Civic Si, Mustang convertible make every drive pleasure trip
Too often, as life races by, it seems that we donÂ’t spend as much attention to the fun quotient as we might. Sometimes it takes something as simple as an automobile to point out such a thing, but it is impossible to spend any time with either the Ford Mustang GT convertible, or the Honda Civic Si, and not have fun.
There are vehicles for transportation, for work, for family needs, and for fun. Ideally, you can combine them. Both the Civic Si and the Mustang GT convertible do combine such things, being surprisingly economical, once you get past the initial price.
Both also are 2002 models, which means weÂ’re in a hurry here, with a lot of 2003 model cars already in the showrooms.
HONDA CIVIC Si
The Civic has grown into a full-line variety of cars, with comfortable compact sedans, sporty and sleek coupes, and even hybrid gas/electric versions. For 2002, Honda decided to resurrect the Si, which is its all-out fun model. While you can get a basic Civic for about $13,000, and several other varieties for not much more than that, the Si boosts its sticker all the way to $20,000. But donÂ’t say thatÂ’s too much to pay until you drive one.
Honda loads a heap of its racing technology into the car, with a 2.0-liter engine featuring dual overhead camshafts and 16 valves, with variable valve-timing monitoring the engineÂ’s every move and timing the valvetrain to deliver optimum efficiency. Basic Civics have engines that produce 115 horsepower, with an upgraded version getting 127; the Si engine spews out 160 horsepower, which is more than enough to pull its front-wheel-drive lightweight hatchback-style body through any paces you might have in mind. It is a rakishly styled hatchback, by the way, which will not conjure up many memories of the boxy little cars Civics used to be.
From the steeply raked nose to the contoured side panels and the chopped off rear, the Si stands apart from other Civics. Under the body, it also stands alone with stiffer suspension front and rear. Stabilizer bars on both axles enhance the rear double-wishbone suspension system, and the fronts, while switched to MacPherson struts, donÂ’t seem to suffer any in the handling department.
Low-profile but all-season tires on special 15 x 6 inch alloy wheels enhance the flat-cornering feel of the car.
A 5-speed manual shift gets the maximum out of the strong little engine, right up to its 6,800 RPM redline. While you can really hurl the Si around in tight spots, and marvel at both the firm handling and the quick-responding power, you also can get 30 miles per gallon. I actually got 28.5 miles per gallon, driving the Si hard and pushing the revs – for analytical reasons only, of course (wink-wink).
Four-wheel disc brakes allow the Si to stop as well as it goes, and there are front and side airbags for the two front seats and antilock brakes with electronic brake distribution to help get all the braking power out of it under panic situations.
Inside, the Si makes a pleasant place from which to operate. White-faced gauges and a pleasingly thick steering wheel gain immediate notice, as does the shift lever. Instead of coming out of the floor, the stubby shift lever comes right out of a pod on the center dash panel. Seats are firm and supportive – typical Honda – and there is a power moonroof for semi-open-top driving.
Typical Honda build quality and craftsmanship make the Civic Si a very tight, impressive package. While Honda is a Japanese company, it has been making cars like the Accord in the U.S. in a Marysville, Ohio, plant for years. The Civic Si that I test drove lists 70-percent U.S.-Canadian content and 20-percent Japanese content. The remaining 10 percent is not disclosed, but the vehicle was assembled in a plant located in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. How is that for emphasizing how global weÂ’ve become in our auto world?
MUSTANG GT CONVERTIBLE
FordÂ’s prime competitors in the ponycar market started by the Mustang are the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, but both those cars are going away, as their plant in Quebec is changed over. While sales of the Camaro and Firebird apparently donÂ’t justify keeping the cars going, the Mustang keeps motoring right along, almost 40 years after its inception.
Most all Mustangs have a fun flair to them, with the top-of-the-line SVT Cobra the pinnacle, with its hand-built engine and racy suspension. As FordÂ’s Special Vehicle Team continues to upgrade the Mustang Cobra, though, it hands down the existing technology to the GT version, which is above the basic but priced well below the top stars.
