2022 Hyundai Santa Fe XRT: TEST DRIVE+FULL REVIEW

Hey guys, Will here with WTF Car Reviews and today we're going to be reviewing this all-new 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe XRT. And a huge thank you to Omar and the rest of the management and staff here at Brandon Hyundai for making this review possible. I'll leave a link to their inventory below and I definitely suggest anybody in the Florida area looking for a new car to definitely check these guys out and ask for Omar. And for those of you guys who don't know the Santa Fe has been a part of Hyundai's lineup since the year 2000, that's when the first generation was released. Fast forward to 2018, Hyundai ended up releasing this fourth generation Hyundai Santa Fe which did receive a facelift in 2020 giving it a much more sleek and aggressive design. And here for 2022 we have the XRT trim. So that gives us the black lower fascia as well as a black grille, black mirrors, these black accented 18-inch rims as well. We're also going to have these roof rails with black cross supports too and some sidesteps for this XRT trim as well. But this vehicle is going to be powered by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine making 191 horsepower and 181 pound-feet of torque, made with this 8-speed automatic transmission. You can actually expect 0-60 quicker than 8 seconds which is actually surprisingly quick given this power-to-weight ratio. But here we're going to have a base price for this XRT sitting right under $34,000. What do we get for this price? Let's jump right in. So up front you're going to notice your full LED headlights right over here on this side with the high and low beam. You got the turn signals inside right here. Up top you got the daytime running strips. We'll take a look at those once we start this car up. It's got a nice like little seven design with an R on the side of it and a functional air curtain right down here which is going to help you out with your aerodynamics and a turn signal right here on the side. But here for the XRT we are going to get this black finish grille and the black lower fascia right down over here. Pretty solid airflow for this radiator for this 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. You are going to get a really, really impressive amount of airflow. The Hyundai badge is going to be pretty large, just about the size of my hand, and it is going to be hollowed out giving you some additional airflow as well. But we can take a step back. You can take a look at the front end styling one last time. Really impressive on this XRT trim. But as far as this wheel and tire setup, let's take a step right over here and check it out. This is also where this vehicle is really going to shine. I love these black rims. They're going to be 18-inch rims wrapped in 235-60 R18 Kumho Krugen tires. So pretty fat sidewall tires. Should be pretty good when it comes to ride quality, and we are going to have some plastic cladding outlining this wheel well as well as the side profile, keeping this vehicle very well protected from rock chips. And as we continue along, you notice this running board should definitely help some smaller passengers get in and out of this SUV. As far as the mirror, it's going to be blacked out. You're going to have the LED turn signal on it. As far as the glass, you very well. The window trim is just going to be chrome. We're not going to have any blacked out trim except for the B-pillar. The B-pillar is going to be blacked out, and we do have some dark tints back here. We are going to get the smart access for the driver and the front passenger. That's a nice touch as well. As far as the window stick, you can take a look at it right here. Take a look at all the advanced safety features. You do get Hyundai's five-year 60,000-mile warranty with a 10-year 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. Some of the best warranties in the business. This vehicle is also loaded with advanced safety features such as forward collision avoidance assist, safe exit assist, blind spot collision avoidance assist, high beam assist, rear cross traffic alert, avoidance assist, immobilizer, lane keep assist, driver attention warning, ultrasonic rear occupant alerts, smart cruise control, stop and go, rear view monitor, lane following assist. As far as the powertrain, we got the 2.5-liter four-cylinder with the eight-speed auto transmission. Exteriors include these 18-inch alloy rims. You can take a look, pause at all these features. LED daytime running lights too. Comfort and convenience is going to include the eight-inch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We're going to also have the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster too coming on this XRT trim. We also get wireless charging. And after all these features, expect the base MSRP to be sitting around $32,300. We are going to get some options such as the floor mats, cargo net, cargo tray, cargo cover, first aid kit, mudguards, and rear bumper aplique. After all these features and a $1,200 destination charge, expect the total vehicle price to be sitting right over $34,000. Since we're not going to have the turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder, no, that's not going to be the fastest SUV, but expect pretty respectable fuel economy. 