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What does it take to get some respect in the American automotive marketplace? Hyundai says it finally figured that out last year, and is throwing in an extra model this year to ensure sales continue to spiral upward. That extra model sends Hyundai leaping feet first into the sport-utility market with a brand new model called Santa Fe.
Focusing its marketing efforts on a message that conveys high-value, quality, style, and competence, Hyundai is placing its new sport ute into the XUV category — crossover utility vehicle, a combination of car, wagon and truck. The newest of the new generation of car-based crossovers, the Santa Fe appears to have all the benefits of an SUV and a station wagon.
Built on the company's largest sedan platform, the Sonata, to take advantage of carlike driveability, steering, ride, handling and braking, the Santa Fe has trucklike command seating and the traction of full-time four-wheel drive. For on-roaders, that means comfort, visibility and a feeling of safety on the highway, and for off-roaders, enough grip to get you up, down and over high-grade dusty dirt roads without claiming to be a hardcore off-roader.
Styled by a team of designers from California, Korea and Germany, the elegant front has a strong, European look with nicely balanced projector headlights and foglamps. Bodyside contours are less traditionally SUV-angular and more like a passenger car, while the eight-inch ground clearance and large tires let you know this is indeed built for trucking along rivers and setting up camp
A mini-ute challenge?The Santa Fe is Hyundai's first product designed specifically for the tastes and needs of American customers. "We saw that this SUV market was defined by chunky, truck-platformed models such as the Cherokee, Xterra, Wrangler, Explorer, 4Runner and the Blazer," said Hyundai's U.S. president Finnbar O'Neil, "and even though these vehicles sell well, we found they have a high level of dissatisfaction with certain characteristics that relate to their frame design."