In convertible form, however, the Mustang GT is not what you’d call economy-car priced. The base price of the GT convertible is $28,790 and the test vehicle stood at $30,710. Maybe the “Zinc Yellow†paint job jacked the price a bit. Not really, but it did jack up the attention-grabbing quotient of the car.
With its black fabric top in place, the glistening yellow car looked good, but getting the top down is the key. Fortunately, we were in the midst of our surprisingly sultry September weather when I had the car, so it spent most of its time with the top, glass rear window and all, folded down into its receptacle. It drops down simply, by unlatching the clips at the top of the windshield, then, with the emergency brake set, pushing a button on the console.
The only option on the test car was a $1,295 Mach 1000 audio system, with huge subwoofers that fill over one-third of the quite restricted trunk. For the inconsiderate types who think their prestige rides on how much ground-shaking bass notes their carÂ’s audio system can generate, this monster, with the top down, could break the windows in the popcorn wagon while cruising Canal Park in Duluth.
The GT is powered by FordÂ’s 4.6-liter V8, not with the CobraÂ’s dual-overhead camshafts, but with the single overhead cam on either bank, and two valves per cylinder. ThatÂ’s plenty, however, churning out 260 horsepower. With a 5-speed manual transmission, the GT performs up to the standards that its visual impact implies. Along with the 260 horses, it develops 302 foot-pounds of torque for plenty of low-end takeoff power, even for a ponycar that is now a full-fledged horse at 3,208 pounds.
As for visual impact, the huge hood scoop may be a throwback to the 1970s, but – please – it’s a phony scoop, without any benefit except to possibly perk up the old guys who used to think fake hood scoops were neat styling touches. To me, it is a cut below being a senseless addition, because it rises about 2 inches, which intrudes to block out about 20 feet of visibility of the road ahead.
Handling is enhanced by a special horizontal axle damper on the rear, along with stabilizer bars front and rear. The MacPherson strut front suspension holds the front wheels down precisely, and the non-independent rear is a four-bar link with coil springs. Four-wheel disc brakes and rack-and-pinion steering keep the low-profile tires down firmly on their 17-inch alloy wheels.
The key element, of course, is for the GT to be fun, and its handling, power and good looks certainly live up to the test. On top of that, the large (15.7 gallon) fuel tank can keep you going for quite awhile. I got 23.5 miles per gallon on one tankful, combining city and freeway driving.
Even if the surprisingly warm September weather may be going away, we can still hold out hope for a lot of beautiful fall days, where cruising around to look at the changing foliage, or the Hawk Ridge migration flight, can fill a pleasant afternoon. And, thanks to cars like the Mustang GT convertible and the Honda Civic Si, we can hold out hope for a lot of fun no matter what the destination.
Civic adds Hybrid gas/electric power for 2003 model
The other day, I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio and heard a politician doing some politicking — which is what politicians do best. He was talking about how our energy problems are looking up because alternative-energy vehicles were coming, and that, in fact, “Ford has a gas/electric hybrid that should be out soon.”
It struck me that someday, we will miss Gov. Jesse Ventura’s earthiness, but possibly not until after we realize how alert we must remain to separate the facts from the doubletalk when other politicians speak. In this case, the politician, and/or his speech-writing staff, apparently were unaware that Honda and Toyota have been selling hybrid gas/electric cars in their showrooms for more than two years now, with more on the way. I’ve written about the 2-seat Honda Insight and the four-seat Toyota Prius, and how impressive they are with electric-motor boost for internal-combustion power.
For the upcoming 2003 model year, Honda has struck again. The tiny 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine that sends the Insight coupe on its way while achieving up to 70 miles per gallon is now joined by a larger brother. The new one essentially adds a cylinder, making it a 1.3-liter, 4-cylinder with what Honda calls Integrated Motor Assist System, which combines output from an electric companion motor.
That whole package is plunked under the hood of the new 2003 Civic Hybrid, which doesn’t look all that different from the 2002 Civic 4-door sedans, except for slight detail alterations.
