Used Cars – Hyundai Santa Fe fuel efficiency

By Lawrence Minnie

With a new face, sleeker body lines and a diesel-only engine line up for South Africa, the second-generation Hyundai Santa Fe brought performance and elegance to the large SUV segment. But how did it fare in the fuel economy stakes

If you’re going to Santa Fe

For the purpose of this evaluation, we’ve imposed an age cap on the Santa Fe – the first-generation car arrived back around the turn of the century already, but since it wasn’t a big seller (and is consequently very thin on the ground these days), we’ll only consider the second- and third-generation cars.

As introduced for the 2008 model year, the second-generation Hyundai Santa Fe saw very few updates over the first generation.

The move to a 2.2l four-cylinder turbo diesel engine was a welcome change from the previous (and thirsty) petrol engine, as the entire Santa Fe range went diesel.

These engines delivered 145 kW and 436Nm, and returned a claimed average fuel consumption of 8.3l /100km.

Real-world road tests at the time gave an average consumption figure of roughly 8.9l/100km, which is not a huge departure from factory claims. When the third-generation car arrived in 2013, it retained the same engine, and grew only marginally larger and heavier. The recently-replaced Mk 3 Santa Fe however also has slightly more-advanced aerodynamics, which should offset its size- and weight penalties to return similar consumption figures.

Over a 10-year period, and taking into account a complete service history and regular maintenance, we have found indications that a 2009/2010 Santa Fe should still return roughly 9.8l/100km in the combined cycle.

Diesel engines are renowned for outlasting the car they are fitted to, but only if regular maintenance and servicing is carried out. Stick to the service schedule, and your diesel engine could well outlast the car, and return very favorable fuel economy.