Hyundai Santa Fe SUV

Drive

There's only one engine choice - an economical 194bhp 2.2 CRDi diesel. It's powerful enough to ensure that performance is brisk for such a big car, without being uneconomical. It's best to stick with the six-speed manual gearbox rather than the six-speed automatic, as the latter makes engines slower and less fuel-efficient. The Hyundai isn't exciting to drive, but is set up for comfort and copes with rough surfaces well. Due to its size, the Santa Fe rolls about in corners quite a bit, but the four-wheel-drive system means it has plenty of grip and copes well with loose or icy surfaces.

Comfort

The Santa Fe's interior is very quiet, with a distinct lack of wind and engine noise at all speeds. The comfortable ride and soft seats make the Santa Fe ideal for long motorway journeys, though body roll can become tiring on twisty roads.

Reliability

Four Euro NCAP stars for adult and child occupants is a reasonable result, and the Santa Fe comes with front, side and full-length curtain airbags as standard. There are also active head restraints for the front seats, plus four-wheel-drive and electronic stability control for extra grip. The unlimited mileage, five-year warranty offers great peace of mind.

Practicality

In seven-seat form the Hyundai Santa Fe is one of the most practical cars in its price range. The standard boot space is 969 litres, but fold the rear seats down and there's an incredible 2,247 litres available - that's enormous and perfect for carrying stuff like bikes or pieces of furniture. All of the seats are easy to operate when you're folding them flat, but access to rear most chairs through the gap behind the middle row is limited. The indicator and light stalks are mounted behind the steering wheel in the opposite direction to most cars (indicators on the right, wipers on the left), which might be confusing for some drivers to begin with, but you’ll soon get used to it if it's the only car you drive.

Value for money

Compared to most other 4x4s on sale, the Santa Fe represents excellent value for money. It makes less sense as a five-seater, as prices are closer to those of rivals. Entry-level Style models come with alloy wheels, air-conditioning, reversing sensors and a USB slot for MP3-player connectivity. Top-spec Premium versions add leather seats, an electrically adjustable driver's seat, heated front seats, automatic headlights and wipers and dual-zone climate control.

Running costs

The 2.2 CRDi diesel is impressively cheap to run. In manual guise, it returns 41.5mpg, which is good for such a big car. As an automatic, you get 39.2mpg for the five-seater or 38.2mpg for the seven-seater, which isn't bad. Manual models emit 176g/km, which means £200 annual Road Tax, while automatics sit at between 194- and 197g/km and cost £235 a year in Road Tax. Resale values aren’t fantastic: Hyundai's budget image means the Santa Fe loses quite a lot of money from new in comparison to some rivals.