I love driving. I only learned to drive when I was pregnant with Mini and ever since have never looked back, but I only have a little car, so when Cass and I decided to go on holiday together to Bognor Regis with our four children there was no way we could all fit in to my tiny car. Thankfully Hyundai came to the rescue and loaned us a New Generation Santa Fe for the week. The New Generation Santa Fe is a five plus two seater and we have three children in booster seats between us. My two boys use a high back booster whilst Master Frugal is a little taller and use uses a booster seat.
We managed to get all four children, what felt like 100 bags and ourselves in the car comfortably and we set off on our seven plus hour journey.
From a driver and a mothers perspective I really liked the New Generation Santa Fe. First up it was the Euro NCAP safest car in class 2012, so I felt as though my precious cargo was in safe hands oir wheels. Secondly the New Generation Santa Fe was a dream to drive.
Yes it is a big car, but it was really easy to drive and thanks to the rear parking camera which is displayed within the 7” touchscreen I managed to negotiate reversing in to a tiny parking space in Brighton and reverse out of a car park partly blocked by an illegally parked car at Butlins where smaller cars tried and failed.
The model we had was an automatic and once I got used to it I had loads of fun driving it. I loved the fact that it had cruise control which makes for easy motorway driving, but it also was easy to drive when we got stuck in traffic due to the A30 being closed.
The sat nav did a fantastic job of redirecting us round traffic issues and out of the traffic jam and was named Betty by Cass.
As you can see from the photo’s the children were all really comfortable and that makes driving a family so much easier. In fact It is safe to say I loved this car and was really impressed with all the little touches, such as the wing mirrors folding in when it was locked.
I really loved this car and it made our road trip so much fun.