26 combined MPGs, 25 city, 28 highway, pretty good gas mileage with this eight-speed automatic transmission. But continuing along, we're not going to get, or we are going to get, a push-to-open gas tank. No easy fill, unfortunately, and this vehicle does accept regular fuel. Seven back here, same wheel and tire setup back here. Definitely impressed with these rims, really nice, but we're just going to have a single piston brake caliper out rear. As far as these taillights, also LEDs. I like how they flare out for the side profile. They're going to be LED right here with the seven-piece design, similar to the Limited trim, but they are going to be slightly, slightly different when it comes to design. This trim right over here, don't believe it lights up, but we'll, of course, take a look at that once we start this car up. Santa Fe badge with a little sunshine right next to it. Shout out, Brandon Hyundai, and we can take a step back. The exhaust tip's going to be right down here. I do like this little trim right above this dark little rear fascia, but again, we could take a step back, take a look at the rear styling one last time, and let's start this Santa Fe up with a two-and-a-half-liter four-cylinder and hear how she sounds. All right, guys, that was, of course, the sound of the two-and-a-half-liter four-cylinder sold by Hyundai for the Santa Fe. So let's pop this hood up right here and check it out. Definitely a thumbs up for the fact that Hyundai gives us struts, but here you have it. Here's your four-cylinder making 191 horsepower, 181 pound-feet of torque. Enough to get this SUV to 60 under eight seconds, around 7.6 are the estimates. Between the strut towers are going to be a pretty stiff steel brace, and the battery's going to be on the driver's side, but not a big deal since the motor's pushed a little bit to the left. Pretty self-explanatory. We can shut this hood up right over here. Really beautiful daytime running strips. Really like the front-end styling on these all-new Hyundai Sonatas. All the Hyundais really have had a very impressive front styling over the last few years, but we can take a step over here and check out the interior in this 2022 XR-T. And first thing we notice up top, we're going to get the soft-touch material, same with the limited trim with this carbon fiber right beneath it. The grab handles are going to be very high quality, and this trim right here, very nice leather, pretty soft, not quite as soft as the limited, but pretty similar overall quality of the materials. We do get a little bit of storage over here, power one touch for the driver and the front passenger, four-way adjustable mirrors, no power one touch for the rear, but you get the child locks right back here. Pretty solid storage, you can fit a 12-ounce with basically no issues, and some snacks outside of it. No Harman Kardon sound system, but not a big deal. The sound system still sounds pretty decent, obviously nowhere near as good as the Harman Kardon, but still pretty impressive. Of course, we do get the running boards and the Santa Fe nameplate with the sunshine right next to it. As far as these seats, they're just going to be cloth, but really comfortable cloth seats. I was definitely impressed with them. I think these are almost just as good, if not better, when it comes to comfort compared to the limited. It's just you are going to be sweating a little bit more with these cloth seats compared to the limited's heated and ventilated seats. As far as the adjustments, we're going to have two-way lumbar control. You can lift them, drop them, and slide them right here, as well as recline right down there. But taking a step inside, let's really check out this Sonata, or Santa Fe XRT. And first thing you notice is the steering wheel. Same thing as the limited, we can get the leather wrapped steering wheel, very thick up top, pretty nice 10-in-2 bolstering notch. The 9-in-3 is just about perfect. Pretty solid cutouts for your fingers. The horn, it's going to be rubberized as far as the horn itself. Pretty aggressive sounding horn, not the most aggressive, but more than aggressive enough. As far as the steering wheel controls, you have the voice commands right here. You can adjust between AM, FM, and Sirius. Volume and skip, you can hang up and pick up the phone calls. Adjust the infotainment, you got the hill descent control, steering assist, slash lane keep assist. You got the radar cruise right here. Adjusting the cruise