and traffic-infested roads of God’s Own Country, where we tested the car, the big SUV was surprisingly easy to manoeuvre. Plus there’s on-demand four-wheel-drive. So, power goes to the rear only when the front starts losing traction. It’s actually quite effective. There is no low-range for enthusiastic off-roaders, although you do get a manual override switch to lock the differential and keep the vehicle in permanent four-wheel drive.

The true test of an SUV in the real world is its ability to smother road irregularities

Strangely, there is an option to switch off driver assist bits like traction control and electronic stability, which would have been fine for a sports car, but seems a bit unnecessary in an SUV. It would probably make more sense to offer some other relevant bits like power seats for the front passenger instead.

The true test of an SUV in the real world is its ability to smother road irregularities and the new Santa Fe shows the others how it’s done. Ride is supremely supple and comfortable without being too choppy. Small bumps and potholes are hardly felt. While internationally, the vehicle comes with 19-inch wheels as standard, the Indian variant has smaller 18-inchers with higher profile rubber that makes it more practical to ride on most road surfaces without many sharp jolts.

And in case you’re interested, there is a full-size spare wheel under the car, which isn’t the norm with many luxury cars in this price bracket.

Small bumps and potholes are hardly felt.

It is this practicality and ease of use, along with sheer overall SUV capability that makes the Santa Fe a formidable contender. True, it doesn’t have the extreme off-road credentials of, say, a Freelander, or the intimidating presence of a Fortuner, but it more than makes up with style, finesse and road behaviour that make it one of the best SUV packages to hit Indian roads in recent memory.

There are plenty of stories of how Hyundai hasn’t had major success with any SUV it has launched in India. All that might just change with this. Expect history not to be repeated.