The 2016 Santa Fe has majority of tweaks focused on the front-end of the vehicle, but the SUV anyhow looks more amazing and is expected to launch in India next year.
Hyundai is one of the few manufacturers which offers a vehicle in the premium SUV category in our country. The segment is a hard contested one which includes SUVs like the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour and the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. The Toyota Fortuner has been the king of this pack for quite some time in our country now mainly due to the Toyota brand name and its bullish looks. However, the Fortuner is a very capable vehicle that has aged well and is due for a facelift next year. Same holds true for the Hyundai Santa Fe. The Korean SUV is very good, but highly underrated due to its high price tag in India.
Hyundai has been working on the Santa Fe facelift for a while now and test mules of the same have been spotted many a times. Recently, the company has revealed the SUV’s facelift in South Korea. The vehicle gets a range of tweaks both on the interior and the exterior front to bring it up to speed with the rest of the competition. The overall profile of the Santa Fe remains the same with majority of the changes focused on the front fascia. At the front, the facelift gets a restyled chrome grille, redesigned bumper and new projector headlights. The side sees newly designed wing mirrors and new alloy wheel design. The rear profile has also modernised as the taillights now feature an LED combination. There is also a new rear bumper with reshaped reflectors and trapezoidal shaped chrome exhaust pipes. It is available in three new colours – Tan Brown, Beige Chalk and Mineral Blue.
Changes on the inside are minimal including a simpler to read instrument cluster, an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Smart Navigation, park assist, Around-View Monitoring (AVM) and a 10-speaker premium JBL sound system. The 2016 Santa Fe gets two new Re-VGT turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engines – a 2.0-litre unit which produces 186 PS of power at 4000 RPM and 402 Nm torque at 1750-2750 RPM and a more powerful 2.2-litre unit that develops 202 PS of power at 3800 RPM and 441 Nm of torque at 1750-2750 RPM. Both the new engines come mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, produce more power than before and also meet Euro 6 emission regulations.
Safety features have been improved from the standard six to seven standard airbags. Stability control is also standard, while the optional extras include Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), High Beam Assist (HBA), Automated Emergency Braking (AEB), Advanced Smart Cruise Control (ASCC) and Blind Spot Detection (BSD).
The facelift overall comes out as a very tempting offering and will definitely give its rivals a few jitters. But with new launches lined-up and competitors also giving their models an update, we need to wait and see whether the 2016 Santa Fe will cause ripples in the SUV space or not.
