With assignments to cover in eight different provinces, I desperately wanted to tackle my road trip in a bit of style, but by also limiting my time on major thoroughfare routes of the country. As I found out, that choice became very easy.
The choice of car was far less straightforward. An age old dilemma facing any over active South African: SUV or Estate? I wanted diesel propulsion for its economy and its relaxed gait on the open road. I also needed plenty of space for all my stuff.
The final two contenders for the job got rounded down to the Volvo V60 D5, or the Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2-litre CRDi AWD. The Volvo V60 was almost certainly going to be more economical, being front wheel drive, lower to the ground and more aerodynamic. It would almost certainly have the more luxurious and tech filled interior too. But the Hyundai Santa Fe had the ride height advantage, better visibility and the safety net of its AWD if I decided to go ‘really’ off the beaten track. The Sante Fe’s AWD is an ‘on demand’ system too, so it hopefully wouldn’t be too wasteful of precious petrol resources.
The vast majority of me, I’ll admit, hankered after the low slung, sportier and more interesting Volvo. That’s just how I’m programmed. However, the slowly maturing, more grown up (and possibly boring) part of me just couldn’t ignore the practical advantages of the Hyundai. We are not a nation of Estate’s or Station Wagon’s its just plain fact. Audi A4 Avants, Mercedes Benz C-Class Estates and BMW 3-series Tourings make up finite percentages of the units sold locally compared to their sedan forbears. While in Europe it’s almost completely turned on its head. And faced with the choice I was just as guilty as the rest of the country. AWD SUV boerperd for me thank you very much.
The 15 hour trip up to Pretoria from Cape Town, and already, I began to think I may have made the wrong choice. A Korean car like the Santa Fe is not badly made by any stretch, but the interior trim materials are a bit lacking, the leather seats are a bit too hard, the plastic on the steering wheel is already pealing away, and the blue lighting behind the dash is a bit too sudden.
But just as I’d resigned myself to the idea that I was driving a par-for-the-course product, nothing more – nothing less, it came back at me with a stern riposte.
I soon realised how wonderfully comfortable it was on the inside despite it being -4 degrees outside on the chilly highveld. How good the ride quality was, the spaciousness, how hardly any wind was intruding into the cabin at a brisk highway speed and how I was averaging in the low 7-litres per 100km’s. Its 145 kW / 436 Nm power output from its 2.2-litre CRDi motor is very good too and feels nicely mated to the new six speed automatic transmission. Ill gladly admit that the under-the-skin engineering seems well taken care of and offers good value at R399 900.
Up to the Swaziland border in Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Santa Fe started to become a little more than just a reliable boerperd taking me from place to place. It soaked up several kilometers of dirt roads without hassle that the Volvo would’ve definitely struggled over. It even started looking a little bit handsome with some fresh rural dirt – dusting up its paint work. A fierce winter snow and rain storm stopped it from tackling some of the more demanding mountain passes I’d planned in the Eastern Cape near Lesotho, but that may have been silver lining stuff considering the Santa Fe doesn’t come with a hill hold assist, or hill descent control: two systems you’ll find on several competitors and some even smaller soft roading SUV’s. These are systems we’d definitely like to see fitted to future Hyundai Santa Fe’s.
The Santa Fe also tackled a rather memorable, white knuckle drive through the bustling old Transkei with great agility, followed by a gorgeously scenic one via East London, King Williams Town, Grahamstown, P.E. and Stormsriver. Then to George along the twisting seven passes road, up the famous and very rough Montagu Pass, and finally along the R62 all the way back into Cape Town. That’s 5 300 km and 72 hours behind the wheel all in all.
The Santa Fe gave a sterling account of itself, showing no problems except for sustaining a stone chip through N2 road works, ironically enough – which graduated into a fully fledged windshield crack (sorry Hyundai).
Overall however, the Santa Fe helped remind me of the way: that off the beaten track is the only way. And here you can cue the music, because South Africa really is an amazing country to drive around and explore.
Ray Leathern has been test driving and critiquing cars for four years now. You’ll find his work at autocirca.com, the Mail & Guardian and of course, right here on SACarFan.
