December 11, 2006 - Many of our readers are too young to recall Hyundai's "less than stellar" early years. If you are one of those people, check this factoid out: in the early 90's, "Hyundai" equaled "terrible car". However, a lot has changed for the Korean car company in the past 15 years; these days Hyundai has established itself as a maker of cheap (sorry: "high-value") rides that are easily on-par with the likes of Honda and Toyota reliability-wise. Not only that, the latest generation of Hyundais is showing that the Korean manufacturer learned how to churn out rides that add a bit of style and a whole lot of safety to the vehicles' now-solid reliability. Hyundai's latest soft-roader, the second-generation Santa Fe, shows that Hyundai can now build rides that are cheap and pleasing to look at.

The all-new 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe is 100-percent prettier than the vehicle it replaces, but it is still lacking the "wow" factor of a CUV like the Acura RDX or the Ford Edge. This CUV's appearance is unassuming to say the least: it's attractive enough to not turn people off, but it's not wild or bold enough to turn heads. The Santa Fe's styling is smack-dab in the middle of "average", which is more than good enough for the majority of car buyers. This CUV still tries to look like a truck - especially in the front - but the overall lines of the vehicle are much softer. Yeah, the old Santa Fe was pretty "round", but one can't deny the fact that the '07 car looks a lot more fluid.

It's too bad that the fluidity of the exterior doesn't find its way into the Santa Fe's cabin. Perhaps it is just our body type (think: "tall"), but everything in the Santa Fe just seems too "low" to us. It really feels as if we are sitting way too high over the dash - it's a bit unsettling. Furthermore, we have to reach way down to grab the steering wheel. Now, we adjust our seats so that we sit bolt upright and are close to the wheel, so if we feel we have to "reach" for the handle, something just isn't right. A telescoping wheel would do wonders to fix this issue.


The driver's seat is a little uncomfortable as well. Maybe it's just our tester, but the headrest always seems to push our heads forward. We like to tilt our heads back an inch or so and relax while stuck in traffic - we can't do so in the Santa Fe. Damn. Outside of those issues, there isn't much else to complain about interior-wise. Outside of the cheap-looking faux wood trim, the fit and finish of the interior plastics seems to be pretty good. Actually, ditching the wood trim would do a lot to make the Santa Fe's cockpit look "not cheap". We really like the bright-blue lighting of the gauges; all the controls are intuitive and easy-to-use; and there seems to be more than enough space for the front and back seat passengers. (As with all CUVs, the optional third row seat is unusable for anyone over five, but you already knew that...)


The Santa Fe performs exactly as one would expect it to: like a Sonata on stilts. It's got a quiet and soft ride and its engine, while certainly not a screamer, does an admirable job of getting the CUV up to speed. Our test vehicle is equipped with the 185-horsepower V6 and Shiftronic transmission, but as is the case with most automatic-equipped cars, the acceleration is anything but "sporty". Even bumping the gear-select lever over to "manual mode" doesn't do much to help acceleration. Still, the Santa Fe has more than enough power to get out of its own way, which is good. As we said, it drives just like a bread-and-butter sedan, which is what the vast majority of drivers want.

As with its Sonata sibling, Hyundai's Santa Fe is a solid, well-built yet average ride. It may not be a vehicle for a hard-core enthusiast, but it's a solid ride packed with all sorts of standard safety features such as six airbags and electronic stability control. Hey - it's cheap... we mean "value-priced", too: our loaded GLE tester rings in at just $22,240. You can't use a Santa Fe to haul ass around a track or ford rivers, but it'll do an excellent job of reliably hauling the kids off to soccer practice with relative ease and comfort. In other words: it's the perfect vehicle for your mom.