Hyundai’s new crossover in Lexus mold

CHICAGO – The rush is on to create new entries in the crossover segment.

Crossovers are alternatives to sport-utility vehicles and minivans with far better ride, handling and mileage.

They also offer all-wheel-drive so those leaving SUVs don’t have to give up the feature that attracted them to a brute – rough ride and all – in the first place.

Hyundai of South Korea has gotten with the program. It sells the compact Tucson and slightly larger, slightly more upscale Santa Fe and adds the even larger and more upscale midsize Veracruz.

Hyundai says the Honda Pilot, Toyota Highlander and Nissan Murano are its targets but, when trying to be recognized as a key player in the crossovers, you might as well aim for the leader, the midsize Lexus RX350.

And Hyundai has with Veracruz. We can’t help but feel it’s not just coincidence that it even looks like the Lexus.

The theme, as with any Hyundai, is being just as good and offering just as many amenities as the sales leader in the segment, only for a lot less money.

The base price is $32,000 plus change for Veracruz versus $38,000 plus change for an RX350, but the spread is more than $7,700 in Veracruz’s favor when the two are similarly equipped.

Putting $7,700 in your pocket rather than the dealer’s is like winning the lottery.

Santa Fe was derived from a stretch of the Sonata sedan platform. Veracruz is a stretch of that stretch with a more refined suspension. Hyundai says no even larger crossover is planned.

Veracruz is offered in GLS, SE and top-of-the-line Limited versions in front- or all-wheel-drive. We drove the FWD Limited.

Only engine is a 3.8-liter, 260-horsepower, 24-valve V-6 teamed with a new 6-speed automatic with manual shifting. The engine has the spunk, but not the whisper quiet, you’d expect of a V-6. The mileage rating is 18 mpg city/25 mpg highway, appropriate for the power, but more generous than reality, considering the frequent stops for a shot of $3 a gallon energy.No quarrels with the suspension, which kept road harshness from filtering through the seat as well as the steering wheel. You keep planted in your seat without getting jolted around the cabin. And there’s no top-heaviness.

The wide-profile 18-inch radials did a good job of minimizing lean in corners and turns, though ease off the throttle if the corner is very sharp or the turn very tight. The suspension may be user-friendly, but it isn’t race-tuned.

Windshield, side and rear glass are expansive for an excellent view all around. Exceptional visibility doesn’t always get the credit it deserves for the safety it provides.

Though the $7,700 savings versus a Lexus is a strong point, Veracruz doesn’t compromise on safety. Side-curtain air bags for all three rows, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control with traction control are standard.

Upfront the leather seats are well cushioned and supportive for long-distance travel and aren’t the slip-and-slide type that make each turn an adventure.

Nice touches include eye-soothing blue backlighting for gauges, switches and buttons as well as cupholders and door sills; lined glove box and console storage bin rather than exposed plastic; cupholders built into the rear sidewalls and a small covered container over the wheel well in the third row; a 115-volt power outlet in the cargo hold; and keyless start so you only have to twist the lever in the dash to get going, as long as the magical key fob is in the vehicle. You do away with a key, but not the fob so what’s gained?

Also, there’s a pop down conversation mirror in the ceiling below the eyeglasses holder so you can see the folks in the second and third rows while you chat or watch the kids back there; a pair of center console storage pockets; a pair of cupholders in front of the console; a power outlet and cell-phone holder in the dash; a power liftgate operated by a key-fob button; and storage under the cargo floor.

The test vehicle also came with an optional DVD entertainment system. The screen slips down from the ceiling, and the player is in the back of the console between the front seats. A pull-down armrest between the second-row seats holds the earphones as well as a couple of cupholders.

Though a Lexus wannabe in looks, it falls short in comfort once you move into the second and third seats. To provide enough knee room for those in the second seat, large indents were carved out of the backs of the front seats.And while the second-row seats slide forward to create an aisle to the third row, the aisle is narrow and there isn’t much footing needed to slip in back. Once there, head and knee room are tight.

