LOOKS

The Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (the smaller, more nimble relative of Hyundai’s Santa Fe model) is one of the most visually astute crossovers on the market; With a window-line shaped a bit like a raised eyebrow, it’s almost winking at you to come and give it a shot.

Once inside, you’ll see the two-row Santa Fe Sport is a bit more spacious that you might have envisioned from the outside. You also get some nice high-end touches, like some wood grain decoration on the dash that hints at what you might see on more luxurious rides.

ENGINE, HORSEPOWER

There are a couple engines offered on the Santa Fe Sport, but my test vehicle featured a peppy 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder turbo engine. Official numbers are 264 horsepower, and 269 lb.-ft. of torque. The base engine will give you 190 horsepower and 181 lb.-ft. of torque.

So how does it drive?: Even the turbo is rather reserved and somewhat lacking at acceleration in “Normal” mode, but you can switch to Sport mode, which is very fun to drive and more responsive; The way I saw it, there was one mode for family time (don’t want to drive too crazy with the little ones in back), and one mode when you’re alone on the open road and want to see what the vehicle can do.

The Santa Fe Sport didn’t offer the most exciting ride I’ve ever had, but compared to others in this class it was impressive. Handling was a high point, as the vehicle is responsive to steering adjustments.

My test vehicle had all-wheel drive, but the base mode is front-wheel drive and you have to upgrade to AWD. All models feature a six-speed automatic transmission.

SAFETY
This is one area where the Santa Fe Sport puts up a good fight in this tough category.

To start, its government safety ratings are nearly perfect, so you can feel confident you are safe when you drive it and are transporting your loved ones.

Standard tech and safety features include: Keyless entry; Front seat belt pretensioners; Energy absorbing steering column; A bevy of air bags (front, side, knee); Antilock Brake System, with brake assist; Traction control; Stability control; Hillstart Assist control; Driver’s blind spot mirror

Optional features on the non-turbo Santa Fe Sport model include: Rearview camera, rear parking assistance, blind spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, and lane change assist. The turbo model gets most of those features as standard.

The vehicle’s tech interface is adequate, coming with a standard 4.3-inch color touchscreen that is easy to control and reliably accepts voice commands.

Adding the Ultimate package as an option will net you features like HID headlights and LED taillights, panoramic sunroof, Navigation system with a larger 8-inch screen, a booming 12-speaker surround sound system, heated steering wheel and other luxurious touches.

MPG
Official fuel mileage numbers on the Santa Fe Sport 2.0T are 18 city/24 highway/21 combined; I was running slightly below these numbers during my time testing the car.
Even if you live up to the numbers, you’re still going to be a few ticks behind the fuel economy of some of the competition for the Santa Fe (Ford Escape and the Mazda CX-5, among others). So this isn’t a bright spot if you’re comparison shopping.

PRICE
The price for my test vehicle with the turbo started at $33,000. After options were added it jumped to $38,350. The base model, without the turbo, starts around $25K; but performance will  be more disappointing -- hence the much lower price.

BOTTOM LINE

Small-to-midsize crossover SUVs are a nice midpoint between the overly compact SUVs everyone is churning out lately and the exceptionally huge full-size SUVs that can seem like unmanageable land boats. Hyundai has done a fine job with their offering in this area -- the Santa Fe -- and the Santa Fe Sport adds a tick of fun to the mix, particularly with the turbo version. While it has its flaws, like any car, the Santa Fe Sport offers enough to like that it could be a popular choice among the folks shopping this segment.

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Matt Myftiu can be found on Twitter @MattMyftiu.