Great value, spacious, good handling- display options could improve.
Overall, the 2025 Santa Fe SEL is a solid SUV. The spacious interior, comfortable ride, and large cargo space are exactly why I purchased this vehicle (my second Santa Fe). The MPGs are fair for this size SUV and the 4-cylinder engine will surprise you. There's plenty of room in the 3rd row seat or cargo for two Great Danes to ride comfortably. My husband is 6'8" and I am 6' tall. Even tall second row passengers have excellent legroom behind either of us in the front seats. Tall people understand what a unicorn this is! The My Drive settings are a nice option to maintain the eco engine settings but improve handling with "sport" steering as the default setting handles a bit loose. You do have to choose this setting every time; it does not default to the My Drive setting upon start.
My biggest complaint is the display panel. I love Sirius XM on a road trip and want to know which artists I'm listening to. The panel display has a TINY corner that shows the artist and song title, often cutting off a longer name, despite using 3/4 of the massive display to show which XM channel you are listening to. Even when enlarging to full screen, titles are cut. In this day and age of technology, it would be nice to be able to split the screen between music artist display on XM and Android Auto/Apple Carplay/Navigation features in a more driver preferred orientation. I also am unable to display an analog speedometer (my preference) and am stuck with numerical (like my old used car from the 80s that was trying to be fancy). I did not want all the extra tech at the Calligraphy trim level, which does offer analog display. Inclusion of some basic display customizations in all trim levels would go a long way for Hyundai. Final critique, there were a lot of issues maintaining pairing of my 2024 Android phone with the vehicle. I've had to frequently delete the devices from each other and re-pair them to maintain connectivity.
I would still recommend the Santa Fe as an option for anyone looking for a spacious mid-size SUV. It is fairly priced for the warranty, quality, and current market.