mReview: Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy – Squid Game Big Winner

Hyundai’s new Santa Fe seven-seater SUV is a Korean champion of multi-activity motoring that wins in the game of Singapore urban life.

What’s Great

• It appears to be an Asian-American reDiscovery designed by talented LEGO enthusiasts with soju in their system. 
• Interior is really spacious and truly multi-purpose, from the first row to the third row and throughout the trunk.
• Amenities aplenty, which make the Santa Fe feel like a Santa Claus that keeps on giving to everybody on board.

What’s Good

• The 1.6-litre engine is willing to work hard as a turbo unit to save travel time and also work smart as a petrol-electric hybrid to save some fuel.  
• Dashboard has numerous user-friendly features to make driving safer, daily life easier, rush hour less stressful and road trips more joyful. 
• All the seats have a multitude of convenient adjustments for accessibility and flexibility, ready for any and every transport task.  

What’s Not Great

• Pursuing performance on the go with this Hyundai turbo hybrid will be at the expense of peace and quiet. 
• The ride comfort tends to be in a grey area between battle tank and school minibus.   
• Unnecessary heaters for the steering wheel and first two rows of seats. 

Surviving a dystopia of bad traffic out there and dangerous drivers everywhere is child's play behind the luscious leather-wrapped wheel of the all-singing, all-dancing Santa Fe. Centre console's digital tray for your personal devices has USB ports and dual wireless charging pads.Integrated UV-sterilisation shelf (left) and versatile two-way console box (right) are thoughtful features for the family. 

Turbocharged 1.6-litre engine has some kick, with a combined petrol-electric output of 215 horsepower and 367 Nm to haul this chunk of Korean SUV from point to point like a big LEGO brick on a mission.

Roomy, practical and comfortable for up to three adults, but preferably two if you desire maximum comfort.

Santa Fe's third row is as accommodating as can be, with adequate headroom, decent headrests and even seatback/s angle adjustment; but you need to yoga your body a bit to board or debus.  

Occupants number 6 and 7 in this seven-seater won't feel like budget passengers, thanks to the third row's good air-conditioning, gadget-charging power points, handy cupholders and individual reading lights.

This Hyundai's model name is writ large on the massive tailgate, whose tail-lights have an eye-catching H-shaped motif similar to the daytime running lights and front signal lights.

This tailgate is both epic and electric, with an opening wide enough for a terrace house and a canopy shady enough for a chalet or campsite.

In five-seater configuration, Santa Fe offers a ton of boot space for load-lugging and possibly Seoul-searching too. 

Remote-folding function for the second-row seats to facilitate expansion of the trunk from 628 litres of cargo capacity to a cavernous 1,949 litres, which will fit everything but the Korean kitchen sink.  

Santa Fe smashes the school run, complete with high seats for children onboard to feel grown up and high broadsides for adults in smaller cars to feel like primary school kids again.

Each C-pillar has a neatly-hidden handle to help you balance atop a rear tyre and reach the Sante Fe's roof railings for whatever utilitarian purpose.  Hyundai turbo-hybrid system is hardworking, but seems to be happier when Santa Fe is in its default "Eco" drive mode instead of "Sport", which is slightly frantic and eventually tiring.  Your odds of winning in the game of Singapore urban life are much better if you could afford one of these. 

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