Even when you climb inside, it’s not all that changed. Comfortably supportive seats, and all controls right about where your eye and hand naturally expect to find them. An environment of ergonomic excellence, which sometimes seems uniquely Honda. When you turn on the engine, you still have to look closely to detect a key difference, on the instrument panel.
Along with a small tachometer on the left, a larger speedometer in the middle, there is a digital readout box down below the speedometer, and a combination gauge in a circle on the right, with different readouts. The left side of that instrument houses the gas gauge, and on the right is the amount of stored battery power, while at the top is a little graph that shows where the Hybrid’s power is coming from at any given moment.
When you are cruising at, say, 42 miles per hour, the tach might read only 1,600 revs, and the gauge on the right might show that all the power is coming from the gasoline engine, with no graph notches on the battery side. But when you step on the gas hard, as you might when passing or heading onto a freeway, as the speedometer passes 37 mph, the tach might show 2,700 revs as you accelerate, and the gauge on the right shows a whole bunch of notches to indicate that the gas engine is being heavily reinforced by the electric motor.
It’s a good thing that little graph is there to indicate electric boost, because while driving, you don’t feel anything unusual.
Down below the gauge package, a digital readout also shows that your fuel economy might also be dipping down to “only” 42 miles per gallon. The EPA estimates for the new Civic Hybrid indicate 47 miles per gallon on highway trips, and 48 mpg in city driving. That’s right — slightly better fuel economy in town than on the road, which is strange.
One reason is that the Hybrid also has a continuously-variable automatic transmission, which is constantly shifting to be in the precisely programmed gear range, but feels as though it’s never shifting. The unit appears to be so efficient that it will upshift and downshift seamlessly in city driving, and might be slightly less economical when held at a constant no-shift level for freeway driving.
If you took away a cylinder, undoubtedly the Civic Hybrid would get better gas mileage, up there at 60 or better, like the Insight. But 47 or 48 is not bad, not in these days of 25 mpg in supposed economy cars, and downright astonishing next to the 11-15 mpg of trucks and SUVs. And that fourth cylinder boosts the 1.3-liter engine’s power up to 93 horsepower, which is laughably small, until you feel the added boost the electric motor contributes.
This latest gem from Honda’s engineers fits into certification as a ULEV — ultra low emissions vehicle — without compromising any of the popular features. The test car had front disc brakes, front and rear stabilizer bars, electric power assist on the rack-and-pinion steering, no scheduled tuneup for 110,000 miles, and safety features that range from front and side airbags for the front occupants, special tethers for child seats, front and rear crumple zones and side impact door beams to defend against collisions, and all sorts of more obvious but less important creature features.
For example, the climate control system has a micron air filter, the AM-FM-CD player is standard with four speakers, cruise control is also standard, as are powre windows and locks, intermittent wipers, cupholders, and various storage compartments that indicate Honda’s ergonomic forces have converted virtually every unused space into neat and imaginative little bins.
On the outside, the 14-inch wheels are of lightweight alloy, and the all-season tires are 185/70 R14 87S items, purposely 5.5 inches wide to compromise between good-handling width and good-aerodynamic narrowness. The rear spoiler, we have to think, adds to the aerodynamics, and the standard rear-window defroster has a timer to prevent you from leaving it on.
So the new Civic Hybrid is the best of all worlds, a comfortable, good-handling, efficiently swift compact sedan that will carry four adults and a lot of luggage, and is environmentally and ecologically friendly, without any adverse effects.
Indeed, the ultimate test of a good, efficient car is if it doesn’t feel like a flimsy, ultra-lightweight little thing, but offers the stability and security you might not expect until you move into the intermediate or large-car segments. And the Civic Hybrid never lets on that it’s a dazzling, high-tech unit, because it accelerates with pep, cruises with easy poise, corners with decent agility, and feels solid and secure at every seam. The sticker price sheet with the test car said the actual price was as yet undetermined, but we can be pretty sure the Civic Hybrid will come in right around $20,000, just as we can be certain that its technology is worth considerably more than that.
