HYUNDAI SANTA FE

Seven-seat SUV targets lifestyle market with practical, square-jawed approach

Hyundai and Kia have an astonishing market share in their homeland of South Korea. The brands account for around nine in every 10 cars sold, and most of the rest on the road are other Korean motors.

There are some interlopers, often BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, but among them you will also spot the occasional Land Rover Discovery None of its peers, though: not Range Rovers, not Toyotas, not double-cab pick-up trucks. But enough Disco 4s to suggest there's a following.

I think Hyundai design chief SangYup Lee has rather more imagination than to reprise the Disco 4, by the way. But on unveiling the Santa Fe, he did talk about how 'outdoors' culture had become more mainstream and he wanted the Santa Fe to reflect that. There's even apparently a trend in Korea for campers to just kip in their cars rather than pitch a tent.

Since Hyundai started out down this chunky, square-edged path with the new Santa Fe, the new Defender and reborn Ford Bronco have arrived too. Practicality, squareness and ruggedness in this kind of car is very much in.

And not a lot is more practical than the new Santa Fe, whose squared edges make it look bigger to my eyes than its 4.8-meter length suggests, particularly compared with its rounder, softer predecessor.

The new car should arrive in the UK about a quarter of the way into next year, although it's already on sale in Korea. The existing model in the UK starts at £43,000; no word on the new one, but there's no reason to expect anything other than a modest increase that will keep it competitive with other big wagons.