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The Hyundai Santa Fe Sport is a solid two-row, compact SUV with a roomy cockpit front and back, a long warranty, and good fit and stop. It sells well to millennials and to empty-nest boomers, both looking for cars comfortable for two sets of adults going out or traveling together.

Fuel economy isn't class-leading, however, and only blind spot detection is standard (above the entry trim line), while adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist are optional. You can buy a Santa Fe Sport in the mid-twenties, only the safest model will set yous back more than than $38,000.

I've driven Santa Iron Sports several times since the tertiary-generation arrived every bit a 2022 model. They were ever competent, reasonable vehicles. They fell to a higher place the Toyota RAV4 and below the Mazda CX-5 on the excitement scale. This time, driving the top trim line, the Santa Fe Sport felt amend and more than upscale inside. It's a fine highway cruiser and capable of traveling long distances safely, even more and then with the driver assists enabled. The premium audio sounded good and the eye stack was fairly easy to employ in testing. On rough roads, the ride was a bit choppy. Iv volition ride quite comfortably and rear passengers volition capeesh the side window shades. Until you've been in car with shades congenital in, you never know how oft you'll use them, and cops won't write you up the way they practise for tinted windows.

With the the panoramic sunroof shade open, the auto was lite and airy inside, certainly for the front row passengers. The beltline starts to curve upwardly toward the back of the rear door (photograph below), which hampers the side view for kids and short adults. The bend reduces the cargo bay window to something seemingly trivial larger than a triangular dinner plate, which hurts rearward vision and makes yous glad the majority of Santa Fe Sports come up with blind spot detection.

Fuel economy ranges from an EPA-rated 20 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, 23 mpg combined for the front-drive base of operations model downwardly to 19/24/21 for the all-wheel-drive Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Ultimate. In short, and so-so for a auto without breathtaking acceleration. The four,100-pound weight plays a factor. (I got nearly 22 mpg in a week of driving.) At least information technology's on regular and not premium gasoline; the need for premium is the equivalent of getting xviii percent worse mileage at today'south fuel prices.

At 185 inches, Santa Iron Sport is a compact SUV based on length. But roomy front, rear seats give the sense information technology's a midsize.

Santa Fe Sport Trim Lines

The Santa Iron Sport is Hyundai's shorter, 185-inch two-row compact-almost-midsize SUV. For 2022 it will be called the Santa Fe when the next-gen model arrives. The longer, three-row version is the 193-inch Santa Fe, and adjacent year that 1 will be called the Santa Iron Forty, as information technology is at present in Canada. This review covers the current Santa Fe Sport.

Hyundai uses big buttons and big knobs: like shooting fish in a barrel to use.

The base model is the Santa Iron Sport, $24,950 plus $980 freight, or $25,930. It uses a 185-hp, ii.4-liter iv-cylinder engine with a 6-speed automatic driving the forepart wheels. All-wheel-drive adds $ane,550 on all three trims. Consumer Reports says the base engine is skilful enough. Car and Driver says it'south too slow, almost 10 seconds to 60 mph.

There are three options packages. You'll probably desire the $1,900 Value Package with a vii-inch center stack display (otherwise it's 5 inches), Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, satellite radio and Hard disk drive radio, the Blue Link telematics system, heated front end seats, a proximity key with pushbutton start, and roof rails. The $2,900 Premium Package adds bullheaded spot detection and rear cross-traffic alarm, a smart ability liftgate, leather seating and steering wheel, and color multi-information LCD in the instrument panel. The $3,250 Tech Packet requires the Premium Package and adds a panoramic sunroof, bumps the heart stack brandish to eight inches, adds navigation, premium sound, rear parking sonar, a heated steering bike, ventilated front seats, and heated rear seats. Choose all iii and you're in for $33,980. The packages provide many of the amenities of the other ii trim lines without adding the cost of the turbo engine. Towing chapters is two,000 pounds.