The heart of the matter, of course, is the technically advanced powerplant. Small or not, the 1.3-liter 4-cylinder moves right out, as well as many subcompacts with conventional engines, and when you step on the gas hard, if you didn’t know it was a hybrid, you would assume it merely had a bigger engine than you anticipated. The electronic engine management system coordinates the whole process, ingeniously using the impressive power of the electric motor almost like a supercharger to supplement the little gasoline engine.
Back in the days of the first experimental electric cars, I drove one that was eerily silent as it whooshed along. It, too, was impressive and convinced me of how surprisingly strong electric motors can be. The drawback to that first one was that you had a range of maybe 60-80 miles, after which you had to plug it in to recharge the batteries. That rendered electric cars to the realm of the ridiculous, in my mind. And that was without even considering that a groundswell movement to electric cars would require so much more electricity for recharging that powerplants would need to increase power enough to produce enough extra air pollution to negate the lowered emissions from the cars themselves.
Honda’s answer was the Insight, first, and now the Civic. What will be next, the CR-V? The Accord?
And an even better question is, when will the alleged environmentally-concerned politicians realize such high-tech wonders already are on the market.
This is another test by neal
I am testing the story link part.
Revised EuroVan can teach new tricks to GTI, New Beetle
While some manufacturers dazzle us with future concept cars, bristling with technology, Volkswagen just keeps on building cars with real-world technology that should carry us from here to the future.
Volkswagen is one company that has avoided the tiresome scheme of choosing names by computer selection of pleasing syllables, or various combinations of letters and numbers. Instead, Volkswagen followed the wind. The Jetta is the jetstream; the Scirocco (remember it?) was a desert wind; the Golf, of course, is named for the gulfstream, and so on. Neat concept.
Few cars are more familiar than the Volkswagen Golf, a solid, sturdy compact coupe, with surprisingly spacious room inside that square back, which differentiates it from the Jetta sedan, which has a trunk. The sporty model of the Golf is the GTI, which has firmer suspension and better power.
One of the few cars more familiar than the Golf is the New Beetle, which was reintroduced as an incurably cute retro version of the old Beetle, and now rides atop a contemporary front-wheel-drive Golf platform. Volkswagen also has been turning out compact vans ever since the Microvan, and most recently the EuroVan. Volkswagen didn’t exactly put the proverbial cart before the horse, but it has introduced something that was already out with the reintroduction of the 2002 EuroVan, now equipped with a powerplant that will dazzle sporty-car-driver wannabes, but also establishes new standards from which the newest sporty GTI will spring.
In fairly rapid succession, I was able to spend a week each test-driving the New Beetle S Turbo, a GTI, and a EuroVan.
A decade ago, Volkswagen came out with a new V6 called the VR6, with a unique “V” angle so narrow that the cylinders are staggered in alternating fashion because they would be too close if the two banks were directly opposed. Conveniently, the engine uses one cylinder head to cover both banks, which conserved space, as well as expense. The engine, with single overhead camshafts and two valves per cylinder, was the mainstay of the GTI, as well as the late, great Corrado. Finally it also was installed in the EuroVan, bringing its power up to at least adequate.
Meanwhile, Audi came out with a little sports car, the TT, with a really slick 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine, with five valves per cylinder — three intake and two exhaust — and dual overhead camshafts. A low-pressure turbocharger doesn’t create neck-snapping power, but electronically it provides full torque all the way from 2,000 to 5,000 RPMs in applications that now include the Beetle Turbo S and the GTI.
NEW BEETLE TURBO S
By changing computer chips, the 1.8 Turbo can turn out amazing amounts of power, first being tweaked up to 150 horsepower, and now up to 180, which, in the New Beetle Turbo S, guarantees the little car will move from incurably cute to near-hot-rod status. It is practically a GTI Beetle. The 180-horse version of the 1.8, and a six-speed manual transmission runs up to the redline smoothly, and still delivers 25-30 miles per gallon.
The test car was brilliant silver with color-coordinated front airdam incorporated into the body, and neat high-intensity foglights imbedded into the bodywork. It also has drilled aluminum pedals, great leather seats that encapsulate the driver, 17-inch alloy wheels, firm suspensionÂ…and a weird little noise that sounds like the hatch has come unlatched at various times.
