Aaron Turpen: The 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe Gets Tougher As It Grows Up

Hyundai has redesigned the Santa Fe for the 2024 model year. It’s no longer the quaint little crossover. Instead, the Santa Fe has become a boxy and rugged SUV. Well, on the outside at least.

Design changes for the 2024 Santa Fe mean a lot of things are different about this new version of Hyundai’s popular family hauler. A third row is now standard, for example, and there is a lot more interior space thanks to its more upright design and larger footprint. The Santa Fe also has more engine power.

This new look has some downers too. The Santa Fe, though it looks great, is closer in size to Hyundai’s own Palisade than ever before. Meaning it’s bigger, eschewing the smallish-midsize space it occupied before. Like the Chevrolet Traverse and Nissan Pathfinder, the Santa Fe is no longer the reasonably-sized option.

The payoff for all of that my two-car garage no longer fits two cars change is interior roominess. And there’s a lot of it. Seating for six or seven is standard (depending on second row options) and its third row is actually usable, though probably not a space for adults to be regularly. The design inside is modern, somewhat upscale and nicer than might be expected for a family oriented crossover.

The new 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe is powered by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that puts out 277 horsepower to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Front-wheel drive is standard, but all-wheel drive is an option on every trim level. That engine is just about enough to keep the Santa Fe from being sluggish, but it won’t win any checkered flags or do burnouts from the driveway.

Standard equipment on the Santa Fe is pretty generous, including a big 12.3-inch infotainment screen, a whole host of driver’s aids and safety technologies, noise-reducing front windows, heated side mirrors and so forth.

I’m personally fond of the XRT off-road model, though, which adds a 1.3-inch lift, all-terrain tires and a 4,500-pound towing capacity. Not that it would be capable of Jeeping around any hardcore dirt, but those additions mean pulling a camper to North Crow is more realistic.

For those thinking more about efficiency than fishing, though, there’s also a hybrid model for the new Santa Fe. Where the 2024 Santa Fe with the standard engine is EPA-rated at 28 mpg on the highway, the hybrid is rated at 34 mpg. In the real world, with the Santa Fe’s standard 2.5-liter engine, our Interstate 80 test loop returned 25.7 mpg instead of 28, which is below expectations, but typical thanks to our high altitude and ever-present crosswinds.

I’d expect the hybrid model to be a couple of points below EPA numbers in Wyoming driving as well.

The 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe has a starting price of about $35,500 plus delivery for the standard model and $38,500 for the hybrid. Most buyers, after options and delivery, can expect to be in the $40,000 to $42,000 range. For those about to complain about those prices, the average new car price right now is $47,000.