The party crasher |
| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
For years now, the Ford Escape,
Honda CR-V and
Toyota RAV4 have been sitting on top of compact SUV shopping lists. In a segment that's getting bigger year after year, competition is ferocious.
Ok, the RAV4 and new CR-V aren't so compact anymore, as they've grown in size and maturity. In fact, the RAV4 now offers a blazing, 269-horsepower V6 and 7-passenger seating. You'd expect the CR-V to follow suit, but it won't. The Toyota now has a new Nemesis: the Hyundai Santa Fe.
What?
You've heard right. The
2007 Santa Fe, just like the previous one, can be ordered with V6 power, but it now offers models that can seat 7 people. This new Hyundai is quite an improvement over the outgoing model.
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| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
First off, just take a look at this truck. The old lumpy shape is ditched in favor of clean and aggressive lines, and I personally think it looks better than any other SUV in its category. It's also distinctive, as you won't mistake it for anything else. The headlamps have a menacing look to them, and its wide-open grille seems anxious to eat up Escapes and CR-Vs for lunch. The rear styling is a little more conservative, and keeps its right-side pull handle for the hatch, but is as pleasing to the eye as the front. And those chrome-tipped dual exhausts are very nice.
The Santa Fe is also much bigger than before, leaving the Tucson alone in the compact SUV segment. Step inside, and you'll be amazed at the abundance of interior space.
The materials used in the Santa Fe are pretty good, and the gray and black color scheme in the tester looks great. The seats are comfortable and the driving position is ideal. The heating and ventilation controls include rotary knobs that don't require taking your eyes off the road. At night, the instrument panel glows a cool-blue color, although it's so bright you have to dim it down quite a bit.
I was disappointed with the sound systems in recent Hyundais and Kias I've driven, such as the new Accent Hatchback and Spectra5, but the one
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| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
in the Santa Fe looks and sounds great. It reads MP3-filled CDs, and the wheel-mounted controls are within easy reach.
The rear bench is spacious for three adults, but legroom is a little tight. Blame the available 7-passenger seating configuration, which my test truck doesn't have. You can move the rear bench fore and aft in the RAV4, but you can't do that in the Santa Fe. But you do get a fold-down center armrest with cupholders.
