We’ve said it before, but this new Hyundai Santa Fe provides some of the strongest evidence yet that the Koreans are coming. Armed with what we shall see is a credible product and reinforced by that most sought-after of commodities – decent residual value – it’s a far cry from the days when we’d recommend such a machine only to those who couldn’t afford anything better.
Hyundai also appears to be ahead of the game in the design of this all-new Santa Fe. The MPV world has long realised that you don’t have to drive something the size of a container ship simply because you need seven seats. However, the news appears to have slipped by SUV designers, despite the fact that a large proportion of the sales of these cars go to people looking for a rather more stylish alternative to a people mover.
The company has spotted a huge gap in the market between compact, five-seat recreational off-roaders such as the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan X-trail, and big seven-seat barges like the Land Rover Discovery. Priced and sized to split the difference between these two classes, and available with two third-row seats as an inexpensive option, it is into this space that the Santa Fe neatly, not to say somewhat opportunistically, dives.