control, you can adjust the infotainment right here as well. So as far as the adjustments, right now we're looking at the digital speedo. You can adjust between driver's assistance, the cluster, lights, door, and digital keys. You can take a look at the tire pressure, and you can toggle between, well, for tire pressure, that's all you can see. As far as advanced safety features, you can also see the attention level. Digital speedo, you can also see the drive information, sense refueling, accumulated information, auto stop. But my personal favorite, just look at the digital speedo at all times. We're currently in comfort mode. In comfort mode, you can see we have a silver-ish illuminated digital cluster. We have a 160 mile an hour speedometer to the left, as well as a 6,500 RPM tachometer, but that's about it. We do have the thermometer to the left. We have the average fuel economy and the total miles on the vehicle right here. As far as the turn signal stock and headlight stock, Hyundai and Kia have really been killing it lately. We're not going to get rain sensing wipers on the XRT, but you can adjust the speed of the wipers right here, depending on how aggressive the rain is. I like these paddle shifters too. Definitely an aluminized plastic material. Definitely doesn't feel cheap at all. As far as the dashboard, we're going to have some soft touch material right here, not the softest. It's mostly just going to be like a rubberized material with some stitching. Up top, there's going to be hard touch plastic for the frame of the dashboard. But right here, we're still going to have some of that stitch material. Not quite as soft as it was in the Limited, but still pretty soft for the stitching. Pretty impressive overall. That carbon flash material does continue for the center part of this interior with some aluminum outside of it and some storage right over here. Not quite sure if I mentioned this for the Limited review, but we are going to have a 12-volt right over here, as well as a USB port right next to it. Here, we have our 8-inch touchscreen. It's not going to be as fancy as the new 10.25-inch screens, but it still shows you everything you need to see. You get Apple CarPlay, Android Auto. I'll turn down this air by one so you guys can hear a little bit better. As far as the setup settings, you can take a look at them right here. We can adjust the sounds to the bass, treble, whatnot, vehicle settings. We can take a look and see what that offers you. We can recirculate the air, automatic ventilation, defog, defrost options, but it looks like that's about it. We're not to go through all that. Beneath that, we have our air vents, hazard lights. This trim is really nice. Automatic climate control, of course. Heated seats, no cooled seats, unfortunately, not really expected, with a pretty mid-trim Santa Fe. Auto start, stop, for the purposes of this review. We can disable it. Auto hold, too. Drive mode select. You have, of course, sport, comfort, and smart mode. We'll start off in comfort and transition into sport and see what the overall differences are. As far as this parking camera, let's check it out. We do have a rear-view camera. We're not going to get a 360, unfortunately, but you can press this button one more time to see what else we can adjust. Here, we have an overhead trailer camera. If you have the trailer package, this can help you really attach it to the receiver easier. As well as for seating environments, you can really maximize your space when it comes to parallel parking. We can press this button one more time, go back to the original setting for the screen. As far as the gear selector, you're going to have these buttons. Not the biggest fan of the buttons, but, of course, once you put it into drive, you're just going to be driving like business as usual. Back here, you can pop this open right here. We are going to have USB port with a cup holder, and we're also going to get a wireless charger. That's impressive for a relatively mid-trim Santa Fe. Simply slide your phone in here, and it's going to charge. Another cup holder right next to it. As far as the center console, it's not going to be stitched leather, but it is going to be leather, and it's going to be very soft, too. Press this button. You can check out the space. We can pull this thing out, and you can see. You can probably fit a 12-pack in there. I know it's a little bit dark, but it's very spacious. You can easily fit quite a bit of stuff. Very spacious center console. As far as the glove box, we do have a little bit of an area right here. You can probably fit two or three sets of gloves. As far as the glove box itself, really large. You can probably fit two pairs of shoes in here, probably 20 license plates. Very impressive when it comes to the overall space. Up top, as far as this rear-view mirror, it's going to be frameless, auto-dimming, and you got the three