i will present a vehicle which has delighted me it is the newly released hyndai santa fe 'lux' specification, 6-speed automatic transmission, 2.2l 197bhp diesel engine i will try to quickly present the exterior to keep the video short i don't know if you can tell, but this car exceeds a porsche cayenne regarding three aspects it seemed incredible to me, but it is true first, it is obviously cheaper second, it is more aerodynamic - which i thought was surprising but it is a fact this car has an aerodynamic drag coefficient which is puts many c-segment vehicles to shame
this is indeed fabulous the value of the drag coefficient is 0.34 for a highly performant suv, and i repeat.. much better than many cars in the compact and mid-sized segments 0.34 is a good drag coefficient in the compact segment for a hatchback chassis this car which we are standing next to is very large, as you can clearly see so far i mentioned two of the aspects where the hyundai santa fe is better than the porsche cayenne the third aspect, which i am not entirely sure of but i foresee that it will happen it will sell better in my opinion this is not a bad thing at all for a vehicle which has an interesting history
the previous model was successful, especially in romania and i am convinced, after driving this particular vehicle for several hundred kilometers, that the car will sell very well even though, if we analyse it objectively, it is not as competitive as its premium rivals in the same segment it is an aspiring car if you will, but it can not outperform a vw touareg, for example the vw touareg, besides the fact that it is more expensive, has a lot more available options, and an overall different composure in my opinion to this santa fe however, in line with what we have come to expect from hyundai, we are dealing with a very beautiful vehicle, with an impressive aesthetic
also aerodynamic with a design which is very well adapted to the european market and an exceptional price to quality ratio the car is not cheap. considering the fact that this specification is 'lux' one should expect to pay a high price nonetheless, as we will see throughout the duration of this test, this is a car which will be extremely successful in romania because it offers almost everything that one might expect from this type of vehicle going back to the exterior of the car,
it is clear that all the aerodynamic aspects are very refined at first sight, it seems to me that the chassis is slightly lower compared to the outgoing model i might be wrong though.. another interesting aerodynamic feature is the fact that the windscreen wipers are of 'aero' type the one on the right hand side is quite small, which i found surprising however, regardless of the asymmetrical size of the wipers, i noticed that they work very well one can see that the front grill is not completely open, despite the fact that it is rather large this is specifically so in order to limit the air intake only to the necessary flow to cool down the engine in this region we can see a slightly darker area
this is in fact an air intake unit used to direct the air flow to the engine led daytime running lights xenon lamps, as we will see during the night driving scenes observe the structure of the lamp, which is interesting in the region of the fog lights, which are quite large, we can also see two bulbs we will see more about these during the night driving scenes one can also observe a front windscreen which is sloped at a low angle from what i have read about aerodynamics, and also found very interesting, the bars on the roof of the car have an active role in the aerodynamic performance of the car
so they don't have just a design purpose but they direct the air flow towards the rear aileron in a controlled way, which is a pretty intereseting feature also linked to the aerodynamic, the rear view mirrors are relatively small compared to the massive size of the car, and this is aimed at minimising the frontal area of the car in the lower area, one can see a spoiler which, when we took the car for this test was slightly damaged, this is probably because the car had been previously driven on very rough terrain for the driver to see its off-road limits, which led to the spoiler being slightly dented. we will see that even when looking at the car from the sides,
despite a large ground clearance, the frontal and lateral clearance of the car are not great which is a clear signal that this is a vehicle for on-road use in case one needs to drive off road, this is possible. however, this has to be done carefully because the front spoiler and the rear bumper can be easily damaged if the driver is not being cautious. from the side one can see the superb silhouette of the vehicle i like this protective plastic cover which surrounds the entire vehicle, which has a strong line in the lower side of the doors this is a complete protection, meaning that the vehicle can be easily driven over terrain with tall vegetation
without worrying that it will easily get damaged. there are also some wheel arch liners for mud protection which can be easily removed if you don't like them. in this case the car will maintain the same elegant style removing these mud protections will not leave any marks behind the alloys have a special design and are a large size as we will see in a moment turn indicators are mounted onto the rear view mirrors we will some very interesting aspects regarding the car windows, which i have talked about in the past, from the black area underneath the case of the rear view mirrors, alongside the black rear view mirror arms,
