HYUNDAI SANTA FE

Is there more to this bold-looking seven-seat SUV than meets the eye?

Large, seven-seat SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe have generally superseded peoplecarrier MPVs in Europe. While some may lament the loss of the clever use of space for which MPVs were known, it takes only one glance at the Santa Fe to see why buyers aren't looking back.

Here stands not a fancy van but something that trades an MPV's excessive head room for a raised ride height, to give some off-road ability (or its suggestion) and no small degree of road presence.

The latter is enhanced by the Santa Fe's sheer size, which is close to that of a BMW X5 and makes it the biggest car in Hyundai's UK range (the even larger Palisade is sold in America). Let's see if it has the cleverness and sophistication to match the design appeal.

The new Santa Fe builds on the foundations of the previous generation, which somewhat unusually had a platform change midway through its life, so it's not exactly old. This N3 platform is shared with the Kia Sorento and, as a result, the two Korean SUVs have quite a similar engine line-up.

At the core of that sit a regular hybrid and a plug-in hybrid, which both use a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder with 158bhp and an electric motor in the six-speed automatic gearbox (a 58bhp unit in the hybrid, 90bhp in the PHEV). While Kia's Sorento comes exclusively with four-wheel drive (a mechanical system with a transfer case and a propshaft, rather than one that adds an additional motor on the rear axle, like many hybrids), Hyundai also offers a cheaper frontdrive version of the hybrid model. It has killed off all its diesels, though, so anyone after a tow car should look elsewhere - both hybrids are limited to towing 1100kg.

Mechanically the new Santa Fe isn't so different from the old one, but Hyundai says it has worked on the suspension bushes to improve ride isolation and has retuned the steering for better on-centre feel.