garage settings right over here. Moonroof, I was super impressed with the Limited's moonroof. It was one of the largest moonroofs in the business. To the left of the steering wheel, we have our lighting controls, lane keep assist. You can open up the trunk right here. Traction control, you can disable. Parking brake, you can open up the hood right down there. As far as the steering wheel, it's not going to be power tilt and telescope, but you can pull this latch, tilt and telescope the steering wheel manually. That's about it for this front seat, guys. Really impressive, even for a vehicle costing under $35,000. Let's check out the back out for a drive. All right, guys, taking a step in the back seat of the 2022 Santa Fe XRT, we are going to get the sunshade, so it's going to be just hard plastic up top, but these materials are still going to be soft. I wasn't really expecting that to be continued from the front. Right down here, this whole area for your armrest is going to be this stitched leather material. Window control, no power one touch, but still power window, of course. Very good weight resistance for this door handle and the same speaker right down here. I like how they have this little edge design. You fit a 12 ounce right here. It's just going to be a half circle, but you can fit quite a bit of snacks outside of it. Additional Santa Fe nameplate, the running board does extend the rear passengers as well. And speaking of back seats, really nice design for the seats, very soft cloth material, one of the most comfortable cloth seats in the business. And similar to the leather that you get in the higher trim Santa Fe's, we're still going to have this little protrusion, which is going to help out when it comes to thigh support for taller passengers. By taking a step inside the Santa Fe XRT, we can take a look at the overall space. And again, I'm six feet tall sitting behind my seat settings, and I still have at least seven or eight inches of leg room. One of the more impressive back seats in the segment. I have a ton of space for my feet too. Definitely a thumbs up for Hyundai. We still get the vents back here for the XRT, two USB ports right back here for your rear passengers. No cargo net for the behind the driver's seat, but we do get a cargo net behind the passenger. As far as the center little cubby area, we can open it up right over here. Take a look at this padding, very soft cloth material. I do like these cup holders, they're not rubberized, but they should definitely keep your stuff pretty well in place. But that's about it for the second row on this 2022 Santa Fe. Let's check out the trunk real quick and then take this car out for a drive. All right, guys, stepping inside the trunk on this 2022 XRT Santa Fe opens right up to the power opening trunk and a massive, massive cargo area for the Santa Fe. It's kind of high up, so it may not be the easiest for older or smaller pets to jump in here, but still a massive cargo area. If you drop those rear seats, I'd expect you to fit anywhere between a 70 and 80 inch TV. That's how large of a cargo area this vehicle has. You open up this little area right here. You have some additional space to the left as well as a jack for your spare tire, but that's about it. We do get a ton of cover back here, but it's wrapped up in plastic. I'm not going to be able to demonstrate that for you. Pretty self-explanatory. You can press this button right here, watch the tailgate shut, and as soon as it does, we'll take this 2022 Santa Fe XRT out for a drive. All right, guys, now that we've just about seen everything we need to see with the inside and outside of this all-new 2022 Santa Fe XRT, let's take it out for a drive. I know the sun might be a little bit rough. Hopefully, it won't get in the way too much. The first thing I noticed is the throttle response is definitely sharper compared to the two and a half liter turbo, but obviously, once you lean into the power, you definitely feel that you have less power. Right over here, we'll see barely any body roll. Taking a step right back out, let it downshift. Pretty solid power. You definitely get up to speed. Pretty powerful four-cylinder motor. It does feel a little bit underrated because, again, given this power-to-weight ratio, the zero to 60 time is pretty impressive. We're going to have an open road right up there as soon as that truck turns away, and we'll check out the acceleration of this vehicle off the line. All right, guys, off the line as soon as we get to a complete stop and right here. Pretty strong. Wow. Yeah, so obviously, it's not going to be anywhere near as quick as the turbocharged two and a half liter, but it's still pretty quick. The tuning in this vehicle is very aggressive. The first half of the gas pedal is definitely where the power is going to be prioritized, but that's what most people want. For daily commute cars, for