The eye trim line is the Santa Atomic number 26 Sport 2.0T, $32,330. It gets a 240-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged engine with a six-speed automatic. Blind spot detection and rear cross-traffic warning come standard. Lane difference alarm and adaptive cruise control are not bachelor. At that place are no options or packages other than all-wheel-bulldoze. What's optional on the entry Santa Atomic number 26 Sport and standard here includes: telematics (Blue Link) with iii years complimentary, leather seats and steering wheel, heated front seats, heated side mirrors, LED daytime running lights, proximity key and push button button start, a hands-free smart liftgate, sliding second row seats, machine-up (not simply downward) front side windows, rear side sunshades (very useful), an auto-dimming rearview mirror with compass and garage-door-opener buttons, side roof rails, an EL gauge cluster with color MID, HD Radio, Android Auto / Apple CarPlay (how you'd get navigation), and the seven-inch center stack brandish.

The top end is the Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Ultimate, $36,630. Standard features include an 8-inch center stack touch screen with navigation, 3 years of Blue Link operator-help navigation downloads, 12-speaker premium sound, and a panoramic sunroof. The $1,,600 Tech Parcel completes the driver-assist features: adaptive cruise command, lane deviation warning, automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection, steerable and self-leveling headlamps, and auto loftier beam. Combine the Tech Packet with all-wheel-bulldoze and you've got a a $39,780 compact SUV that's very well-equipped.

The upcoming 2022 Santa Iron grows iii inches (to 188 inches) and will replace the Santa Fe Sport tested here in the 2d one-half of 2022 every bit Hyundai's two-row meaty-about-midsize SUV.

Should You Buy? (Should You Wait?)

The 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport is ane compact SUV that isn't limping across the finish line in the final year of a six-twelvemonth lifecycle. The two- and iii-row Santa Fe models combined sold 133,171 units last year, upward two percent, and sales this year are up three percent. It is a solid performer with an excellent cockpit and very good safety technology as long as you lot cull the right options packages. The fully loaded toll of the 2.0T Ultimate is inside $2,500 of an Audi Q5 or BMW X3's base of operations toll. Just comparably equipped, a compact German luxury SUV would be priced in the fifties.

The Santa Fe Sport rides and handles well, gets to threescore mph in about viii seconds with the turbo engine, and has expert accommodations forepart and back for four adult passengers. The six-year, 60,000-mile warranty is a bonus. So is the ability to tow 3,500 pounds; near small SUVs are express to 1,500.

If you lot're looking at Santa Fe Sport, also look at its cousin, the Kia Sorrento. Amidst compact cars, look at the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Subaru Forester; the Mazda CX-5 is the best handler of the bunch, but it's a bit smaller. Among slightly larger cars, look at the Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander, Nissan Murano, and Ford Edge.

2019 Sante Atomic number 26 cascading grille: Another new auto with an elaborate grille. Only not quite Audi/Lexus large.

The fourth-generation, 2022 Santa Iron (what the two-row Santa Fe Sport will exist chosen) arrives in the second half of the twelvemonth. It appears to be a pregnant stride up in standard condom, cockpit civilities, and design. Hyundai joins Honda, Toyota, and before long Ford in in making multiple driver assists standard. Honda (Honda Sensing) and Toyota (TSS) make standard adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning; Ford (Co-Pilot360) starting with a couple 2022 models volition make lane departure alert and blind spot detection standard. Hyundai trumps all with Smart Sense:

  • The holy trinity of driver assists, full-range adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection (with rear cross-traffic alert and car-braking), and lane keep assist;
  • Collision mitigators such as forrard standoff warning / abstention assist, safe exit assist (the car won't open a street-side door if your Hyundai detects a moving car, motorbike, or bicycle backside yous), and drowsy driver alert;
  • Parking safe assists including rear camera and surround-view cameras, parking sonar, backing aid lines on display, and a tailgate safe-open guide;
  • Machine high-beams.

Hyundai says Smart Sense is on every Santa Fe trim line SE and higher up, and if we read Hyundai'southward printing info correctly, SE in 2022 is the entry trim line. The 2022 Santa Fe could join the CX-5 in making a compelling case every bit a premium car at a mainstream price.

As for the current Santa Atomic number 26 Sport versus today'due south contest: It'south an extremely capable vehicle. If you compare prices, have fourth dimension to make sure yous know all that comes standard with the Santa Iron Sport and what may be optional on competitor SUVs. If yous want driver assists, yous either need the base Santa Fe with the Premium Package, or to go all in, the Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Ultimate with the Tech Bundle.