and these liners which we see here, they are all made of a specific material which i previously mentioned that it is the latest type of plastic used in vehicles for example, hyundai ix35 or kia sportage do not have this type of material which in my opinion is a drawback for santa fe, which i am sure is the hyundai flagship at the moment, integrates all the latest trends with respect to the exterior of the chassis this shiny plastic looks very nice indeed. the door handles are a bit large in my opinion however, as this is a 'lux' model, the customers expect to see door handles wrapped in chrome,
we can also notice the keyless entry function, which is very convenient you just need to move closer to the vehicle and this allows you to lock and unlock the car by just pressing the button on the hadle as long as you have the remote control in your pocket. i initially thought that these are 18inch tyres, but was suprised to realise that they are in fact 235/55 r19 101h hankook ventus prime 2 tyres the reason i thought that these are 18inch wheels is because the car drives extremely comfortably even on rougher surfaces. in my opinion this fact indicates the quality of the suspension system. apart from this, well known features of hyndai vehicles such as 5-bolt wheels, ventilated brake discs which are both wide and quite thick
for both the front and the rear wheels. another very interesting aspect for this type of vehicle, which i appreciate at this hyundai model, is the fact that the liners fully cover the wheel arch so one can not see the engine compartment which is a considerable advantage for a vehicle of this type. hyundai opted for a fuel tank release handle which is located here in my view this handle could have been left out you already know my opinion that the best release mechanism is the one where you press directly on the cap nonetheless, since hyundai managed to insert this feature as well, you will find it here. looks quite elegant.
the rear of the car looks very similar to the ix35 model, at least the rear screen in any case, it looks very stylish from my point of view it looks slightly similar to audi models, especially in this region if you look carefully at an audi q3, for example, you will realise that it looks very much alike. not exaggeratingly so, but this style was not designed by hyundai notice here a video camera for driving in reverse also, it is clear that the rear and side windows are tinted the rear aileron manages the flow of air over the vehicle by pushing it slightly farther away from the rear screen
in order to keep both the rear screen and the rear of the vehicle free of dust. you well know that i am not a fan of large exhaust pipes unless they are fitted onto sporty cars however, this car is powered by a 197bhp engine, which means that this is not a vehicle for retired folks so i accept the two chromed exhaust pipes on the right hand side. it is worth mentioning the rear parking sensors, i am not sure whether you can see them they are very nicely integrated in the rear bumper, as if they were almost invisible. if you stand 3m away from the car, you will not notice these sensors any more this sensor integration concept is very interesting, it is a newer concept to what we are used to also interesting is this area between the fog lamps, which is designed in a honeycomb shape
from what i have seen, there is not just one fog lamp. each of the two lamps has a bulb inside. what i found disappointing, at least at first sight, is that the rear lamps don't appear to include leds but normal bulbs it may be possible that the tail lights are based on leds but judging by the number of bulbs i believe that the lamps are based on bulbs only and not led the third brake light is based on leds one thing that is very important, which would require a full explanation but i will not go into detail now, is the lack of an electric tailgate. normally, this is not strictly required, but in this high-end segment that the car is in the electric tailgate is a "must have" as the english would say
so you have to have this feature. it should have been available. also important for this type of vehicle is the location of the spare wheel. in this case, the spare wheel is located underneath the vehicle and at the exterior the advantages and the drawbacks are well known. advantages include a larger boot and the fact that you don't have to empty this out to get to the wheel in case you have a flat tyre, the disadvantage is that the spare wheel could be stolen the car is equipped with an anti-theft mechanism, but in romania there are not may infallible security systems another minus, which is important in my view, is that the wheel gets dirty. for steel wheels, these may be exposed to corrosion over time normally, after one-two years such a spare wheel located underneath the vehicle will get rusted
let's have a look at the boot the tailgate requires a push to open up the boot capacity is interesting, this is equal to 585 litres as one can see as well as a interesting modularity in the sense that in this compartment one finds the accessories for replacing a flat tyre, warning triangle and the baggage net the net can be fastened onto these hooks, which can be pulled out when one needs to use them and then pushed back in here we see another interesting space which can be used as a storage compartment for smaller objects the floor is completely flat
