Road test: Hyundai Santa Fe Premium SE 4WD 7-seat

My daughter spotted it first — a near total absence of roof boxes sitting on top of cars in thick holiday traffic. Years ago, every family car carried one in the summer; they were great for the tents, surfboards etc that wouldn’t fit in the boot.

Now people-carriers and SUVs appear to have spelled their decline. Why fiddle with roof bars and spanners when you can chuck everything in the back of something large, such as Hyundai’s Santa Fe?

We tried the seven-seat Premium 2.2 CRDi model and were generally impressed. It’s highly practical with those extra seats and, when they’re not in use, has loads of luggage room.

All Santa Fe models have four-wheel-drive — great for towing or showing off as you plough through water fords — and the 2,199cc four-cylinder diesel engine pulls strongly, marred only by the six-speed automatic transmission taking its time changing gear.

The sedate feeling is heightened by body lean in bends and slightly woolly steering but it’s a comfortable, practical, family car.