I stopped repeatedly to make sure the hatch was closed tightly, and then I learned that the Beetle Turbo S has a speed sensitive rear spoiler, which comes out when you go at highway speed and recedes back into the bodywork when you slow down. When you slow down, it recedes with a clunk that convinces you something has come adrift, and it’s a definite nuisance.
Loaded, with electronic stabilization, antilock brakes, heated front seats, a power sunroof and premium sound system including a CD changer, the Beetle Turbo S listed for $23,950.
GTI 1.8T
The GTI was about what I anticipated, a fast, slick-handling vehicle that offered a different scope of performance. It had the same 1.8 Turbo with 180 horsepower, but instead of the Beetle Turbo S’s 6-speed manual, the GTI had a 5-speed automatic that can be operated either in “D” or by moving the shifter to a smaller, adjacent gate, for automanual Tiptronic hand-shifting.
Otherwise, all the goodies were pretty much the same, although the 17-inch wheels with their low-profile performance tires were an option up from the standard 16-inch. Other options included a luxury package, the automatic transmission, and leather seats, running the price tag up to $22,525.
Thus equipped, the GTI handled well, and while the 1.8 turbo might not be the all-out maximum power unit for the car, its high-revving flexibility make it my favorite for fun. While the Beetle goes from a cute car to a performer with the 1.8 turbo, the GTI is a rugged sporty coupe that takes on a feeling of finesse with the sophisticated 1.8, but makes a great package with it.
But, impressive as the Beetle Turbo S and GTI are, the real charmer of the trio was the EuroVan.
EUROVAN
A year ago, Volkswagen announced that its van was underpowered and overpriced. Refreshing to hear an auto industry executive make such an admission. So the company lopped about $6,000 off the price, tightened production along the way, and came up with a surprising engineering wrinkle to take care of the power thing.
Remember the VR6 narrow angle engine? Well, Volkswagen engineers fitted dual overhead cams on top of both banks, with four valves per cylinder, and the move jacked the power from 174 to 201 horsepower and from 181 to 195 foot-pounds of torque, making all the difference to run the solid but heavy EuroVan.
Low-speed traction control, anti-slip regulation and an electronic stabilization program, plus fully independent suspension, collaborate to make the van surprisingly peppy, with the ability to take corners with remarkable precision.
The EuroVan seems taller than most compact or minivans, because it is. You sit up high, and you have a high roof, which would seem to mean that the van should feel tippier. Instead, it can be hurled into tight turns with predictable steering response and come out the other end as if it thought it was a sports car.
The two front bucket seats are stable and firm, and the test vehicle was set up with two rear-facing bucket seats behind them. That is different, with a purpose. Those seats slide fore and aft and can be reclined, and they face a third-row bench seat with contours to house three more occupants. On the driver’s side wall, there is a large flat panel, and while it is securely fastened, you can pop it up and it locks into place as a nice-sized table, perfectly placed between the bench seat and the rear-facing bucket on the driver’s side.
Great for kids on a trip, to play board games, to turn a fast-food drive-through into a picnic, or to prove you don’t have to be outside to tailgate. The very large side glass makes rear occupants watch the world go by through picture windows.
EuroVan. There’s only one sliding side door, but it’s large and very accessible. At the rear, the hatch tilts up, very high and very long. The perfect small roof if you were to tailgate. Inside, a shelf is located about halfway up, for out-of-sight storage below, and covered by a thick foam pad. Turns out, the rear bench seat can be pulled forward, just as the rear-facing buckets can be tilted out of the way, and the whole thing turns into a double bed.
To complete the scenario of an impromptu camper, the EuroVan comes with a curtain that can be fastened along the inside just above the very large side and rear windows, and you can close off the outside world with ease.
The Eurovan is swift, agile and would make a fine everyday vehicle, or the perfect trip machine, or both. The powerful new VR6 can get 20 miles per gallon, or less if you decide to jackrabbit away from stoplights — which the Eurovan also is capable of doing. Base price is $27,700, and with options including a huge power glass sunroof, thoughtfully installed with a tilt feature and a screen to keep North Shore mosquitoes at bay, and heatable front bucket seats, the EuroVan MV sticker is $29,990. The table and chair set is standard.
