2024 Hyundai Santa Fe Calligraphy First Test: A Luxury SUV by Another Name

There's plenty of luxury to be found in mainstream products these days. Leather seating and power-opening tailgates are nearly a given in mid-to-upper-range midsize SUVs from non-luxury brands. Want seats that cool your butt? Panoramic sunroofs? That stuff is no longer limited to blue-chip, big-money rigs from European makes; it's easy to find those features and more for fifty grand or so at, say, a Honda or Ford dealer. What’s rare is finding a vehicle at that price point stuffed with luxury features that also convincingly pulls off the luxury aura of something like a Range Rover or Mercedes-Benz. The new-for-2024 Hyundai Santa Fe does.

For this test we’ve snagged a version of the most decked-out Santa Fe available, the Calligraphy trim, with the SUV’s standard 277-hp turbocharged 2.5-liter I-4 engine. The Calligraphy comes essentially one way—loaded—leaving the powertrain as the only real choice for customers to make. They can either stick with the gas engine (which comes standard with all-wheel drive on Calligraphy models) or spring for the slightly pricier hybrid powertrain, which bumps your expected fuel economy significantly from 23 to 34 mpg. It also ensures you have plenty of time to tell your friends all about the efficiency gains while you’re waiting to achieve highway speeds—the Santa Fe Calligraphy Hybrid takes nearly 10 seconds to reach 60 mph. That’d be considered scintillating in the 1970s; today, it’s very, very slow.

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The gas-only Santa Fe Calligraphy is quick only in comparison to its hybrid sibling. Mostly, this is because the newest Santa Fe is larger overall, and by our scales, this specific model is 397 pounds heavier than an equivalent 2021 Santa Fe Calligraphy we’ve previously tested. Hyundai added no power to the turbocharged 2.5-liter engine for 2024, so it makes the same 277 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque as before. As such, the new Santa Fe Calligraphy’s 7.4-second saunter to 60 mph makes perfect sense, though we can still be disappointed that it’s a full 1.2 seconds slower than the last-gen version.

Life in the Slow Lane?

Other dynamic traits haven’t backslid as badly. Ultimate grip around our skidpad drops a negligible 0.03 g to a class-acceptable 0.80 g, while 60-mph braking performance worsens only by a few feet, from 117 feet to a still-average 125 feet. Those figures (as well as its acceleration numbers) place the Santa Fe Calligraphy in a favorable light compared to the popular, similarly sized three-row 2023 Toyota Highlander XSE.

We don’t simply paint every vehicle we test by the numbers, and we won’t do so to the Santa Fe Calligraphy, which offers enough appeal otherwise to help you forget its so-so performance figures. The ride is comfortable and secure, with only a hint of float over bigger, larger-amplitude events such as speed bumps, and the cabin is hushed at freeway speeds. Although it contends with too much Santa Fe, the turbo engine is smooth and never gravelly, and its springy punch is a willing partner when dicing up rush-hour traffic.

Those looking for athletic moves need not apply, though. The comfort tuning focus extends to the numb steering, which occasionally suffers some odd effort buildup midcorner and lacks clear on-center feel, leading to more small corrections at the wheel than we’d like on less than perfect rural two-lanes.

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Another foible concerns the transmission, which allows some roll-back when accelerating on hills and generally is too slow to engage when pulling away from a stop even on level ground. Some clutch chatter is evident, and at times the engine revs can rise too much before the transmission bites and you take off with a lurch. We grew better at feathering the gas for smooth takeoffs, but the entire point of an automatic transmission is to … not feather the gas when taking off from a stop as if one is also manipulating a clutch pedal. The dual-clutch cracks off snappy shifts and is markedly better once the Santa Fe is already rolling, but it’s a curious choice in a segment dominated by smoother and more traditional torque-converter automatics. Unfortunately, this eight-speed dual-clutch tranny is standard on every non-hybrid Santa Fe, so if you’re not in a hurry and prioritize serenity, then the Santa Fe Hybrid and its conventional six-speed automatic may be the way to go.

Looks Hot Sitting Still

As we mentioned, the Santa Fe’s packaging, design, and features aren’t merely good for the mainstream set—they convincingly combine to give the impression this is some kind of mislabeled Land Rover. The boxy styling does a lot of the lifting here, sure, but it also begets practical wins, from the airy greenhouse to the nearly frameless tailgate opening. Although it’s larger than the old Santa Fe, this SUV is still not as big as the Hyundai Palisade (the brand’s full-on three-row that shares mechanicals with the popular Kia Telluride), so the third-row seat is friendly only to children or occasional short trips for anyone bigger. There just isn’t enough legroom back there, and the cushion sits close to the floor.

The design inside is elegant, though, with a large curved-glass binnacle housing both the digital gauge cluster and the central touchscreen, a clean center console with hidden purse storage underneath the hip-level control deck, and fun use of color. Our test vehicle (which was different from the model photographed here) came with a green, black, and white scheme, where the darker elements on the dashboard and door panels wear a dark army green hue, the carpeting is black, and the rest is an off-white cream leather. Everything looks designed and has a stylish intentionality you just won’t find in workhorses like the Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander, or even premium-intending stuff like the Mazda CX-90; this is no mere rolling basket of features. The vibe is as overtly money as anything from Hyundai’s luxury brand, Genesis (this author would know as he spent a year with the flagship Genesis G90 limousine). 

And the best part? Even the lowliest Santa Fes enjoy this aura of premium style—outwardly, you can’t really tell a Calligraphy trim from, say, the entry-level SE or midlevel SEL or XRT or luxe-leaning Limited. Not only will no one know the cheapest version starts at $35,365, most wouldn’t believe that this Calligraphy costs “just” about $50,000, or that any of the lot aren’t blue-blood luxury machines.