With the third-row seats up, you have spots for a couple kids, but not so much cargo room. With the seat backs flipped flat onto the floor, the cargo space is generous. With second- and third-row seat backs folded flat, cargo capacity is abundant. If hauling a ladder, the passenger seat back reclines to provide the room.

The Veracruz Limited starts at $32,305 (add $1,700 for AWD, a wise choice for the Snow Belt) and includes air conditioning; power tilt and sliding sunroof; AM/FM/XM/CD/MP3 audio system with steering wheel audio/cruise controls; heated power side mirrors with puddle lights and redundant turn signals; remote keyless entry; power windows, door locks and seats; tire-pressure monitor; trip computer; and fog lamps.The optional Ultimate package at $2,950 adds adjustable pedals, power tilt and telescoping steering wheel, the DVD system, 115-volt outlet, rain-sensing wipers and keyless ignition.

Consumers always benefit from competition as the rivals try to outdo each other. That’s why Veracruz is welcome and so will be the other crossovers coming soon.

By Jim Mateja
Chicago Tribune
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 8:52 PM CDT

First Drive: 2007 Hyundai Veracruz

The new Veracruz is an impressive, upscale SUV—but will consumers buy a $40,000 Hyundai?

Up Front
Does the U.S. market really need yet another midsize sport-utility vehicle? And, if it does, is anyone going to pay upwards of $40,000 for a Hyundai?

Those questions were running through my mind as I recently spent a morning test-driving the new ’07 Hyundai Veracruz at a press event in upstate New York. The Korean carmaker scored a big hit with its redesigned Santa Fe SUV last year. The Santa Fe is now by far Hyundai’s hottest product: U.S. sales doubled, to 27,982 units, during the first four months of this year, and the company expects to sell 90,000 units by yearend.

My guess is that the all-new, bigger, and more expensive Veracruz is going to have a tougher time of it than the Santa Fe did. It’s a well-designed midsize sport-utility vehicle with three rows of seats and a seven-passenger capacity, making it ideal for carpooling. And, like the Santa Fe, it has a quiet ride, high-quality interior, and loads of standard features.

But the Veracruz also is coming out just as gasoline prices are soaring and are projected to rise a lot more this summer. And the Veracruz doesn’t have any great fuel-efficiency advantage over its main rivals: With front-wheel drive, it gets 18 miles per gallon in the city and 25 on the highway, dropping to 17/24 mpg with all-wheel drive—about the same as the Honda (HMC) Pilot and Toyota (TM) Highlander. My guess is that this summer American consumers will again be turning away from SUVs, and the Hyundai’s price advantage won’t make up for the fact that it’s a new, untested model coming out in a tough market.

The Veracruz is available in three trim levels: the GLS, SE, and Limited, all of them powered by a 3.8 liter, 260-horsepower V8 coupled with a six-speed automatic transmission. The base model GLS is fairly pricey. It starts at $27,000 with front-wheel drive and $28,695 with all-wheel drive. But it also comes loaded with standard equipment, including electronic stability control; traction control; anti-lock brakes with brake assist and electronic brake force distribution; tire pressure monitors; a trip computer; a CD player with steering wheel-mounted audio controls; auto-dimming inside and outside mirrors; a tilting and telescoping steering wheel; active head restraints; front, side, and side curtain airbags; and power windows, doors, and locks. The Veracruz also has excellent crash-test ratings.

The loaded-up Limited version of the Veracruz with all-wheel drive, a power sunroof, rear-seat entertainment system, leather upholstery, and just about every other bell and whistle you can think of, tops out at about $38,000. For the moment, the Veracruz isn’t offered with a navigation system, but when that option is added, probably on the ’08 model, the price will top out at just under $40,000.

That makes the Veracruz a big move upscale for Hyundai. Indeed, the company figures 40% of sales will be of the expensive, high-end trim level. However, as with other Hyundai models, the Veracruz’s main selling point is its relatively low price. Hyundai figures it has a $3,300 price advantage over the 2007 Highlander and a $3,700 edge over the Pilot, once you factor in differences in standard equipment.

