During its time in our hands, our Dark Red top-line GLS long-termer experienced the icy blasts and heavy snows of winter, the sweet smells of spring and the blast furnace head of mid-summer, which provided a widely varied menu of weather conditions in which to put the eye-catching SUV through its paces.

Along with the admiration for its cleaner, more integrated design, staff members praised our Santa Fe for its comfort and quality. The seats are cushy, it’s easy to find a decent driving position and the second-generation Santa Fe’s bigger dimensions gave passengers plenty of room to stretch out.

The fits, finishes and materials in our long-termer also appeared comparable to more expensive SUVs in terms of quality. The beige leather trim in our model also gave an airy, sophisticated feel, making it seem much more expensive than its $35,995 price tag would suggest. The only downside showed up in the “deluxe cut-pile” carpets, which tended to show marks from dirty feet a bit too easily. Otherwise, the Santa Fe’s routine housecleaning was easily handled and little, if any, wear and tear was evident after seven months of hard use in our staff’s hands. The interior cleaned up easily and looked great even after the slush and mud of winter and spring. A decent car wash is all it ever took to leave the Santa Fe’s exterior sparkling again.

Our tester follows the current trend of offering three rows of seats and, like most others of this type, didn’t offer much comfort in the third row — children excepted. The fold-flat seats are easy to operate and with all seats lowered there’s 2,213 litres of useful cargo room. With the seats upright, however, there’s only 282 litres of room. Unless you actually use those rearmost seats, it makes more financial sense to get a five-passenger model, affording more cargo room and a useful under-floor storage compartment.

To drive, the Santa Fe is quiet and smooth. We were especially pleased with the 242-horsepower, 3.3-litre V6 that is standard in the GLS model (the base GL version gets a 180 hp, 2.7-litre V6 as standard, with the bigger 3.3 V6 as an optional choice). The smooth five-speed automatic transmission — with manual mode, if desired — is useful for holding the engine in gear when preparing to pass and shifts are snapped off quickly and efficiently.

Fuel economy, as always, was something we kept a close eye on and the numbers proved quite revealing. The federal government’s Energuide numbers show our test model rated at 12.6 L/100 km (22 mpg) in the city and 9.0 (31) on the highway. In the end, our numbers were close to those numbers with 11.7 L/100 (24 mpg) in mixed driving conditions made more demanding by extremely cold late winter and early spring weather conditions.

Overall, we fed 2,286 litres of fuel into our Santa Fe at a cost of $2,238.69. The government’s Energuide booklet estimates 2,200 litres of fuel usage to cover a similar 20,000 km annual distance, so our Santa Fe’s extra 86 litres looks darn near spot on.

For such a tall vehicle, we found the handling to be quite good while the steering felt light and accurate. It’s easy to forget how big the longer, wider Santa Fe is until you have to swing it into a parking space on a busy lot.

Most rewarding of all, we had no technical issues with our tester. Apart from a routine 12,000 km inspection, oil and filter service ($59.80) the Santa Fe needed nothing at all. If progress has its price, then the Santa Fe scores well at both end of the value scale.