Buying a new car is a completely different story when you have children and it generally needs more thought to get it just right… But is there such thing as the perfect family car?
Well, I’ve been testing out the Hyundai Santa Fe to see if it ticks all my ‘family car’ boxes.
Pushing the boundaries of a family SUV…
the Hyundai Santa Fe is an extremely well put together car with all the mod cons you need to make for a comfortable journey, whether you’re with the family or driving alone.
The 7 seated 4×4 that I had the pleasure of test driving gives you more than enough room to be able to take those important family outings as well as those long distance holidays. This is a car you should be considering for your main family car.
The exterior is smart looking and is up there with the best of the SUVs in the current market, its sleek yet bulky design catches your eye and your immediately drawn. The rear windows of this model had been tinted dark which gave the car the sporty look we all desire.
The chrome handles and trim all around tops that sporty look off which stands out beautifully The Santa Fe comes well equipped even at the entry model with alloy wheels, dual control air conditioning and best yet a glass roof that opens up as a sun roof!
The Santa Fe has many optional extras and are worth considering. The Heated seats are comfortable and can be set to either warm or cold with 3 settings each. Wi-Fi, satnav, DAB radio, bluetooth, charging points – the list is endless.
The extras list give you everything you could ever want and need. The best that I discovered have to be the inbuilt sun visors in the back seat windows – perfect to pull up when the sun is beaming in on little ones faces.
The Santa Fe has cameras all around, which are discreetly hidden and gives you a 360 degree view once in the vehicle, which helps when driving out of side roads with reduced visibility and comes in very handy when reversing into those awkward spaces.
The model we drove was an automatic 2.
2 diesel – potentially enough torque to tow and certainly enough power to make the drive a comfortable and economic one! I have always chosen to remain with a manual drive car – but automatic may have swayed me.
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It’s so effortless and glides through the gears.
The only downside to the Santa Fe is the boot size when the 7 seats are in place – it leaves only a small space. It has the potential to maybe fit a stroller and a few essential bags but nothing else! I suppose this is only to be expected in a car with 7 seats. However when only using 5 seats – the boot becomes huge. Plenty of room for bags, camping gear, buggies or our four legged friends! We even had the pleasure in testing it as a base for a picnic when the weather wasn’t too great on our day out.
Talking of boots there is also a handy port in the back to use as a charger – potentially for a cool box on camping trips or in my case to charge my camera batteries out and about in between shooting.
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Its all the little things that adds up to this being a great family car – thumbs up to the creators – it is definitely in the running for our next family car.
I’m an owner of a 2014 Santa Fe 2.2 CRDI Premium SE, and being top of the range for the year (before the newer facelift model in 2016) and with 2 boys, and a daughter due in October, I have to say, I’m pleasantly pleased with it. It does without the front seat coolers, newer DAB radio with infinity sound system, and the sunblinds that are built into the rear doors (and a few other new tweaks) but overall it’s a great car.
Having changed up from a Hyundai Ix35 to the Santa Fe in preparation for the arrival of my daughter, I needed a car that would comfortably carry 5 on a regular basis (Ix35 would not get 3 car seats in a row!) so 7 seats was a must. The 2.2 CRDI is a lot more thirty than the 1.7 CRDI in the Ix35 that I was more accustomed too (50mpg vs the Santa Fe 36mpg)
As for practicality, that’s this cars trump card, and yes, as has been mentioned before, with all 7 seats up, boot space is severely hampered. But being a family of 5 (or soon to be) I found it more practical to only have 1 of the 2 rearmost seats up, with my eldest in the rear seat, my youngest in the middle row, boot space was comparable to say a Ford Focus, and makes family trips away for prolonged periods easily manageable, once my daughter arrives, I can see my roofbox being re-employed for trips away, but for day to day, it suits my family needs perfectly!
My daughter came along and I went the opposite way and bought a mid life crisis car. I’ve an Audi A3 cabriolet with the ridiculously fun 2.0 turbo. I enjoy every minute I drive it.
That said, I only intend to keep it for a year, two max. I’ve had it a year already.
The next car will be more family/bike/buggy friendly!
You’ve done well there mate!