2022 Hyundai Santa Fe Pricing and Specs

The short answer is yes, provided you have the 'right' Sante Fe. In a nutshell, while all Sante Fes of this vintage were rated to tow at least 1650kg, the reality is that one does it better than the others.

You can forget the hybrid version which, although capable of towing, is not the best variant for that task. The same goes for the 3.5-litre V6 Santa Fe which had plenty of power but was front-drive only. Which leaves the turbo-diesel version with its 440Nm of torque, 2500kg towing capacity and all-wheel-drive grip as the one to go for.

The turbo-diesel engine piles on the grunt better than the petrol engines, will be more frugal with a caravan hitched up, and the grip from the AWD set-up means it’ll be a safer, more capable tow rig.

The default purchase for somebody looking for a mid-sized hybrid SUV is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. But if that’s too big, there’s the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, C-HR Hybrid and even the Corolla Cross Hybrid which sounds like the marketplace is getting crowded but is really just a reflection of the appetite right now for cars like these. And that’s the catch; the waiting times for a brand-new example of some of these cars is out to many months and even years. So your plan to shop second-hand makes plenty of sense, but don’t expect any bargains in a market currently being dominated by lots of demand and less supply.

Beyond the Toyota brand (which has been doing hybrids longer than just about anybody else) there’s also the Mazda CX-30, Subaru XV Hybrid, Haval Jolion Hybrid, Kia Niro, Subaru Forester Hybrid, Nissan Qashqai e-Power, MG HS, Honda HR-V e and more. For something a bit bigger, try the Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe hybrids. There are others out there, too, that are probably bigger or more expensive than you need, but it's very much a growing scene in the Australian marketplace.

While the CVT is enjoying a bit of a purple patch right now with many car-makers using it for its efficiency benefits, you’re not the only one, Gregg, that doesn’t want to own such a thing. The CVT’s history is littered with failures, although to be perfectly fair, they are a lot better now than they’ve ever been.

But even if you can accept their reliability track record, some owners will just never take to the CVT’s characteristics of allowing the engine to rev up and have the rest of the vehicle catch up. It can feel very alien and it’s hardly a sporty sensation, either.

With all that in mind, you probably should start looking at things like the two-wheel-drive versions of something like, say, the Toyota Kluger or Hyundai Santa Fe. Both are available in two-wheel-drive, both have conventional 8-speed automatic transmissions and both can haul a decent load (2000kg and 2500kg respectively). The Toyota even offers a hybrid driveline, but, sadly for buyers like you, that uses a CVT transmission.