the boot looks very well made, with a quality similar to premium vehicles the sides of the boot are not covered with liner dut i don't think this is an issue we will see a number of further accessories, such as baggage hooks, here on the left hand side is an access point for mechanically opening the fuel tank cap for emergency situations when the cap electric actuator is faulty a 12v plug here courtesy light with on/off functionality which i believe can be set to automatically turn on when opening the taligate this sliding cover is very interesting because it can be set into two positions
one here and the other a bit farther behind this can be clearly seen here of course this can also be removed all together the reason for the two positions of the sliding cover is that the rear seats can be reclined - not asymetrically but each of the three parts individually as one can clearly see the seats can not be reclined all the way down if the sliding cover is fixed in the position that is closer to the cabin so this is a well thought out feature another interesting aspect, which one expects from this sort of vehicle, is the ability to fold down the back seats using a release lever, either from the boot or from the cabin
this lever will fold down the back seats as one can easily see this cover can be removed. unfortunately i am not sure where this cover can be placed once it has been removed in other vehicles this cover can be used for various ingeniuous purposes the lower side of the tailgate is designed appropriately but you know my issue with a single handle for closing the tailgate this is a cost saving which does not make sense from my point of view nonetheless, this handle is more interesting than a simple indentation it is solid enough to allow one to easily pull down and close the tailgate
you have probably noticed some noise from the registration plate this is typical for registration plates mounted directly onto the tailgate it must be very well screwed down to prevent any vibration and noise as you might expect from this type of vehicle, the bonnet is fitted with a lift assist mechanism the two lifters seem to be quite powerful i once had a chat with a service manager - not from hyundai but from a different, more renowned manufacturer - they were complaining about these bonnet lifters saying that beyond 150,000 - 200,000 km, sometimes even before, the bonnet could simply fall down as the lifters become less able to sustain the mass of the bonnet
this manager is a fan of the classical mechanism based on a bonnet support arm which you can always trust however, for this type of vehicle and for this price level, as i similarly mentioned the electric tailgate operation, these are features which must be fitted, and hyundai has addressed some of these by fitting the bonnet lifters now i am going to step to one side as my shadow is projected onto the engine bay to show you an engine compartment which has amazed me you get the feeling that it is state of the art and i will tell you why i think it is a very modern engine bay because many of the components which you would normally see on a similar vehicleare missing in order to reduce the complexity and the mass of the engine, which is what i mentioned in the past about the ix35 and kia sportage, by optimising absolutely everything in the engine bay
the result for this santa fe is very spectacular as the engine compartment looks very simple there are no extra accessories which you don't know what their function is it is very simply and elegantly designed also, it is nice to look at. when i first opened the bonnet, i was effectively taken by suprise i have yet to see a more elegant and compact engine compartment than this santa fe's everything looks very refined with a sligtly different approach in comparison with what i have seen so far in other vehicles we see here a reinforcing piece of metal
which is nice and straight, unlike similar components in other engine compartments which are much more complicated, onto which only the headlamps and the front grill are attached the actual engine block has a large cover this is the air filter this is the air intake. i was telling you during the presentation of the exterior that the air is sucked in from the front grille, is directed through this plastic duct to the air filter, and then to the vgt turbo compressor located at the back of the engine which is quite large, as you can probably see from the turbine the air returns to the inter-cooler. the tubes are not visible, so it is difficult to work out where this is located
the inter-cooler is probably located in this area at least this is what i think, that this might be the inter-cooler however, i can't see the air tubes in conclusion, this engine compartment is very well arranged and thought out the 12v battery is located here these are the fuse box and the obd connector here we see a few access locations where one can access, for example, the bolts for the suspension dampers another very beautiful aspect is the fact that these shock absorbers are not visible so the shock absorber mounts are masked by this plastic cover. also behind this cover are the wiper motors and other similar technical components
here on the left hand side we see the engine coolant reservoir and the reservoir for the headlamps, front and screen cleaning liquid the engine is a 2.2l, crdi common rail direct injection with 16 valves and timing chain, vgt (varible geometry turbine) and a power of 197bhp at 3,800rpm. this specific rpm level is very interesting because it is lower than the typical value so this is an engine with an interesting power and torque vs speed curve especially since the engine torque is uncommonly large.
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