How Hyundai found its way in Santa Fe

Posted by hpayne on March 8, 2014

Take a trip with me to a different age in a Hyundai time machine. January, 2000, to be exact. My first Detroit Auto Show.

After shedding two coats, four sweaters, three scarves, a hat, ear muffs, and galoshes – we native Virginians don’t adapt well to coooooold Detroit winters — I led my little family through Cobo’s cozy toy store of automotive delights. Over here Corvettes with wicked torque. Over there Ferraris surrounded by half-dressed supermodels. Over here Ford Expeditions the size of Bill Gate’s yacht. And last and certainly least. . . the Hyundais, cheapest cars in show.

No torque. No supermodels. No room. Just simple affordability. We marveled at the affordable throwbacks, a generation behind everything else on the floor. The tinny doors of the Accent. The no-frills dash of the Sonata. The nerdy, four-eyed Tiburan coupe.

Fast forward to 2014 and the Hyundai duckling has become a swan. Looking back, the seeds of this transformation were there 14 years ago with the newborn 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe. The fledgling SUV was the first Hyundai recipe cooked up with American tastes in mind — a harbinger of the enormous investment that the Korean maker would make in the world’s most competitive market: California design center and proving grounds, a Michigan test facility, full-blown assembly plant in Georgia. . . the works.

“This (product’s) directive was to come up with a design that had originated in North America as opposed to having either a European or Korean concept of what North Americans would like,” CEO Finbarr O’Neill of Hyundai USA told Car & Driver then. And credit him with not insisting that the car be badged with another nerdy name like, um, the Finbarr.

The car had more than a good American moniker. Resisting the cheap temptation of building SUVs on a truck platform, the Santa Fe took its skeleton from the Sonata sedan, spearheading a trend towards more nimble, crossover SUVs. “From the cowl forward, the Santa Fe is more sports sedan than sport-ute, with a snouty grille and bubble fenders that give it a snarly look,” raved the boys at C&D.

Santa Fe inspired a generation. The Elantra and Sonata sedans have not only matured mechanically, but they have taken well-received risks with swoopy, segment-challenging designs. The nerds became hip.

Now a 2014 AWD Limited edition Hyundai Santa Fe has landed in my driveway in the midst of another 3-scarves winter in Detroit – and has raised the bar again. This baby is loaded with goodies. Call it Santa Claus Fe.

“The (exterior) invokes the impression of irrepressible motion through a new design concept called Storm Edge, which captures the strong and dynamic images created by nature during the formation of a storm,” hyperventilates Hyundai’s literature. Whatever. Let’s just say it’s doggone attractive.

In fact, the $41,000 Santa Fe (base is $29,000) arrived for testing at the same time I had a $57,400 Acura MDX in my driveway. From its three-bar hexagonal grille to its rising beltline to its wraparound taillights you would have thought the Santa Fe was the luxury-class entry. Where you once bought Hyundais because you couldn’t afford anything else, now you buy them because they make you look high class.

“It’s hard to justify buying the MDX based on the differential in price,” says Consumer Reports Director of Auto Testing Jake Fisher. “The Santa Fe’s comfortable, roomy, drives nice, and has an excellent infotainment system.”

A word on that roominess. With its third row seat, the 4,300 pound, AWD Hyundai can haul seven while dicing snow like a ginsu knife. That’s a soccer mom’s best friend. Heck, with its second row heated seats and heated steering wheel, you can’t get my wife out of this thing in the winter.

This attention to Yankee wants inside and out came from Hyundai’s commitment to the U.S. market. “They followed the Japanese example that you build ’em where sell ’em,” says auto analyst Michelle Krebs. “That helps you see better what’s going on locally.” With the Sonata, Elantra, and Santa Fe all made in the southern U.S., over 60 percent of Hyundai U.S. sales are American-made. The Sante Fe was designed in California, power-train tested in Ypsilanti, assembled in Georgia.

Its 290 horsepower V6 is muscular and fuel efficient. Its AWD system uses sophisticated torque monitoring like the Subaru STI cruise missile that I destroyed at Laguna Seca Raceway with last month. Its 146.6 cubic feet in interior room is easy on the elbows. And it’s Consumer Reports quality rating? An impressive 83, besting other star students in its class including the best-selling Ford Explorer (63).

Roomy, fast, durable, and high tech. Hyundai’s All-American specs have made it appealing to all Yanks. Not just those on a budget.

2014 Hyundai Santa Fe

Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, seven-passenger sport utility
Price: $35,450 base ($41,290 as tested)
Power plant: 3.3-liter direct-injection, dual-overhead-cam, V6 engine
Power: 290 horsepower, 252 pound-feet of torque
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mpg, 7.9 seconds (Car & Driver); 128 mph top speed
Weight: 4,297 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA 18 mpg city/24 mpg highway/21 mpg combined
Highs: Knockout looks; third-row seats
Lows: City mpg lower than advertized (but then, what isn’t?); cramped third-row seats
Overall:★★★★

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