Hyundai’s 2016 SUV Crossover models include the Santa Fe, the Tucson, and the Santa Fe Sport. The Santa Fe is Hyundai’s three-row, seven-passenger, mid-size SUV Crossover. The Tucson is a five-passenger compact SUV Crossover. The Santa Fe Sport is a two-row, five-passenger, mid-size SUV Crossover.
Hyundai Santa Fe
The Hyundai Santa Fe comes in four trims: the SE, the SE AWD, the Limited, and the Limited AWD. The exterior has windshield wiper de-icers, foglights, roof rails, and a rear spoiler. The interior features heated front bucket seats, an eight-position power driver seat with four-position power lumbar support, a 40/20/40-split sliding and reclining second-row seat, a 50/50-split flat-folding third-row seat, and second-row and third-row rear air conditioning vents and controls.
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Specifications
The Hyundai Santa Fe starts at $30,400 MSRP. It is 193″ long, 74″ wide, and 67″ high. It offers 13.5 cubic-feet of cargo space that expands to 80.0 cubic-feet when the second-row and the third-row seats are down. It has four-wheel independent suspension with front and rear stabilizer bars.
Features
The 2016 Santa Fe has a quiet engine with great acceleration and a 5000 pound towing capacity. It offers a 290-horsepower, 3.3-liter, 24-valve, variable speed, DOHC, V-6 engine with a six-speed shiftable automatic transmission.
Available technology includes a CD player, satellite and HD radio, six speakers, Bluetooth and Blue Link connectivity, navigation system wih with turn-by-turn directions, a 4.3-inch touchscreen, USB/iPod integration, and an auxiliary audio input.
The safety features on the Santa Fe include stability and traction control, tire pressure monitoring, emergency braking assist, and a rearview camera.
How Does It Compare With Its Competition?
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Edmund’s praises the 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe for having power, comfort, and style at a lower price than its competitors. With the Santa Fe, Hyundai maintains its reputation for providing an upscale interior and lots of features at a value price.
However, it does have less cargo space and safety features than some of its competitors. Both the roomy Honda Pilot and the Toyota Highlander do seat eight, and the Chevrolet Traverse has more cargo space.
Fuel Efficiency
The 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe gets 18 MPG in the city and 24 MPG on the highway.
Pros and Cons
The stylish 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe offers quick acceleration and smooth shifting. It is stylish and loaded with features. It is lacking in the areas of cargo space and safety features.
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Hyundai Tucson
The Hyundai Tucson comes in four trims: the SE, the Eco, the Sport, and the Limited. The exterior has fully automatic projector-beam halogen headlights with delay-off, body color grille, body-colored power heated side mirrors with convex spotter and manual folding, fixed rear window with fixed-interval wiper, heated wiper park and defroster, and deep-tinted glass.
The interior provides a luxury feel at Hyundai value-pricing. It has front bucket seats, a six-position power-adjustable driver’s seat, a four-position manually-adjustable passenger seat, and a 60-40 folding rear seat.
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Specifications
The Hyundai Tucson starts at $22,700 MSRP. It is 176″ long, 73″ wide, and 65″ high. It offers 102 cubic-feet of passenger space and 31 cubic-feet of cargo space which expands to 61.9 cubic-feet when the rear seat is folded down. It has front and rear disc brakes, four-wheel anti-lock braking system, and front strut and rear multi-link suspension with coil springs.
Features
The 2016 Tucson offers a 2.0-liter, 164-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine with 151 lb-ft of torque and a six-speed automatic transmission with OD and Shiftronic, or a 175-horsepower, 1.6-liter, DOHC, 16-valve, inline-4, direct fuel injection, turbocharged and intercooled engine with 195 lb-ft of torque and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with manual shifting mode. It has a 1000-pound towing capacity.
For your entertainment and to keep you connected, it has a 5″ touchscreen, Autonet AM/FM/SiriusXM/CD/MP3 six-speaker audio system, speed-compensated volume control, iPod/USB and auxiliary input jacks, Bluetooth hands-free phone system, steering wheel controls and integrated roof antenna.