The first application of the four-valve, dual-overhead-cam VR6 has been so impressive in the Eurovan that Volkswagen has made its next decision. Starting this summer, the hottest GTI will get significantly hotter, because Volkswagen will start installing the new multivalve VR6 to provide the GTI with a potent upgrade from the 1.8 Turbo version.
While companies from the rest of the world are bragging about what they might come out with in future cars, Volkswagen simply continues to provide impressive answers here and now.
[[[cutlines:
1/ The Volkswagen EuroVan dwarfs the GTI coupe, but the roomy van is loaded with surprisingly usable features.
2/ After all the success of the New Beetle, now there is a New Beetle Turbo S — a hot rod Beetle that goes and handles.
3/ Inside the EuroVan, high vantage points, rear-facing second-row buckets, and a pop-up table make use of the rear bench seat, which can fold into a bed. ]]]]]
Hyundai covers all on-and-off-road tracks with new Santa Fe
We’re all aware that Sport-Utility Vehicles continue to be a United States phenomenon — how the rest of the driven world is moving toward smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles simultaneous to our hunger for SUVs, and how our taste for SUVs seems to be expanding to embrace bigger and costlier vehicles.
Then along comes the Hyundai Santa Fe, and it throws everything out of whack.
Hyundai, a Korean manufacturer that used to stress inexpensive and comparatively inelegant cars, had proven very efficient at copying proven vehicles from other manufacturers and creating low-budget alternatives for the masses. The early Excel subcompacts were versions of outdated Mitsubishi-built Dodge Colts, for example. You could buy an Excel for the price of a 3-year-old used car, which made it sell pretty well.
But times change, and Hyundai has risen to be a solid contender with sedans like the Sonata and the XG350, and the new Tiburon sports coupe looks impressive. But it might be in the expansive SUV segment that Hyundai has come through with its most startling entry — the Santa Fe. Until January, there was no Hyundai dealership in the Northland, but Kolar Auto World up on the Miller Trunk Highway has now added the brand. Glenn Kulyk, who used to recruit hockey players to UMD and now tries to recruit Hyundai customers, said that the Santa Fe has been the top seller of the Hyundai line.
I test-drove a factory test-fleet Santa Fe for a week recently, and, being busy, I put the statistical sheet aside and just drove the thing. From the outside, several things become obvious at first blush. Hyundai sometimes overdoes it in the styling department, putting scoops and bulges all over the place, almost at random, but that might be in the company’s formative past. The Santa Fe has scoops and bulges, but they seem to be pretty much in the right places to make it stand apart as a stylish, though compact, SUV.
The front end looks contemporary and different enough to stand apart from the usual, square-front SUVs. The rear also has a flair to it, and the side indentations add a nice styling touch. If I had one major complaint it is that the front fenders rise pleasantly to a bulging silhouette, then they drop off quickly toward the headlights. It may be aerodynamic, but it also prevents the driver from having a proper glancing view of the front corners of the vehicle, which could aid parking and tight maneuvering.
The biggest surprise of the week-long test I had with the Santa Fe was that when I finally checked over the statistical sheet, I realized that it did not have 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. I hadn’t noticed, but the test Santa Fe had front-wheel drive only. The weather wasn’t foul enough to discern the difference, and the Santa Fe’s standard front-wheel drive not only performed smoothly, it added to my theory that a well-balanced vehicle with front-wheel drive could probably get you through the worst weather conditions, with 4-wheel drive remaining the best for extreme circumstances. It’s possible you could easily make it through an entire winter with front-wheel drive, without having a traction problem.
Actually, there might have been one other surprise that was even more stunning than the lack of 4WD, and that was the bottom line on the sticker sheet. The 2002 Santa Fe base price is around $18,000, while the test GLS had a price of $20,174 — including freight and delivery. Adding 4-wheel drive, which comes with a viscous coupling to adjust power to slippery conditions, only adds $1,500 to the sticker.
