Hyundai Santa Fe Review & Prices

The Hyundai Santa Fe is one of the company’s stalwarts - it’s been around for nearly 25 years and during that time morphed from a slightly agricultural off-roader into a proper family car. The latest model, though, adds in a real dose of Star Wars styling and makes what would otherwise be a pretty dull-but-worthy SUV into something that’s actually really cool.

Think of it like a Stanley cup - the company that spent years producing extremely good but very ugly green vacuum flasks becomes the must-have accessory at the drop of a hat simply because its products now have the looks to match their functionality.

Alternatives include the closely-related Kia Sorento, as well as other three-row SUVs such as the Skoda Kodiaq and Nissan X-Trail. However, the new Santa Fe feels so upmarket that it’s easy to imagine you might cross-shop it with something like a Land Rover Discovery or Volvo XC90 - it’s that good.

The Santa Fe’s boxy body is immediately eye-catching, and follows the design language of other great-looking Hyundais such as the Ioniq 5. It’s futuristic but functional, with a square back that maximises the amount of interior space. All-round LED lights and an array of excellent colours - brown, orange or green are on the list as well as more ordinary shades of grey or silver - complete the forward-thinking approach taken to styling.

Practicality is the name of the game for a three-row SUV like this, and the Santa Fe does very well indeed. The middle row can be had as a bench or even a pair of luxurious captain’s chairs, and there’s loads of room. The third row is tighter, but kids will be fine back there and there’s even a reasonable boot space behind them.

Storage space, meanwhile, is virtually unparalleled with an amazing 17 cup/bottle holders in total. That may be the most on any car sold in the UK…

The interior’s also quite handsome and extremely well-built. The dashboard’s seriously premium-looking with its massive curved display - the equal of any BMW - and everything feels plush and hardwearing.

The Santa Fe comes as a self-charging hybrid or a plug-in hybrid, with two or four-wheel drive. Both engines have plenty of power to cart the Hyundai’s big body around, but neither are what you’d call rapid - they don’t have quite the same sort of effortless shove as, say, a Land Rover Discovery. And it’s a shame that Hyundai doesn’t offer the Santa Fe with a diesel engine, as that sort of low-down pulling power really suits a car like this.

The hybrid engines do offer pretty good fuel economy for a car like this, though, and the plug-in version has low CO2 to make it a reasonable company car choice as well.

With all its other merits taken into consideration, being slightly duller to drive than some alternatives seems a small price to pay - especially for a family SUV, where you’re more likely to be stuck in traffic on the school run than carving up a canyon. In most other respects, the Santa Fe is a brilliant choice.

Find out how much you could save with Carwow’s Hyundai Santa Fe deals, or get a great price on the outgoing model by browsing used Santa Fes. You can also check out other used Hyundais, and sell your car online through Carwow.

With prices starting at more than £46,000, the Hyundai Santa Fe isn’t as much of a budget offering as it once was. That makes it significantly more expensive than a Skoda Kodiaq, though it’s also quite a bit larger - and if you specify the Kodiaq with seven seats and a hybrid engine, it’s much more comparable.

More importantly, the Santa Fe offers as good an experience as a Volvo XC90 or Land Rover Discovery - in most situations - but undercuts them significantly on price. Even the most expensive Santa Fe plug-in hybrid is cheaper than the least expensive Discovery.

The Santa Fe is comfortable over bumps and powerful enough, though you wouldn’t call it fun

In town

The Santa Fe is a massive car, so the laws of square footage mean it’s not going to be the best choice for town driving and parking in tight spaces. However, among cars its own size, it holds up pretty well. For starters, that squared-off bonnet means it’s actually really easy to judge where the front corners are, and all-round visibility is pretty good. All cars get a reversing camera and the mid-spec ‘Ultimate’ model gets a full surround-view camera as well as a digital rear-view mirror.

The Santa Fe’s suspension does a great job of ironing out the worst of in-town imperfections and speed bumps, and it’s wide enough that you can easily straddle speed cushions. The hybrid engines are smooth and responsive, too, with little hesitation from the gearbox - you simply get up and get moving.

On the motorway

Despite its bluff bodywork, wind noise is really well-contained - Hyundai’s engineers have worked really hard to ensure that even though the Santa Fe looks like a brick, it’s actually very aerodynamic. Road noise is minimal too, the only thing that occasionally spoils the silence is the engine, which can be a bit raucous if you ask for a sudden burst of acceleration.

Power delivery isn’t as effortless as it is in something like a Land Rover Discovery, simply because the Santa Fe doesn’t have as much power on tap - but it’s still more than comfortable to cruise all day at the legal limit and there’s enough in reserve for a slip road or a quick overtake. Hyundai’s assisted driving features also work quite well, with adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping aids that make for pretty smooth progress. We wouldn’t bother using the automatic lane-changing, though - it’s far too hesitant.

On a twisty road

The Santa Fe has plenty of grip in the corners, the steering is accurate and the body doesn’t lean too much. So it’s perfectly capable of taking corners on a twisty road - it’s just not that enjoyable to do so thanks to the remote nature of the powertrain, and the numb steering that’s set up to be light and easy rather than to be the last word in driver feedback.

It’s much more enjoyable taking a twisting B-road at a moderate pace and allowing the Santa Fe to waft along, rather than attacking each corner in Sport mode - it surely wouldn’t be very comfortable for your passengers, either. A Land Rover Discovery is similarly afflicted, as are most large SUVs.

