The Hyundai Santa Fe 2.0-litre petrol turbo is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It has all the performance credentials to be regarded as a genuinely fast SUV without the high price tag.

Powered by a four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbocharged engine, it delivers an impressive 196kW of power and 365Nm of torque. This puts it ahead of its petrol and diesel siblings for outright acceleration, but does it make sense for a family friendly seven-seater SUV?

In Australia more than 40 per cent of Santa Fe buyers choose the top-of-the-range Highlander model, which means there is demand for upper-end SUVs. Though we currently don’t get the 2.0-litre turbo, Hyundai Australia is certainly interested in the force-fed engine to fill the Santa Fe range, which is limited by a 2.4-litre non-turbo petrol and 2.2-litre turbo-diesel only, having dropped the V6 option available in the previous generation.

We drove the ‘sporty’ Santa Fe in California, USA, where the turbocharged SUV is readily available and rather popular.

From the outside the only noticeable difference from our cars is the Sport 2.0T AWD badge on the boot and sporty-looking alloys; other than that it’s pretty much your regular Santa Fe with no hint of what lies inside the engine bay...

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