Hyundai Santa Fe: First Drive

Hyundai in India has done quite well, ever since it played the small car game pretty niftily. The Santro success has been the Korean car maker?s biggest achievement and it would have been easy for it to feed on this but for the fact that it has never stood still. Of course, being in the mass market mobility space, enthusiasts don?t much give the brand more than a passing glance for the firm?s products are functional honest machines where frugality of delivery is even more important than a feisty character.

It is not that enthusiasts don't want to be tickled pink by Hyundai but just that its many products in the higher classes didn't exactly get the traction in the market or the critical mass out on our roads for them to have stayed affixed in the popular imagination. The Tuscon and the Terracan were two vehicles which could have done the job of flying the brand flag in the minds of the upwardly mobile and while they were good for their times, sadly the competition seemed to be a car length or two quicker, faster, better, than them.

The best thing about Hyundai though is that it never shies from trying and it is back in this space with yet another thrust to make a mark in the mind at the business end of the Rs 20-lakh SUV segment. Mind you this is no playground for the weak kneed because it is dotted with stalwarts but this time round Hyundai is confident in that it has just the vehicle to get the job done.

Say hello to the Santa Fe a vehicle which is big and butch in a Korean-Euro style but has many in a dilemma as to whether its svelte style is that of a serious mud-plugger or it can pull it off with its overtly butch soft-roader appeal. This is key for the Santa Fe's move to dislodge such established runners as the Toyota Fortuner, the Honda CR-V and the Mitsubishi Outlander, all of which have stamped their mark among punters willing to splurge/invest (select choice of word as per one's inclination) in this class of the car market.

So much then for the genesis behind the Santa Fe, a romantic name from America's Wild West, a city of the same name in New Mexico to be precise, but as we shall see there is nothing wild about the way Hyundai's new fully built import has been configured to deliver.

One look at the all new Santa Fe SUV and it is difficult to digest that this is a Hyundai. While I am not saying that Hyundai makes bad looking cars, but looking at its current Indian portfolio only the i20 makes a pretty case for itself. The Santa Fe then is sure to add some more pizzazz into the lineup of India's second most successful car manufacturer. Hyundai's mid-size SUV made its debut in the year 2001. Based on the Sonata's platform, the first generation car looked pretty much like our current Tucson but with an extended wheelbase. But after nine years of evolution it's a whole new breed altogether. The SUV market in India is a pretty buzzing segment. With a horde of players already fighting for their piece of the pie, it's a fierce market out there. So how does Hyundai plan to stand out?