Second Place
2003 Hyundai Santa Fe 4WD GLS
After an hour or two of driving, on-road and off, we began to notice a series of quiet, two-at-a-time discussions among our testers when we'd stop to switch keys. "You know, this Hyundai is, uh, pretty good--what do you think?" Pavement or not, over hills, through dales, the Santa Fe made us blanch again and again. "Gee, this thing isn't bad."
Our eyebrows weren't raised because this is a Korean vehicle. It was because it's a devil of a bargain. At $23,589, our vehicle's base price (and final price!) included the new 195-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 (now big brother to the continuing 173-horse, 2.7-liter V-6), a five-speed automatic transmission (with a manumatic shift slot), ABS, traction control, and loads more, including of course the 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. It reads like a giant misprint, doesn't it? And, frankly, we can't exactly tell where Hyundai is compromising to whittle down the price like this.
On the road, the Hyundai's strength is, well, its strength. Not that it's fast (9.5 seconds to 60), but the engine's urge is nicely ladled over the rev range. And it's deployed with a full-throttle roar that's at least less harried than the Ford's.
Hyundai's 3.5-liter V-6 is...
Hyundai's 3.5-liter V-6 is a big improvement over the 2.7 also available on the Santa Fe. Too bad Hyundai didn't tone down the overwrought styling while it was slipping in the bigger motor; this thing still looks dorky. Plastics and other trim are not quite up to Japanese levels, but steadily improving. Equipment/warranty/price ratio is hard to beat.
Bend the Santa Fe into a lane change, and the steering reports an abrupt ramp-up in effort as you rotate it off-center. A subtle quirk. Less subtle is the tire's cornering noise (or howl, depending on speed), which can be dialed up and down as if the steering wheel were a giant volume knob. In hard cornering, this rises to a genuine wail--perhaps in despair of the tires' modest grip, evident in the Santa Fe's low skidpad (0.69 g) and slalom (57.8 mph) numbers. In normal driving, though, this isn't an issue.
However, an ever-present driving deficit is the brake feel. It's not apparent in the Santa Fe's emergency-stopping distance (which is right in there with the Escape and Equinox at 136 feet), but the softness of the pedal can lose you valuable fractions of a second during any brake application. We also noticed a slight pulsing in the pedal after a few downhill brake applications (sometimes indicative of warping). But it seemed to disappear after they'd cooled.