Once behind the wheel, the Santa Fe proves quick, and it handles with good agility, accelerating smoothly through the 4-speed automatic, which has a separate gate to hand shift as an auto-manual, which Hyundai calls “Shiftronic.” The optional 2.7-liter V6 is a dual-overhead-camshaft implement with four valves per cylinder, encouraging it to perform up into the higher reaches on the tachometer, with no dropoff in power, especially when you hand-shift it.
The 2.7 delivers 181 horsepower, with 177 foot-pounds of torque, with the horsepower peaking at 6,000 RPMs, and the torque at 4,000 revs. The base 2.4-liter 4-cylinder, which is also a DOHC, four-valve unit, puts out 149 horses and 156 foot-pounds. The 4-cylinder comes on the base Santa Fe, while you have to go up to the GLS or the top LX to get the 2.7 V6. The V6 has EPA fuel estimates of 19 city and 25 highway miles per gallon. I got just over 20 miles per gallon, in combined driving, but admittedly running the revs up and driving hard.
The test vehicle was the middle GLS, and it adds the AM-FM-cassette-CD player with six speakers, cruise control, rear window wiper/washer, remote keyless entry and foglights as upgrades from the base model. The LX provides more upgrades, such as traction control, antilock brakes, leather seats, automatic climate control, heated front seats, and an electrochromic rearview mirror, which dims the glare of lights from cars behind you.
Four-wheel disc brakes are standard on all Santa Fe models, highlighting attention to safety that includes steel roof-rails and side-impact door beams, along with front and rear energy-absorbing crumple zones. Accident avoidance is enhanced by independent rear suspension, which is a double wishbone design, compared to the front end’s MacPherson struts. The compact length is 177.2 inches, with a 103.1-inch wheelbase. The Santa Fe is 66 inches tall, but it rides with good stability on 16-inch alloy wheels.
The Santa Fe also has good interior accommodations, with supportive bucket seats, pleasing gauge layout, good center-dash controls of the audio system and the air/heat unit. Cupholders are securely placed in the center console, and there is a separate, oddly shaped little cavity located amid the cupholders. I had no idea what that little bin was really designed for, but I noticed that the LX has a switch unit in that receptacle for seat-heaters. Nonetheless, I found that a little supply of fast-food french fries fit perfectly in that spot and remained upright. I’m not a huge fan of fast-food french fries, but if you’ve got to eat on the run, it’s better to have the fries pointing up at you from a secure location than scattering themselves around on the console, the seats and the floor.
Power window switches are located on the door, separated from the power lock switch, and behind a curving panel that sets the door and window lock switches apart. Among more subtle but well-designed ergonomic touches include the cigarette lighter located low on the center dash plate, with a power outlet located right below it.
The rear seat is big enough to hold three, with a 60/40 design. The seats fold forward to expand the rear cargo area, which is covered with a large, flexible net that can stretch to cover and hold in place anything you might put back there. Compared to trying to imagine what it is that’s flying around back there, the net is a handy feature. The tailgate also has a neat feature, with a right-hand grip for raising the hatch, and, once open, a left-handed grip to allow you to pull it down easily.
Could it be possible that Hyundai engineers guessed that predominately right-handed people would be reaching to open the hatch with their right hand, but might have a right arm full when it came to closing the hatch, with the left hand closing grip being perfect?
Of more tangible benefit, the Santa Fe benefits from Hyundai’s remarkable warranty scheme: 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain; 5-year/60,000-mile overall vehicle; 5-year/100,000-mile anti-perforation; and 5-year/unlimited mileage roadside assistance.
[[[[[cutlines:
1/ The Hyundai Santa Fe’s sculptured lines make it stand out among SUVs, as does its price of $20,000.
2/ Clean design from the rear and contoured sides add to the sporty personality of the Santa Fe.
3/ From the driver’s seat, instruments and controls are all well laid out and ergonomically arranged.
4/ Under the raised tailgate, a cargo net is flexible enough and strong enough to secure even instable cargo. ]]]]]
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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