Start with what the Hyundai Santa Fe is: a 5-door crossover SUV with Petrol engine, built from 2000, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to K.S. Kim (1997).
The story
The Hyundai Santa Fe (Korean: 현대 싼타페) is a series of crossover SUVs produced across five generations by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai since 2000. It is named after the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was introduced for the 2001 model year as Hyundai's first SUV. The Santa Fe was a milestone in the company's restructuring program of the late 1990s because the SUV was a hit with American buyers. The Santa Fe was initially marketed as a compact SUV in its first-generation.
After the Tucson was introduced in 2004, marketed under that same class, the Santa Fe was later repositioned into the mid-size SUV class since its second-generation launched in 2005. Through all generations, the Santa Fe has been offered in either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. The third-generation Santa Fe introduced in 2012 was available in two versions, which are regular (short) and extended long-wheelbase version. The short model was sold as the Santa Fe Sport in North America (three-row seating was not available) and simply Santa Fe in global markets (three-row seating was standard or optional), while the extended long-wheelbase model is called the Santa Fe in the U.S., Santa Fe XL in Canada and called the Hyundai Maxcruz in South Korea. The fourth-generation model, which was launched in 2018, introduced hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrain (since 2020), and the fifth-generation model, which was launched in 2023, discontinued diesel engines.
What is underneath
The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1585 -. Drive goes through a 5-speed manual / 4-speed automatic / 5-speed automatic. The wheelbase is 2620 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
In the Hyundai line-up the Hyundai Santa Fe has a clear place: the factory was Ulsan. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Škoda Auto Škoda Fabia, the Honda S2000, the BMW X5. Nearby in the Hyundai catalogue sit the Hyundai Accent WRC and the Hyundai Accent.
Owning one today
Buying one now means $9,800–$48,200 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $3,285–$8,049 a year. Insurance sits around $1,120–$2,490 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.