The 2016 Tucson received an overall rating of five stars from the NHTSA and the same top rating of five stars in several individual areas like side barrier testing, overall frontal barrier crash testing, and overall side crash testing.
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For your safety, it has side-impact beams, fully-galvanized steel panels, front and rear anti-lock four-wheel brakes, electronic stability control, ABS and Driveline traction control, brake assist, hill descent control, hill hold control, a backup camera, and tire pressure monitoring.
How Does It Compare With Its Competition?
Car and Driver Magazine ranks the 2016 Hyundai Tucson fourth in compact SUV Crossovers. While its 175-horsepower engine is less than the engines in the Honda CR-V, the Mazda CX-5 2.5-liter, the Toyota RAV4, and the Ford Escape 1.6L EcoBoost. It beats all of them with 195 lb-ft of torque, which gives it great acceleration. Although less responsive than the Volkswagen and Audi DVR, the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission beats the CVTs in other compact SUV Crossovers.
Fuel Efficiency
The 2016 Hyundai Tucson gets 23 MPG in the city and 30 MPG on the highway with the 2.0-liter engine and 26 MPG in the city and 32 MPG on the highway with the 1.6-liter engine.
Pros and Cons
It has great acceleration, a luxury feel, great safety ratings, and Hyundai’s reputation for value with only an occasional slight issue with stuttering acceleration on starts and unresponsive steering.
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Hyundai Santa Fe Sport
The 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport comes in four trims: the 2.4L, the 2.4L AWD, the 2.4L Turbo, and the 2.4L Turbo AWD. It has a spacious, quiet interior with lots of features. It includes front bucket seats, a height-adjustable driver seat with manually-adjustable lumbar support, a 50/50 split-folding rear seat, and rear ventilation ducts.
Specifications
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The 2016 Sport starts at $24,950 MSRP. It is 184″ long, 74″ wide, and 66″ high. It has 35.4 cubic-feet of cargo space that expands to 71.5 cubic-feet when the rear seat is folded down. It has ventilated front disc and solid rear disc brakes, an anti-lock braking system, a four-wheel independent suspension with front and rear stabilizer bars, and a towing capacity of 2000 pounds with the 2.4-liter engine and 3,500 pounds with the 2.0T engine.
Features
The Hyundai Sport comes with a 2.4-liter, 190-horsepower, inline-4, 16-valve variable-speed, engine or a 2.0T, 265-horsepower, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine with a shiftable six-speed automatic transmission.
Technologywise, it has a six-speaker audio system, AM/FM stereo, satellite radio, a USB connection with external media control, and auxiliary audio input.
The safety features on the 2016 Santa Fe Sport include stability and traction control, emergency braking assist, and tire pressure monitoring. It received the top NHTSA overall rating of five-stars. It also was awarded the same rating for total frontal-impact safety and total side-impact safety. For its moderate-overlap frontal-offset crash test results and its side-impact, roof-strength and seat/head restraint design test results, it received the top rating of good from the IIHS.
How Does It Compare With Its Competition?
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While it’s price is close to SUV Crossovers in the compact class, like the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V, it is a roomier, mid-size SUV. Its fuel efficiency is also below average for its class.
Fuel Efficiency
The 2.4-liter FWD model gets 20 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on the highway. The 2.4-liter AWD model gets 19 MPG in the city and 25 MPG on the highway. The 2.0T FWD gets 20 MPG in the city and 27 MPG on the highway. The 2.0T AWD model gets 18 MPG in the city and 24 MPG on the highway.
Pros and Cons
The 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport has a roomy, luxury interior, a generous list of features, and great safety ratings, However the ride is stiff, rear visibility is bad, and the fuel efficiency is low.
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The Santa Fe, the Tucson, and the Santa Fe Sport all rank high in their class, have top safety ratings, and are built to provide good value and lots of features.