Car Review: 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport

As an employee of a dealership, I have the ability to test drive nearly anything on our lot that I want to. I've been eyeing the new Santa Fe Sport, as it's very similar to the new forester.

For $28,050, you get a quite well-equipped vehicle. Fog Lamps, LED running lights and finished in Marlin Blue.

In this trim level, (2.4L FWD SE) it looks fairly sedate. Very much a Family car. In fact, so much a family car, that the 7-passenger variant (Santa Fe XL) won the Cars.com Family car of the Year" for 2016.

The interior is well equipped. Tan cloth seats, Tan dash trim and door accents, Grey wood grain, and some brushed Aluminium.

For a base model, it's got plenty of gadgetry. Bluelink, Bluetooth, Pandora, hands-free, backup camera, CD and MP3 capabilities. Pretty much anything I'd require in a car, although I'd like Navigation and the optional 4-camera system and radar cruise control system.

As a Subaru fan, I'd love to own the Forester XT...but only if I could get it with the 6-speed. Which, for whatever reason, is only available on the base model X-trim. Subaru dropped the 4EAT automatic in favor of the now-standard Continuously Variable Transmission.

So, when compared on paper, the Forester XT with the 2.0L Turbo and All-Wheel Drive in Limited trim is very close to the Santa Fe Sport 2.0T AWD Ultimate in both power, dimensions, price and performance. So, all else being more or less equal, that CVT ruins the Subaru for me.

This car is the base trim level, but by no means cheap quality.
But, please, don't take my word for it. Go test drive one sometime.

Check out this car, as well as other Hyundai models here.

Big thanks to Tyler L, the sales manager at Suburban Hyundai of Lansing, for setting this test drive up.

Thanks for reading.


-Phil