people who choose to not get the two and a half liter turbo, probably don't really care too much about overall top-end power. It's the low end. You just want to be able to get out of the hole nice and quickly. We'll try it out in sport and see what the overall differences are right here. Sport mode, I keep losing where this drive selector is, but okay. Sport, we'll get right back to a complete stop right here. I love how the gauges switch up in sport, see how everything turns red, but right here on the gas. Wow, way more sensitive. Yeah, so we don't have to push it a whole lot farther. I hope you can pick it up. The acceleration is definitely there. It's just not where this vehicle is going to really shine, but stepping back out here in sport mode, yeah, the throttle is definitely more sensitive. We're barely on the gas pedal, and we're going to like 3,500 RPM, so for daily driving, I'd probably recommend just keeping it in normal mode. If you want to show off to your friends, let them know what your Santa Fe's really got. Then I'd suggest putting it into sport, but for daily driving conditions, I personally think that comfort should be more than good enough. All right, we'll try out these manual shift modes. Second gear, not the most torque, but once we cross 4,000, and the shifts are not going to be anywhere near as quick as the dual clutch that we had in the Limited, but still pretty solid shifts. Downshift, downshift, a little bit delayed, so yeah, not the best shifting manual shift controls. I'd probably just leave it in automatic and let it do its thing, but right here, second gear, third, pretty slow. Yeah, it doesn't respond anywhere near as quick as the dual clutch did, but right here, downshift, second gear, and it does kind of have slow rev matches too, so yeah, not the best manual shift controls. I'd probably just leave it in regular, automatic at all times, but as far as the turning radius, just like the Limited, one of the more impressive turning radiuses in the segment. You can get just around any obstacles, and stepping back out here in second gear, yeah, not the most torque, but eventually, once we get past like 4,000, it definitely starts to pick up, and through the twisties in sport mode, the steering is very direct. I'm definitely impressed with the steering rack, but we can put it right back into just comfort mode right here, and see what this vehicle is really all about. So, the shifts are definitely lower in the RPM range. Bumps, it rides with the bumps very well, very limited road noise, even with these Kumho tires. All right, guys, taking a step out onto this multiple lane highway, we'll try out an acceleration in just daily conditions, barely on the gas, take it to about 3,000 RPM, 3,500. We get to highway speeds basically effortlessly, and once we calm down, really quiet interior, definitely one of the quieter interiors in the segment, but overall, guys, I'm really impressed with this 2022 Santa Fe XRT. It's not going to be the fastest. Obviously, you wouldn't buy this vehicle because it's the fastest, but it's definitely super luxurious, very good ride, even over these pretty harsh bumps right over here, definitely gives you a really nice ride. We got to make a left turn right here, and people are just merging all over the place over here, but overall, huge thanks to Brandon Hyundai in Brandon, Florida, for making this review possible. Really impressive SUV, definitely a good ride quality. It's not going to be as fast as the Limited with a two and a half liter turbo, but you have just about all the options you can ever want or need. You've got all the advanced safety features. You've got the wireless charger, heated seats, no heated steering wheel, no cooled seats, so no, it's not going to be quite as loaded as the Limited, of course, but the styling is extremely aggressive. I love the way this SUV looks. The motor is surprisingly underrated. I'm definitely not fishing for power in this SUV, but overall, you see, it's not going to be the easiest making this left turn. Huge thanks for all you guys for watching. I had a great time making this video. If you're new to this channel, please subscribe. If you've already subscribed, thank you so much. This channel is just not possible without the subscribers, and I really have a huge appreciation for each and every one of you for your constant support, but again, if you haven't subscribed yet, please subscribe. Leave a like, too. It really helps me out with the YouTube algorithm. That's how these videos get promoted to new people. Leave a comment. Let me know what you like. Let me know what you don't like. Leave a comment. Let me know if there's any specific vehicles that you'd like to see reviewed in this channel, too, and I'll definitely try to get those videos for you as soon as possible, but again, thank you so much for watching, and I hope all of you have a great day.