Hyundai Santa Fe 2000 test drive - 2004 SUV

Pragmatist

Hyundai SUVs, unlike cars of this manufacturer, somehow very easily and simply conquer almost all the markets in which they are represented. Inexpensive utility Galloper, a pretty Santa Fe SUV, a serious full -size Terracan jeep - all of them without considerable effort took almost leading positions in their market sectors. Apparently, their design, manufacturing, external design, dynamic indicators, equipment and price are so consistent with the needs of customers that all these models were sold and sold without much effort. That's just one of these bestseller and is our today's hero - Hyundai Santa Fe with a diesel engine.

We talked about the Hyundai Santa Fe parquet SUV more than once or even two: cars with 2.0- and 2.7-loser engines have already been visited on our tests. Now, on our test, there was another version of this car - CRDI. Those who at least a little monitor modern trends in the automobile world have probably already assumed that this abbreviation means that under the hood there is a diesel engine with direct fuel injection. Moreover, this is not a licensed technology, but the independent development of Hyundai - the direct injection of fuel, 2.0 -liter and 112 hp.

It turned out to be good for the Koreans, even in comparison with more eminent rivals. The driving qualities of the model with a diesel engine are simply on top, and the impressions of it were the most favorable. This motor works quietly and softly, which is very unusual for cars of this price range. Usually, diesel engines from commercial gamut are offered for SUVs, if any, therefore, in their acoustic and dynamic parameters, they are very much inferior to more expensive models.

Santa Fe has a modern diesel, and this determines some of its features: there is no lomic thrust on the bottoms that is inherent in all diesels of the last decade, while the engine itself works almost as softly as gasoline. In principle, it would be difficult to distinguish them in principle, if not for the tonality of the sound: the sound of a working diesel is saturated with bass, while gasoline four -cylinder motors simply rustling. Naturally, not least buyers of diesel cars, especially SUVs, are interested in their dynamic indicators, because even gasoline all -wheel drive cars are not always quite dynamic, and what can we say about diesel engines ...

The diesel Santa Fe in this discipline stands somewhere in the middle of the entire off-road brotherhood: acceleration from a place to 100 km/h in 14.9 seconds is not a record, but this is also impossible to call this either. A normal, in general, indicator, and for this SUV, it seems to me, this particular motor is most suitable. The gasoline four -cylinder power unit is openly weak for such a heavy machine, and the 2.7 -liter V6 is too voracious. The diesel, although less dynamic, but when driving around the city, it does not cause expansion: the speakers are quite enough not only to be a burden in the city stream, but even if desired, you can even make a lot of food. True, in order to quickly ride Santa Fe Crdi, you need to be able to or even love cars with mechanics: it is strategically important not to miss the tachometer arrow below 1,500 rpm. The peak of the torque, which is 2000 rpm and stretched out to about 3500-3800 rpm, allows you to go and accelerate quickly enough, but if the tachometer arrow goes beyond the indicated range, then the noise of the motor begins to prevail over its efficiency. It turns out like this: you touch the place and, twisting the engine up to about 3500 rpm in each gear, vigorously disperse the car. It is pointless to promote the engine, as well as lowering the momentum to the mark of 1000-1500: the machine instantly turns from a vigorous sprinter into a marathon man exhausted by life, capable of moving in such a mode for an arbitrarily long time, but at the same time in no desire to change the rhythm of running. So the output is one: to monitor the arrow of the tachometer and try to stick a low gear in time if you are going to intensively accelerate or overtake.

The most interesting thing is that in all of the above modes, ranging from flange at a speed of 40 km/h to extreme races in the city stream, the car is amazingly Reminaries: in all modes, the diesel engine works quietly, without a tear, and its noise only informs about the engine operation, but Already in no way is a source of irritation. And in this he reminded me of more expensive SUVs like Mercedes ML. The presence of a diesel engine is felt only with very intense traffic modes, and in everyone else the car tries to behave exemplary. Independent pendants of all wheels carefully process all the irregularities, and in this Santa Fe has really surpassed many.

As has been proved more than once by our Russian and Western colleagues, the Koreans in this case managed to create an amazingly clean, from the point of view of controllability, a car. And if Santa Fe had been installed even more powerful than a 2.7-liter V6, a motor, then in terms of running qualities, it seems to me, he could compete with such an unsurpassed parking member as the BMW X5. If you do not believe, then try it yourself - Santa Fe really drives better than most modern SUVs ...

Actually, I do not really like cars with diesel engines, especially when it comes to relatively low-power four-cylinder versions, but in this case I am simply forced to remove the hat to Korean engineers: the motor turned out to be really outstanding. As it seemed to me, in terms of its technical perfection, this car is close to another good turbodiesel - Renault Laguna II DCI.

And the fact that the SUV is compared with a passenger car only adds pluses to the Santa Fe piggy bank. If we compare it with other SUVs of this price range, it turns out that Santa Fe is almost a leader, and if you take more expensive 6- and 8-cylinder diesel modifications as a standard, then against their background are Korean SUV with 2.0- The liter engine clearly loses. But this is all the salt: the diesel Santa Fe can be bought for a completely acceptable amount, approximately equal to the cost of a conventional car's car in a similar configuration and with a diesel engine. And if the people choose ordinary jeeps based on the reasons of prestige or the degree of functionality of a particular model, accurately knowing their needs and requests, then in the case of Santa Fe everything happens exactly the opposite: the buyer considers this model primarily as an alternative to an ordinary passenger car. And at the same time, despite all the advantages that the SUV car gives, he is not going to sacrifice either handling, or the level of comfort, and even more to pay some money for these advantages. And Santa Fe Crdi fully meets all these requirements, surrender to customers not only an interesting design, high quality assembly, but also a low price. On this car, among other things, it is simply nice to drive ...

(+) A pleasant design, a qualitatively assembled and spacious interior, a successful combination of price/quality, good running capabilities.

(-) mediocre dynamics of acceleration.

Text: Pavel Kozlovsky
 

Source: Auto -Gazeta / N 19 (365) dated 29.05.02