I’m one of those mutant “An automatic is just fine” people, but I definitely agree with everything you just said. You can have fun with just about any car that at least *attempts* to let you and even some that really, really don’t want you to. I have more fun in my ‘84 Dodge Van than I think most people do with…

This is something I think a lot of people here just don’t realize, you can have fun driving all sorts of different cars. There are just different types of fun to be had. Me, I’m a “Give me four doors with a bunch of weight and throw some horses at the rear axle.” kind of guy sometimes.

I had a 2013 Lacrosse for a year (needed a crossover so sold it at a loss) and really liked it, even with the anemic eAssist four banger. It felt like it was put together every bit as well as my (very old) Infiniti and had enough space for an NBA team in the back seats.

I shudder to imagine which cheeks.

But would you still have friends after foisting Elios on them? Ewww.

Apparently, Hyundai is using the Mitsubishi TD04 twin-scroll turbo, which is what it looks like Subaru is using as well. From what little I’ve seen, it’s pretty much a universal “base but reliable” model. That does make me wonder just how much boost it’s pushing, hmm. Might be time for some ODB action.

The two big things that screw me on gas mileage are that I have a lead foot and love to put it in sport mode which gives the turbos more of a workout at the low end, and that I live someplace with a base altitude of 4,500 feet with a fairly significant hill between me and literally anything else.

I’ve never felt limited by the handling in my SFS. If I really want to have fun, I throw it in sport mode and that really does change things up, but more in terms of shifting and off the line performance. It does tighten up the wheel a little, too.

Hyundai is weird about that. It’s sometimes listed as a different trim level and sometimes as a whole other model. It made research rough last year. But really, the two cars are about 90% identical so it didn’t matter. Just change the looks a little and add 8 inches.

Your Volvo is also lower to the ground, 25% lighter and tuned completely differently.

On trips like that, I can get around 28 out of the turbo model of the Santa Fe Sport with the AWD. Around town, I get around 20-21.

I think this review just about perfectly captures how I’ve felt about the Santa Fe Sport my boyfriend and I bought last May right after these models came out. (Yes, they were selling a 2017 model in the first half of 2016)

The one thing I’m concerned about over the long haul with our Santa Fe Sport is all the electronics and features holding up. They feel pretty solid so far, and we’re almost a year into ownership without having anything fail or fall apart (with the exception of a tiny plastic cover over the screw holding in the…

For me it definitely was. We could probably have shopped around and looked at something like the X3, or an Audi Q3, but between the longer warranty period and knowing that in the future repair bills would be a lot higher because German it felt like a smarter move to just get a fully loaded Santa Fe Sport and not feel…

I think it fits pretty well in ours, the only problem I have with it (one of my small issues with the car) is that it really, really needs more controls. Having play/pause and back/forward nav buttons for the audio system would be a HUGE improvement.

We have the 2.0T of this model and I think the engine compartment is a little trickier than the 2.4, but it should be fine to work on. We’ve got our fingers crossed that it holds up, but that’s why we bought the extended 10/100k bumper to bumper warranty.

Somehow, the Edge did not feel anywhere near as large as those numbers make it sound. It felt positively cramped last year when we checked it out versus the Santa Fe Sport we ended up buying.

I can give you a few reasons why we made the choice we did to buy one of these last year.

Of all the (extremely few) faults I’ve found with our Santa Fe Sport, I’d say the fuel tank being so small is definitely the biggest one. I can live with poor fuel economy, but having to fill up so frequently is rather annoying. But, it’s a sacrifice worth making in our case because none of the other options really…

My boyfriend and I bought one of these Santa Fe Sport models last year (ultimate, AWD, turbo) and have been extremely happy with it. We don’t like the Subaru dash layout or the infotainment/electronics, and a car with a warranty that actually lasts the length of time we’re making payments on it is critical.