Hyundai Santa Fe Undergoes Radical Surgery

by Tim Healey

Published: July 17th, 2023

hyundai santa fe undergoes radical surgery

It's been a long time since your author has seen a redesign as radical as what Hyundai is promising with the new Santa Fe. Quite frankly, it's a bit refreshing to see an automaker make a change this major -- though there are exceptions, redesigns lately seem to be more often about evolution than revolution. I applaud the strategy regardless of what I think of the execution.

I will have more on that latter point in a few weeks, as I'm slated to fly to New Mexico to see the Santa Fe in the flesh.

Key design details include H-shaped headlamps, H-shaped taillamps, and an H-shaped front fascia, defined wheel arches, and 21-inch wheels.

The tailgate is larger than before and the second- and third-row seats will fold down. The H-shape motif continues on the dashboard and air vents. Features will include a curved digital display, a 12.3-inch instrument screen, and wireless charging for two devices. Nappa leather seats will be available.

Hyundai promises to use a mix of sustainable materials, including recycled plastics and leatherette seating surfaces.

That's pretty much all of the actual details I could scrape from the buzzword-heavy press release. We'll know more soon.

[Images: Hyundai]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 78 comments

Corey Lewis on Jul 19, 2023

New example has shown up on the road in Korea, and it doesn't look as good as in the PR pics!

https://twitter.com/CoreyLewis86/status/1681718348298502154?s=20

1 Reply
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- Theflyersfan on Jul 19, 2023
  
  That's...ummm...quite a difference. Bad met worse at the intersection and crashed head-on. If they're going to copy, at least copy and modify the good parts because that rear is rough looking.
  
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- Daniel J on Jul 20, 2023
  
  I don't mind it at all, at least in black. The backend on the white looks a bit too much. Honestly the back is the part that I don't like. The rest of it looks good to me. What I like is that stuff can actually fit. Most of these SUVs can't fit larger items because they slope too much in the back. I think that was why the flex was somewhat popular.
  
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- Avatar77 on Sep 25, 2023
  
  looks the same to me. The PR pics don’t show a straight on shot of the rear, which is the most questionable part of the design.
  
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NN on Jul 27, 2023

looks like a modern Ford Flex, which is good IMO. I do wish it were the larger (Palisade) size just so you could maximize that boxiness for 7/8 passengers

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