A Land Rover Discovery has more space in the third row, but the Santa Fe has it licked for cubby spaces

Up front in the Santa Fe the seats are big and comfortable, with loads of adjustment in the seat and the steering wheel for drivers of all sizes. What really hits you is the storage on offer, though, which is extensive. Not only do you get big door bins and a useful glovebox, but the cupholders are enormous and so is the centre cubby. You can even access the latter from the middle row of seats, very useful.

There’s an additional, shallow glovebox higher up the dashboard - on top-spec Calligraphy models this has a UV disinfecting light for things like phones or face masks. The Santa Fe’s gear selector protrudes from the steering column so there’s space in the middle for two smartphones on grippy rubber holders. One of these is a wireless charger as standard, and from the middle trim they both are.

Space in the back seats

Rear passengers in the middle row get plenty of space, with a 60:40 split rear bench that slides and reclines. There’s space for three adults, too, and though the middle seat is higher and a bit narrower than the outer two it’s still roomy enough - and a totally flat floor ensures there’s space for everyone’s feet.

Rear passengers are also spoiled for features. There are USB-C ports set into each front seatback for charging gadgets on the go, and bag hooks to keep shopping or handbags off the ground. There are two cupholders in each door, as well as a door bin big enough for a water bottle, and if you fold down the centre armrest there’s a further two cupholders - meaning you can have up to eight drinks stowed safely.

Access into the third row is good, you just have to press a button on the shoulder of a middle-row seat and it folds forward electronically. Once back there, there’s enough leg room for an adult to sit fairly comfortably provided the middle row of seats are slid forward just one or two clicks. The seat bases are set quite low, though, so your knees will be sitting high - not too comfortable for long journeys. That’s the same in almost all alternatives, though, with only the Discovery offering true seven-adult capacity.

Third-row passengers also get their own air-con controls, a further four cupholders and USB-C ports.

Boot space

With all three rows of seats in place, there’s room for three or four carry-on sized suitcases. It’s not exactly capacious, but it’s pretty good and better than in a Nissan X-Trail. Fold the centre row, and you liberate 628 litres of space. That’s still more than an X-Trail (565 litres) but less than the Skoda Kodiaq (910 litres) or massive Land Rover Discovery (922 litres). In reality, there’s plenty of space for all the family’s kit, and the digital rear-view mirror on most models means you can load right up to the roof with no worries about spoiling your view out the rear.

Drop the middle row of seats and you liberate a hefty 1,949 litres of space, a fact Hyundai proved by having us sleep in the car for its UK launch event. This is somewhat of a growing trend in Hyundai’s native South Korea - it’s called ‘Chabak’, or car camping.

A posh-feeling interior that’s the equal of any premium brand - though it looks a bit boring in all black

The old Santa Fe’s interior was solidly built and easy to use, but didn’t really inspire any ‘wow’ factor. That’s not so much the case with this new model, which has a dashboard dominated by a huge, curved twin-screen display - very much like the one you’d find in a BMW X5.

It looks great, and it operates really well too. The menus all make sense, the screens are bright and responsive, and you can set up customisable shortcut keys to take you to your favourite functions instantly. We had ours set up to quickly disable some of the more annoying driver aids.

Beneath this sits a climate control panel, which is nice to see - it saves rooting around in a touchscreen menu just to do something as simple as turning on the heated seats.

The design is modern and looks good, though it’s best in cars that are fitted with the optional cream or brown leather. In base-spec Premium cars, the sea of black does look rather dull. Quality is also up there with the best - all the switchgear feels expensive, the doors and windows close with reassuring solidity and there wasn’t a single creak or rattle. True, the materials do begin to get cheaper as you go lower down on the sides of the centre console, but that’s the case with all this car’s alternatives.

The Santa Fe self-charging hybrid claims an official fuel economy figure between 38-41mpg. We achieved 38mpg on a long, mixed route without being too careful, which was impressive. You can make the most of this by allowing the car to coast on electric power as much as possible. It’s a shame that the regenerative braking - controlled by paddles behind the wheel - is quite jerky, or we would have used it more, potentially saving even more petrol.

The plug-in hybrid has an official economy rating of 166mpg - a pipe dream for most, but as with all PHEVs it’s very dependent on usage. If you charge up every night and stay mostly within the car’s 30-ish miles of all-electric range, you might use very little petrol indeed. If you do lots of long journeys, you’d be better off with the regular hybrid, as the PHEV has extra weight and a smaller fuel tank.

CO2 emissions range from 145-166g/km for the hybrid model, depending on trim - which is good but too high to make an ideal company car. The plug-in hybrid has emissions of just 38g/km, which puts it in the 12%band for company car tax - good, but the Skoda Kodiaq nips into the 5% band.

All Santa Fes are over £40,000, so attract the high rate of VED for the first few years of ownership.

Euro NCAP hasn’t crash tested the Santa Fe yet, but the previous model scored five stars when it was tested in 2018. More recent Hyundais have all scored four and five star ratings.

All Santa Fes come with the usual gamut of safety aids, including driver attention monitoring, speed limit assist and lane-keeping aids. All cars also get blind-spot monitoring, full LED lights and a reversing camera. We’ll update this review once we know its score, but we’d expect it to perform quite well.

Hyundai offers a five-year, 100,000-mile warranty on all its cars, which is more generous than the three years of cover you get on a Skoda, Land Rover or Nissan. The closely-related Kia Sorento has seven years of cover, though.

Hyundai also posted a fairly disappointing 17th place in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey - behind Volvo, Nissan, and Land Rover. No Hyundai vehicle even ranked in the top 50.