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>> Wedged between Hyundai's Tucson and Veracruz is the third course of their Tex Mex crossover lineup, the freshly redone for 2010 Sante Fe. It's part of Hyundai's reinvention of itself as a company not known for making tacky cars. Let's check the tech.
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The new exterior of the Sante Fe is all growed up, thanks to designers in Germany. Ours is Pacific Blue Pearl with rental car pattern cloth seats. Now, a Sante Fe is a dramatically improved vehicle from the last one you saw and sneered on on the freeway. The interior cabin materials, the exterior lines, all quite nice, two row seating, as you see, so we're competing with, like, a Ford Escape in this category. Now, up here in the cabin, not a bad head unit. Had a rather impressive array of input choices. Your usual AM and FM, no HD radio. XM is your satellite radio choice. CD aux is a pretty good button, single-disc CD. It also activates this USB/iPod/Aux dealio down here. One irritation, though, it's one of those that has to have a dual cable, so it plugs into USB and aux, and the other end would go to your iPod or iPod Touch. Unfortunately, I've either lost or misplaced the special Hyundai cable. Hooking it up just with this doesn't get you anywhere. Don't lose the cable. Another big surprise on a car in this price range, you get phone, but not just for hands-free calling, MP3 playback, as they call it. In other words, my bold is set up for Bluetooth streaming. The sound comes out of a just fine six speaker base system. Get the upgrade package, which brings you nav and a bunch of other stuff, and you'll also get a subwoofer and a 360-watt amp.
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Now, as you may have also noticed, our vehicle has an automatic, six-speed automatic. That's optional. Six-speed manual in face on every single Sante Fe trim level, with or without all-wheel drive. So you've got a nice matrix of drivetrain choices. The automatic transmission is now a six-speed, up from a five, and the four cylinder found under the hood makes more power and uses less gas. Now, this entry-level GLS car that we have today is driven by a 2.4-liter inline four. Not a six. 175 horsepower, 169 foot-pounds of torque. MPG is 20/28, and the pollution figures are mid-pack in terms of cleanliness.
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Not a huge fan of a lot of things Hyundai's doing these days, and I'm not the only one. This car is not entirely one of them. The powertrain is pretty gutless. That's fine when you're just tooling around town, but get it on a grade and not be in the right momentum, mmm, you're screwed. But they've got this little guy dialed in. In general, driving this vehicle feels a whole lot more like a Lexus RX than a Ford Escape. That's pretty high praise.
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Okay, you're going to feel guilty when you buy one of these unless you're accustomed to stealing. $21,700.00 is your base. Add destination, you're still in the low 22s. It's a good package for that price, but to do it CNET style, you got to add a $3500.00 premium package. That'll get you navigation with the colored screen, upgraded audio all the way around, also pulls in a power sunroof, rearview camera, automatic headlights, a few other niceties. Then the other two options are do you want an automatic? $1300.00. Do you want all-wheel drive? $1700.00. No matter what, it's a good value, just not the most inspiring one.
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