No place for hot-weather testing like the Death Valley and guess what got caught up on the camera, the 2010 Hyundai SantaFe which is supposed to go on Sale in Korea pretty soon. From the spy shots, it is clear that the car gets a redesigned front end, with some styling changes to the grille and the headlights. There is a new front bumper which incorporates fog lights a touch differently. Even the door handles have undergone a trim as they appear to stretch closer to the ground.

A look at the rear reveals retouched taillights with white-out features, a narrower door and differently shaped tailpipes. On the inside, the driver will find new leather upholstery, multifunction steering wheel and an all-new console with an attractive instrument cluster.

[via WCF]

Honestly, Hyundai is not the company and SantaFe is not the model, that I would have expected to see entering the hybrid-electric game, but now that I know it’s for sure, that’s a nice surprise.

Dubbed SantaFe blue Hybrid it’s the company’s first to use the new family hybrid system. It uses a 2.4 liter gasoline engine geared to a six-speed automatic transmission and a 30kW electric engine that also works as a generator to charge those 270V lithium polymer batteries. That has taken the CO2 emissions down to 148 g/km and fuel consumption to 6.2l/100km.

But it’s still a hybrid and I guess you’re expecting less performances? Well if you do, you’re dead wrong because that thing goes from 0 to 100km/h in 10.6 seconds. Other than the three-piece panoramic glass roof with UV protection by Magna Car Top Systems, the new SantaFe blue Hybrid is no different than the other SantaFes.

This is for real guys. A Romanian driver, owner of a Hyundai SantaFe, wanted to be the smart ass and decided to take the train racks rather than waiting in line on a very (VERY) crowded bridge in Bucharest. Because the SantaFe is not a tram you don’t have to guess twice what happened. It got stuck.

Here’s where the fun part starts because this guy managed to block both train and road traffic on one side and I don’t need to tell you the words the guy got from “fellow” motorists (or passengers). See, being a smart ass pays off sometime Here is the video.

via AutoLatest