Behind the Wheel
For me, the big appeal of the Veracruz is the quality and practicality of its interior. When you hop into a higher-end version of this vehicle, you can’t believe it’s a Hyundai. The saddle-leather upholstery is soft and well-made, the dash and center stack are tastefully designed, and all the instruments are intuitive to use.

The seats—front and back—are comfortable and supportive. And there’s adequate head and leg room in both the front and second-row seats. I test-drove the vehicle with a rangy fellow who was six feet, four inches tall. Up front, he was comfortable (though a little cramped) with the driver’s seat all the way back. But even with the driver’s seat as far back as possible, he had plenty of knee space in the second-row seat. The only problem I had in the second row was that foot space was a bit tight.

Leg space in the third-row seats, as always, is tight, barely 30 inches. But it’s far easier to get into the Veracruz’s third row than it is in most SUVs. The second-row seats slide and fold forward, creating room for you to actually get a foothold as you crawl in. Even my lanky co-pilot was able to get in and out with relative ease.

Another thoughtful design touch that comes in handy if you have kids: Like the Toyota Sienna, the Veracruz has a second, convex rearview mirror under the conventional one that allows the driver to survey activity in the entire cabin, including the relatively distant third-row seats, at a glance.

Hyundai has packed the Veracruz’s cabin with noise-deadening materials and anti-vibration gear, making it remarkably quiet at every speed. The company says the Veracruz is quieter at idle than the Pilot, Highlander, and even the Lexus RX350. At highway speed (62 mph), Hyundai figures cabin noise is about the same as in the Honda Pilot and slightly less than in the Lexus.

The Veracruz has a lot of hauling capacity, too. The third-row seats fold down flat, and the second-row seats go nearly flat. Maxmium towing capacity is 3,500 lbs., plenty for pulling small boats and trailers. The main downside of the design is that, as with the Santa Fe, there’s only minimal luggage space behind the third-row seats. If you were taking a family trip with several kids, you would probably have to buy a roof rack for your luggage.

The vehicle’s main disadvantage is that it isn’t much fun to drive. The Veracruz has a slightly more powerful engine than the Santa Fe, and its automatic transmission has a manual shifting mode that’s supposed to make it seem sporty. But the Veracruz also is several hundred pounds heavier than the Santa Fe, so acceleration is sluggish. The steering feels squishy, and I sensed a fair amount of body roll going around curves. The ride is smooth, and seemed less boat-like than I remember the Santa Fe being, but road feel is minimal.

The bottom line is that this isn’t a driver’s SUV like, say, the Acura MDX. Like the Santa Fe, the Veracruz has been heavily focus-grouped. And it has the soft, comfortable ride and easy-steer handling that appeals to suburbanites.

Buy It or Bag It?

The Veracruz offers excellent value for your money. But Hyundai is moving upscale a little too fast for my taste. The Veracruz would be more attractive if some of its standard equipment were available as stand-alone options, so shoppers on a budget could get the price down. It’s also annoying that on the GLS and SE versions, you can only get a sunroof as part of option packages that cost $2,000 or more.

In this category, you have tons of other models to choose from. In addition to the Pilot and Highlander, the possibilities include the Saturn Outlook, the Mazda CX-9, and the Chrysler Pacifica. Some of the rival models are already being discounted: For instance, General Motors (GM) has slapped a $1,000 rebate on the Outlook, and DaimlerChrysler (DCX) is offering $2,500 or more off on the Pacifica. If gas prices continue to rise this summer, as projected, discount of SUV prices will probably be rife across the board.

If you’re on a budget, I would consider buying a Santa Fe instead. The Santa Fe isn’t all that much smaller than the Veracruz (only 6.5 inches shorter), and its entry price—around $22,000—is five grand lower than the cheapest version of the Veracruz. Plus, Hyundai is offering $1,000 rebates on the Santa Fe through May 31. If you want a sporty SUV at a budget price, another alternative is the Kia Sorento.

