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2019 Hyundai Santa Fe First Drive Review | Trading ‘Sport’ for spiffy

SEOUL, S. Korea — Say goodbye to the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. For 2019, it becomes the Santa Fe — a two-row crossover that will continue to compete with the likes of the Nissan Rogue, Ford Edge and Toyota RAV4. Three-row versions coming later, which will go up against the Honda Pilot and Ford Explorer, will get an "XL" or some other, yet undisclosed moniker tacked onto the nameplate depending on the configuration. As such, it will have bigger shoes to fill in this increasingly competitive segment. The timing feels right for the crossover to come into its own, and Hyundai has done its best to make sure it pulls its weight against its rivals. View 32 Photos With the updated name comes an updated look. In the flesh, it's a handsome ute that seems more SUV than CUV: beefed up and boxy, and less overtly elegant than so many swoopy crossover profiles we see today. Its big, chiseled face conveys a Lexus-like gravitas without looking too complicated or polarizing — check out the slight pinch where the "cascading" grille meets the front bumper. The rising beltline feels modern, while the mostly horizontal roof and almost vertical rear end feel anciently familiar; maybe a utility vehicle can sate our thirst for wagons after all. Inside, the new Santa Fe has an air of quality to it, perhaps not in strict terms of materials, but in thoughtfulness. Hyundai does good things with affordable materials, and in general the interior is well laid out — specifically, the center console and its switchgear feel utilitarian and organized. We loved the smooth, tight feel of the leather wheel in our hand and the crispness of the digital display central to the instrument cluster. The seats are cozy, supportive without feeling cushy, and it was easy to find a natural seating position with little adjustment. Visibility is good, despite what you might think from looking at that high beltline from outside. There's a fixed piece of glass ahead of the side windows to improve sight lines at the bottom of the A-pillar. Checking the blind spot, the larger rear quarter window behind the second row of seating helps with visibility. It was only after spending a couple of hours in the cabin that we noticed that there's a lot going on here. The headliner in our tester had a look somewhere between chambray and denim, but felt soft to the touch. The top of the dash was a softish dark plastic — a polyurethane leatherette, to be more specific.

New Hyundai i30 N hot hatch makes at least 250 horsepower

The chefs at Hyundai's new N performance division are working on their first dish, a Korean take on the ever popular hot hatch. The new model will be a modified version of the i30, or Elantra GT here in the US. Hyundai Motor Europe revealed a new teaser today showing the car testing on public roads in the UK. While we could cross our fingers for this spiritual successor to the Renault 5 Turbo, the car appears to be a traditional Volkswagen GTI and Ford Focus ST competitor. The first teaser from March showed the new i30 dancing around at a snow-covered testing facility in Sweden. While the video did give us a few cool shots of the new car tossing up a bit of the white stuff, it didn't actually reveal any new details. This new video is different, showing what might be the car's horsepower and torque rating. A quick shot of a computer screen shows 257.5 PS at 6,000 rpm and 302.1 Nm, which translates to about 254 horsepower and 223 lb-ft of torque in American. It's unclear if this is power at the crank or the wheels, but it seems to be right in the middle of the pack for the segment. We're really looking forward to this new model. Hyundai (and Kia for that matter) has been on a roll the past few years. Its cars are no longer simply value buys. The Elantra Sport shows the company is capable of building a enthusiastic little all rounder that can compete with the big guys. It looks like the car is in the final stages of development, so look for a full reveal sometime this fall. Related Video:

Hyundai Tucson N would be a hot hatch on crossover stilts

Auto Express reports that during last week's launch of the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe, the carmaker's global head of sales said a hotted-up N version of the Tucson "is under development, and other models will come after that." The remark should quell a year of speculation that a performance-oriented Tucson N had to figure somewhere in Hyundai's plans. The question now is when will the Tucson N get here. The N performance sub-brand's first product, the i30 N, just launched. We'd been told that a "fastback" would come next, probably an N version of the i30 Fastback going on sale in international markets this year. After that would come a B-segment vehicle — likely an i20 N, a road-going model of the four-door that Hyundai uses for the World Rally Championship. After that would come an SUV, however, we're also expecting a Veloster N to reach the U.S. market late this year. We know that the N division plans to take the time to make sure each model delivers all the goods — the i30 N's received uniformly high marks so far — so we could be looking at mid to late 2019 for a spicy Tucson. The hot crossover playground will entertain more global players by then — Seat just debuted its 296-horsepower Cupra Ateca in Europe, for instance — but in the US, the Tucson N could own a niche without a true competitor. The Mazda CX-5 earns across-the-board praise for driving dynamics, but its four-cylinder tops out at 187 hp and it would never be called a "lovable thug." Unless Ford decides to roll out an Escape ST after three years of scuttlebutt on the matter, nothing else in the segment could touch a 'roided Tucson, especially one given the full 271-hp from i30 N's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot. Related Video: