Fresh Santa Fe images emerge

HYUNDAI has released more images of the facelifted Santa Fe that will make its global debut at the Frankfurt motor show on September 15 before going on sale in Australia in the final quarter of this year.

Already one of the more stylish members of the medium SUV segment, the revised MY2010 Santa Fe will come with a host of interior and exterior cosmetic updates.

It will also pack the Korean brand’s formidable new direct-injection R diesel engine with variable-geometry turbo, linked to Hyundai’s new six-speed automatic transmission.

Precisely which R engine the fresh Santa Fe will receive is not yet known. Hyundai’s all-new ix35 compact SUV, which will also appear at Frankfurt and replaces the Tucson in Australia early next year, has just been released in Korea with the 2.0-litre version, which offers 137kW of power and 329Nm of torque.

However, the all-new Sorento from sister company Kia will be released here in November with Hyundai’s larger-displacement 2.2-litre R diesel engine, delivering an impressive 145kW and 436Nm of torque (421Nm for the manual). So it is likely Hyundai’s upgraded Santa Fe will match its redesigned medium SUV rival from Kia.

The new R diesel will replace the Santa Fe’s current 2.2-litre CRDi turbo-diesel engine, which produces 114kW and 343Nm and is available from $36,990. It returns average fuel efficiency of 7.2L/100km in manual guise, but the 2.2 R engine in the Sorento returns fuel consumption of as low as 6.5L/100km.

Also likely to power Hyundai’s Sonata medium sedan, the R-engined Santa Fe diesel will be a direct competitor for other oil-burning medium SUVs such as Holden’s Captiva (2.0-litre) diesel and Ford’s first (2.7-litre) diesel Territory, which has been delayed until 2011.

Similarly, the upgraded Santa Fe is likely to employ either the Sorento’s 129kW/225Nm 2.4-litre four-cylinder or 206kW/335Nm 3.5-litre V6 petrol engines, to replace the 138kW/248Nm 2.7-litre V6 that currently opens the range at $33,990.

While the outgoing Santa Fe 2.7 SX returns 10.4L/100km as a manual, the new Sorento 2.4 AWD returns 8.7L/100km. The second-generation Santa Fe was launched in May 2006 with a 3.3-litre V6, which was discontinued in September 2008.

As previously reported, the MY2010 Santa Fe is visually differentiated by redesigned front and rear bumpers with revised front foglights, updated headlights and tail-lights, a new grille with body-coloured horizontal bars to replace the current model’s black grille, new wing mirrors with integrated indicators and a tailgate spoiler.