new Hyundai santa Fe exterior

New Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 CRDi AT 4WD Review: A Rung Above

Interior, cabin comfort and  features

New Hyundai Santa Fe interior (1)

Climb into the Santa Fe, and the first impression you get is that of quality, opulence and neat workmanship. The cabin of the Santa Fe feels like a premium place. Right from the jazzy instrument binnacle, to the perforated leather seats, the central touch-screen and the soft touch buttons – adequate care has been taken to ensure that the Santa Fe doesn’t have any bits which tarnish with its upmarket status.

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The steering wheel and the dashboard is reminiscent of the Elantra, which itself is highly regarded for its interior. The two-tone dashboard is finished primarily in brown and beige, with silver and black inserts on the center console, gunmetal finish inserts on the steering wheel and carbon-fiber like inlays under the outer air vents. Door panels are also done up in a predominantly brown and beige finish with silver and black also being used. Power window buttons have gunmetal surrounds. The fit-finish is top notch, and all the visible elements within the cabin come across as exponents of fine workmanship and represent a neat, consistent assembly.

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Feature-wise, the Santa Fe is appreciably well equipped both in terms of comfort – convenience and safety. Talking about the former aspect, the instrument binnacle is a nice looking, predominantly blue backlit unit. The analogue tachometer on the left also features an engine temperature gauge and a gear indicator at the center. The speedo on the right, marked up to 240 km/h has the fuel gauge and outside temperature display at the center.

Between the two dials you have a multi-page menu driven central screen offering loads of vehicle related information. The multi-page menus on this display can be controlled via buttons located on the bottom right portion of the multi-function steering wheel. While being able to control more functions using the steering wheel is always a good thing, these buttons, being too many in number sometimes do get pressed inadvertently.

New Hyundai Santa Fe India (27) New Hyundai Santa Fe India (26)

The top left buttons on the steering wheel offer volume control, seek (track, station etc), mute and mode (radio, CD etc) buttons. On the lower end, you have the make / reject call buttons. On the top right, you have buttons to engage, cancel or control the speed for cruise control. This panel also features the Flexi-Steer button, unique to Santa Fe. Using this button, you can choose from three presets for the steering wheel behaviour – Normal, Comfort or Sport. We’ll talk more about this function in the handling / ride section later. The bottom right side of the steering wheel, as mentioned earlier has buttons controlling the MID screen between the two instrumentation pods.

The four main screen pages on the central Multi Information can be broadly categorized as follows

New Hyundai Santa Fe India (35) New Hyundai Santa Fe India (34)

  1. Trip info – Distance to empty, average speed, trip distance, clock, ODO reading
  2. Audio – Shows what’s playing on the audio system
  3. Service Reminder – days / distance remaining before next service
  4. User Settings – some customizable settings related to vehicle including lamps and others

Upon turning the system on, the tell tale lights which light up on the instrument cluster include the Diff-lock on/off, power steering function, handbrake, airbags, ABS, Traction Control and Hill Descent Control signs

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The central screen is a touch sensitive unit and allows you to connect your media, pair your phone, play music, set the clock and do a few other things. While the screen is perfectly functional and is a great feature to have, we think a bigger size and a brighter display would have served the purpose better. We found the TFT display a tad dim on a couple of occasions.

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Under the central screen you have the controls for the two-zone automatic Climatatronic AC. In addition to controlling the air circulation mode and temperature, you can also choose to turn the rear A/C on or off from this panel. Cochi was incredibly hot even during this time of the year, and we found the Santa Fe’s A/C to be extremely effective in hot conditions. You even get a chilled glovebox to keep your beverages cool on a hot, humid day.

New Hyundai Santa Fe India (40)

Next page for more on cabin features and space>>>

7 thoughts on “New Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 CRDi AT 4WD Review: A Rung Above”

  1. It looks to an orindary shape like other same segmant.the price to high ,people look this rice for other branded company i.e Audi,BMW….etc. The features is nice, but people think the power of BRAND NAME

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