HYUNDAI has given its Santa Fe large SUV an upgrade for 2015 and while exterior changes are minor, there have been significant suspension revisions and more technology added to the higher-spec variants.

At the local launch of the 2015 range in Byron Bay, Hyundai Motor Co Australia’s chief operating officer John Elsworth called the Santa Fe “a magnificent success story since introduction”.

The seven-seater first arrived in Australia in 2000 as Hyundai’s flagship SUV. The current DM model arrived as a new-generation vehicle in 2012.

While Hyundai points out that Australia’s allocation of Santa Fes from South Korea has been constrained for the past 18 months, sales to the end of September this year are tracking 2.6 per cent ahead of last year at 4846 units.

It’s a long way off the 23,316 year-to-date sales of Hyundai’s i30 hero hatch, but what is important to the Korean car-maker is which Santa Fe more customers are buying – the Highlander.

Priced at $53,240 plus on-road costs it’s the most expensive Hyundai on the market, yet 49 per cent of Santa Fe buyers opt for the Highlander. Mr Elsworth called the willingness to pay more than $50K a milestone in Hyundai’s Australian history.

Fittingly the Highlander was the only Santa Fe available for journalists to drive at the launch.

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