The more I drive the Hyundai Santa Fe, the more it impresses me. My first experience of the range involved a week behind the wheel of a CRTD turbo diesel with manual transmission and five seats, and you can read about that here. To sum up, though, I was greatly taken by its room, its practicality, its performance, its fuel economy and its on-road behaviour.I also like its styling, which is quite forceful but curvy enough to escape being too in-your-face. Viewed head-on, though it can be a bit intimidating, and I think this worked against me during an awkward moment at a single-track bridge. I was sure I had reached the bridge first, but the guy at the other end kept going anyway and I had to brake sharply to avoid a confrontation.I reversed to give him room, but the driver behind left me with only a couple of feet to play with, so the chap on the bridge had to squeeze past, as did the six cars that followed him. If I had been in something quaint and fluffy like a Nissan Micra I might have got away with some pitying smiles.Instead, the people on the bridge saw the large and threatening Santa Fe almost entirely blocking their exit route, and there was a lot of cussing. I felt like I was the target of my own anti-SUV campaign.The Santa Fe's glowering visage is quite at odds with its actual character. Very few cars of this size and type ride so well, and the handling is really very impressive considering there is so much weight so high up. As previously discussed, any visual claims the Hyundai has to off-road ability are exaggerated - it just doesn't have the suspension or transmission to cope with anything too steep, slippery or rock-strewn.The things that distinguish this car from the one I tested a few weeks ago are the automatic transmission and the fact that it has seven rather than five seats. The disadvantages of the auto box are the same as usual; it puts an extra £1000 on the list price, the performance deteriorates, the fuel consumption increases and the CO2 rating goes up.More specifically, the CO2 figure increases from 193 to 220g/km. The other penalties are equally minor: even in auto form, the diesel Santa Fe returns 34mpg on the combined cycle, and I doubt anyone is going to be too concerned that the 0-62mph acceleration time increases from 11.6 to 12.9 seconds.As for the price, the way residual values are going these days you would probably get the £1000 premium back when it came to selling the car on a couple of years down the line.I quite like the manual gearbox, but the automatic suits the car better. It makes an already relaxing drive even more so, not least because the changes from one ratio to another are enviably smooth.The seven-seat business is less convincing. You can see why Hyundai would want to make the option available - plenty of its rivals do already - but the job has not been especially well done. The Santa Fe was clearly not designed from scratch as a seven-seater, and although the extra chairs are quite comfortable in themselves they are mounted too near the floor to be comfortable for adults.Nor does it help that the roofline descends at exactly that point of the car. Taller occupants will find their heads jammed against the roof in a way that would become very uncomfortable at the first bump.On top of all that, access to the back row is tricky, and there seems to be no way of getting in or out without brushing your shoes against the upholstery on the back of the second-row seats.In this form the Santa Fe would be fine for large school runs, but the interior of the car won't stay pristine for long. While the ability to seat seven is a useful selling-point, it's far from being the best feature of what is otherwise a very capable SUV. Engine 2188cc, 4 cylinders Power 148bhp Transmission Automatic Fuel/CO2 34.0mpg / 220g/km Acceleration 0-62mph:12.9 seconds Top speed 111mph Price £22,280 Details correct at publication date
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