During the dark and dreary months, our long-term three-row SUV provided warmth, security, and … fun? Here's what we loved and what we'd like to see changed from our winter experience.
Winter in Michigan is mercurial. It’s snowy or wet or icy or sloppy or occasionally, improbably dry. Most days I walk my dog wearing three hoods pulled over a hat, except for the days when I wear no jacket at all.
Amid such volatile weather, there are at least a few things I can always count on: The sky will be gray, by mid-February my wife will be asking why we live in a place that’s so hostile to human life, and a few weeks later I’ll be thinking the same thing. Michigan’s winter weather is hard on cars, too. Surface conditions change constantly, not just from day to day, but from street to street. An unforgiving freeze-thaw cycle turns thepavement into lasagna in a matter of weeks, to say nothing of what happens to the bad roads. And then there’s the deicing salt that quietly nibbles away at everything it touches.has been a bright spot during this year’s typically gloomy and surprisingly snowy winter. Here’s what I’ve loved and what I’d love to see improved in the coming years., but here’s your regular reminder that winter tires are worth every penny in the snow. I’d originally planned to run the Santa Fe’s stock Pirelli Scorpion MS all-season tires for our full 12-month test. Given that recent winters have been wet rather than snowy, I didn’t see a need. The factory Pirellis had proved competent if not exactly confidence-inspiring in early snow dustings, and I figured as long as I adjusted my driving to the conditions, they’d get the job done.But when Detroit editor Alisa Priddle made plans to pilot our Hyundai deep into the Great White North where they get enough snow to turn the roads into walled-in tunnels, we agreed that winter tires were in order. A set of Michelin X-Ice Snow SUV tires went onto the Santa Fe’s 20-inch wheels just before the holidays, a decision that proved prescient. From November 2025 through February of this year, the city where I live has received 51.4 inches of snow, roughly 20 inches more than we’ve seen during the past three years.At $403 per tire, the Michelins aren’t cheap, but they proved their worth every time the snow started flying. On multiple ski trips to northern Michigan, driving through a whiteout blizzard in Indiana, and deep into Canada, they’ve done exactly what a winter tire is supposed to do: deliver predictable braking, cornering, and acceleration in unpredictable conditions.Miraculously, the Michelins have a minimal impact on the Santa Fe’s steering precision and handling. That’s one of the reasons I chose them. I’ve mounted X-Ice Snow SUVs on my wife’scovered in snow. I do have one gripe, though: The Santa Fe’s ride quality on the X-Ice Snow SUV tires is significantly worse than on the stock Pirellis. Winter tires with this much sidewall and such a chunky tread pattern usually feel squishier and squirmier than all-seasons. These tires on this SUV ride like they’re filled with peanut butter rather than air. Potholes and frost heaves travel through the suspension as if the Santa Fe is wearing run-flat tires . This has of course been exacerbated by the fact that the potholes multiply every day throughout winter. All in all, it’s a trade-off worth making for the safety winter tires provide, but with the temperature yoyoing between the 70s and mid-20s, I’m getting eager to remount the stock all-seasons. With more than 9,000 miles on the odometer, I have yet to come anywhere close to the Santa Fe Hybrid’s advertised 34 mpg combined. In the early days, the 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four returned a consistent 27 mpg, but as the temperature has dropped, so has the fuel economy. Our fuel log now has us averaging 25.4 mpg to date. The recent decline is likely due to the combination of colder air , winter-blend gas , and the winter tires’ greater rolling resistance.Speed is certainly a factor in our fuel economy, too. Highway traffic in Michigan moves fast, and you can see a significant change in the onboard mpg display between cruising at 70 mph and 80 mph while the real-world city fuel economy anecdotally looks to be much closer to the 35 mpg shown on the window sticker. As the weather warms up, I’m planning a more in-depth test of exactly how you have to drive to replicate the EPA fuel economy numbers. I’m not a remote-start person. The idea just feels extravagant and wasteful to my engineer brain. Then I had kids and now I freely use it whenever I drive them to school in the winter. The Santa Fe makes that easy by allowing owners to start the engine using either the key or the MyHyundai app. I’ve come around to preferring the app since it provides a confirmation that the command was successful, which means I don’t feel the need to walk to a window to verify the SUV is running.every morning because the engine only runs for a maximum of 10 minutes before shutting off. At 20 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s barely enough time for the small four-banger to warm the cabin above freezing. A Santa Fe is a sensible purchase—spacious, safe, surprisingly affordable—but in the doldrums of winter it’s also a riot. With a fresh layer of powder on the ground, our Hyundai easily and elegantly slides around parking lots and cul-de-sacs.It’s no happy accident that the Santa Fe is so playful in the snow. Like nearly every three-row crossover, the Santa Fe’s all-wheel-drive system routes torque to the front wheels by default and only calls on the rears when driver inputs or wheelslip warrant it. Unlike most crossovers, however, Hyundai also includes a button that locks the AWD so both axles are always engaged. The engineers also gave drivers a button to relax the stability control enough that the rear can swing around a corner faster than the front. Turn into a corner under light braking, wait for the front end to bite, then jab the accelerator, and the Santa Fe sashays around the corner. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re absolutely right. This is an absurd reason to love a three-row crossover where driving fun was probably prioritized below tailgate-opening speed and sound quality with the fade set entirely to the rear. But when winter is this long and this gray, you look for fun wherever you can find it.Get the newest car reviews, hottest auto news, and expert analysis of the latest trends delivered straight to your inbox!I fell in love with car magazines during sixth-grade silent reading time and soon realized that the editors were being paid to drive a never-ending parade of new cars and write stories about their experiences. Could any job be better? The answer was obvious to 11-year-old me. By the time I reached high school, becoming an automotive journalist wasn’t just a distant dream, it was a goal. I joined the school newspaper and weaseled my way into media days at the Detroit auto show. With a new driver’s license in my wallet, I cold-called MotorTrend’s Detroit editor, who graciously agreed to an informational interview and then gave me the advice that set me on the path to where I am today. Get an engineering degree and learn to write, he said, and everything else would fall into place. I left nothing to chance and majored in both mechanical engineering and journalism at Michigan State, where a J-school prof warned I’d become a “one-note writer” if I kept turning in stories about cars for every assignment. That sounded just fine by me, so I talked my way into GM’s Lansing Grand River Assembly plant for my next story. My child-like obsession with cars started to pay off soon after. In 2007, I won an essay contest to fly to the Frankfurt auto show and drive the Saturn Astra with some of the same writers I had been reading since sixth grade. Winning that contest launched my career. I wrote for Jalopnik and Edmunds, interned at Automobile, finished school, and turned down an engineering job with Honda for full-time employment with Automobile. In the years since, I’ve written for Car and Driver, The New York Times, and now, coming full circle, MotorTrend. It has been a dream. A big chunk of this job is exactly what it looks like: playing with cars. I’m happiest when the work involves affordable sporty hatchbacks, expensive sports cars, manual transmissions, or any technology that requires I learn something to understand how it works, but I’m not picky. If it moves under its own power, I’ll drive it.
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