However, if you want a loaded-up, smooth-riding midsize family SUV, it’s hard to find one at a better price than the Veracruz. Hyundai’s quality ratings have soared in recent years. And if anything goes wrong, you always have the company’s wonderful warranty, which includes 10-year/100,000 mile powertrain and a five-year/60,000 mile bumper-to-bumper general protection, plus five years of free roadside assistance, to fall back on. But if the available package at your Hyundai dealer isn’t exactly what you want, shop around. It’s going to be a buyer’s market for SUVs all summer long.

by Thane Peterson

Thane Peterson reviews cars for BusinessWeek.com.

Autoblog First Drive: 2007 Hyundai Veracruz

Back in January at the Detroit Auto Show, Hyundai finally peeled the camo off its newest product, the Veracruz. The Veracruz is aimed right at the heart of the increasingly popular mid-sized crossover segment that includes such perennial best sellers as the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander and new entries like the Saturn Outlook and Ford Edge. Hyundai identifies the Honda and Toyota entries as their main competitors, but interestingly neither was their primary benchmark. That honor falls to the Lexus RX350. More on that in a bit.

Hyundai invited a group of automotive media to a park in northern Oakland County north of Chrysler’s headquarters for a first drive of the new Veracruz. We set out on a cool rainy morning in a fleet of new vehicles in various trim levels and front- and all-wheel drive configurations. We only had about an hour and a half to drive, so this was strictly a first impression.

Before we got to hit the road in the biggest Korean CUV to date, Hyundai’s Miles Johnson and Product Planning Manager Mike Mino gave us some background on the company’s recent history and design goals for the Veracruz. The biggest problem with using existing vehicles as benchmarks to design a car is that anything on the market was designed at least 4-5 years before and the carmakers are already well on their way to the next generation. Hyundai tackled this problem by using a vehicle one level up as the benchmark for the market they wanted to compete in. So while they wanted to compete with the Pilot and Highlander, they claim to have used the RX350 as their benchmark.

The result is a vehicle that is generally better equipped and yet still priced lower than it’s direct competitors, a typical Hyundai move. The test vehicle we drove was a high-end Limited model with most of the goodies like a sunroof, dual-zone climate controls and a leather interior. The look and finish of the interior was top notch with soft touch surfaces and well located controls. Like the latest Chrysler small and mid-sized cars, chilled air from the A/C system is ducted through the center console compartment to keep drinks cool.

The front seats were comfortable and felt reasonably supportive over the relatively short drive. The second- and third-row seats, on the other hand, are pretty flat. The second-row bench can slide fore and aft providing plenty of leg room for three passengers, though. The rear door openings are large and access to the third row is fairly easy. Even with the middle row pushed all the way back, my knees didn’t touch the seat backs from the back row, which is a minor miracle.

On the road, the 3.8L V-6 moves the 4,300 lb. wagon without seeming to run short of breath. The six-speed automatic shifts imperceptibly and kicks down quickly and smoothly when you put your foot in it. The ride was well controlled with no wallowing over a number of different surfaces and body roll never got out of hand, although it was never really pushed too hard. The steering was nicely weighted with no center slop. The only major flaw that cropped up on our rainy day ride occurred during a full throttle lunch launch at an intersection. On the uneven road surface with intermittent puddles, the traction control seemed to loose its way and started to oscillate applying the brakes back and forth across the front axle generating some very nasty wheel hop. Several later launch attempts on wet pavement, gravel and a split didn’t reproduce the shuddering, however.

A decade ago driving a mid-size to large SUV was usually a very unpleasant experience for a typical car lover. They were always based on trucks with terrible handling and ride, sloppy steering that was all over the road and mushy, weak brakes. Sport utilities and crossovers have come a long way in the intervening period and overall the Veracruz was a pleasant ride and very livable. Hopefully in the very near future, we’ll be able to give you a better picture of what it’s like to live with a Veracruz on a day-to-day basis. In the meantime, if you can’t wait, the Veracruz is available now starting at $27,000 and ranging into the upper thirties for the loaded Limited models.

Posted Apr 27th 2007 1:47PM by Sam Abuelsamid