Pope France now uses an open top Hyundai Santa Fe without the glass box as his now parade car replacing the flashy Mercedes G-Wagen.
Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome, has developed quite a fan following for himself globally and is regarded as the ‘Pope Cool’ by a healthy section of his followers. From instances of acknowledging the evolution and the Big Bang theory to more recently asking non-believers to send him good vibrations if they do not prefer to pray, Pope Francis just makes himself cooler with everything he does while bestowing a lot of humility in the process. In fact, taking the humility quotient a notch further, the leader of the Catholic church has now replaced his Mercedes-Benz Popemobile with a *wait for it* Hyundai Santa Fe.
One of the most recognisable and influential figures in the world, the Pope unarguably deserves the best of luxury and safety which the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen was happy to provide. However, this time round when Pope Francis was out to address the masses, he was seen in a humble Santa Fe with the roof chopped off. If you’ve seen the previous Popemobile, you will also notice that the glass box built for the Pope’s protection is also missing on the Hyundai and all he gets are handlebars to hold on to.
Pope Francis had earlier spoken about the inaccessibility of greeting people from the glass boxed Popemobile calling it a sardine can, nothing less than a wall. Coming to the less flashy Hyundai Santa Fe (save for the chrome) the Korean has little to offer with its four-cylinder powertrain in comparison to the V8 powered Mercedes G-Wagen, which only adds to the humility quotient of Pope Cool. Interestingly, the words ‘Santa Fe’ translate to ‘holy faith’ in Spanish. So could the Pope be passing a sublime message with his new ride? You never know.
