Hyundai has presented the new Staria, a large minivan, 5.25 meters long, available in 7 and 9-seater versions and called to compete with models such as the Volkswagen Multivan, the Mercedes V-Class or the Toyota Proace Verso. It will be available only with a 177 hp diesel engine and an 8-speed automatic transmission in three finishes: Maxx and Tecno for the 9-seater versions and Style for the 7-seater versions, and with prices that will start at 52,990 euros.
The Hyundai Staria is a large vehicle that will be offered in a single body (here there are no short and long variants) that measures 5.25 meters long by 1.90 wide and two others high (beware of underground parking , that there are many of 1.90). The wheelbase is 3.27 meters, which is outrageous.
The aesthetics of the car is very original and forces you to turn your head in its path. The front is clean and with the vertical grill and the hood and the windshield, huge, by the way, are located on the same plane. The grille occupies the entire lower section and hides the headlights, while at the top, a thin and elegant daytime running light line crosses the bonnet above the logo.
In profile, the most striking thing is the waistline. I haven’t seen one so low in proportion to the height of the vehicle since the Fiat Multipla. There’s almost as much sheet metal as there is glass, and we see a single character line, the one that separates the two surfaces, starting at the base of the windscreen and dropping down noticeably. The wheels are big, 18-inches on all versions, but because the car has so much surface area, they almost look small, and the rail where the sliding door slides has been perfectly integrated into the profile.
The rear breaks with that spaceship vision and has a much more conventional look, with very vertical taillights to allow the tailgate to be as wide as possible. Of course, again with much more glass than sheet metal and with very thin bumpers, again to increase the surface of the gate, this time with the intention of reducing the load plane as much as possible. By the way, that in the Style versions, which are the most equipped, there is a totally decorative extension of the rear light.
Style versions also get a number of exterior color accents in a dark chrome hue: front splitter, grille raster, headlight surrounds, logos, door handles and mirror caps. For the body there are only four colors to choose from: white, black, dark brown and silver.
7 or 9 seater interior
Inside we have two screens, one located on the dashboard, without a visor, which is the same used by the Tucson and another in the center which, like the instrumentation, is 10.25 inches and includes the Blue Link system with which we will have navigation, compatibility with Apple Car Play and Android Auto by cable, management of the Bose sound system and different functionalities such as importing routes, real-time information on parking, weather and fuel prices, voice recognition and, through a mobile application, other functionalities such as opening and closing the car remotely, finding it if we do not remember where we have parked it or knowing how we have the tank.
Inside there are many spaces for objects, something very typical of a minivan, with four spaces in the front doors, a conventional glove box, another two above the dashboard, several in the console, with a mobile charger and another between the seats, oversized size. To this must be added the gaps in the rest of the rows and a roof console above the sun visors in the nine-seater versions.
What least convinces us is the actuation of the change. All Staria are automatic and use the button system for forward and reverse already known in other Hyundai and that we do not like at all. Why, you may ask? Well, why, sometimes, in forward and reverse maneuvers such as when turning around or parking, if the car is not perfectly stopped, the button that we give it does not activate and it can give you a scare since you think that the car will go backwards and pull forwards or backwards.
The front seats of the Style version are two, very comfortable, while the Maxx and Tecno, with nine seats, have a bench seat for three occupants in front. As the car is very wide and does not have the gearbox on the floor, a third occupant can also go in front. And when we take the children’s friends, we can talk to them without hollering thanks to an interior communication system with a microphone that will make them listen to us from the rear seats through the rear speakers.
We now go to the rear seats that we access through huge electrically operated sliding doors. The Staria Style has an “American” or “Korean” configuration of 2 + 2 + 3 seats, which means that in the central row we find two individual seats of great comfort. The space they offer is spectacular, both for the legs and in height, so much so that we can put them in a relaxed position in which the body is suspended, which prevents fatigue on long trips and invites you to take a good nap. These seats are mounted on rails, which means that they can be moved forward or backward at will to take advantage of the interior space at our convenience.
And the same thing happens with the third row, which can be accessed through the aisle between the two seats in the second or by advancing and folding the latter. It is a fully usable third row for three occupants. It doesn’t have the usual inconvenience of the third row in an SUV, which is often very low and very close to the roof. Here the space is the same as that of the second row and this bench, which is also sliding, is similar to that of the second row in the Maxx and Tecno versions, so that the nine seats come from there, in a 3 + 3 arrangement + 3.
The central bench seat of the aforementioned nine-seater versions is divided into 1/3-2/3 proportions to facilitate access to the third row by folding the single seat. The bench is sliding and is wider than the rear and both have the option of folding either by raising the bench as in a movie seat, with which they can move forward as much as possible, such as folding the backrest on the bench.
The possibilities of the trunk are almost endless given that the two rear rows are sliding. Hyundai announces a minimum capacity of 117 liters if we take the opportunity to offer all the possible space between rows and a maximum of 1,303 liters if we advance the two rows. In addition, we must bear in mind that we can fold the two rear rows and they remain in a flat format, ideal for campers.
only with diesel engine
The only engine available is the eternal 2.2-liter diesel engine used, for example, by the Hyundai Santa Fe, in this case with a power of 177 hp and coupled to an eight-speed automatic gearbox. According to the brand, with this engine (and, for now, there will be no other) the Staria reaches a maximum speed of 185 km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h. in 12.4 seconds. The combined consumption is 8.5 liters per 100 km with 11.1 in the city and emits 222 grams of CO2 per kilometer. And neither does it have any type of environmental label from the DGT nor does it manage to avoid the highest registration tax.
Acceleration is poor, but you have to think that this is a car to travel with the family on highways and roads and this diesel, which is a bit noisy, has something very interesting: a torque value of 430 Nm, which allows it to recover more than decently taking advantage of, in addition, the change of eight gears, the first five quite short and that allow to take advantage of the acceleration capacity of the car. If, in addition, we put it in Sport mode (it also has normal and Eco), it changes the engine and transmission mapping and even offers a certain dynamism.
The Staria has a McPherson strut front suspension, but beware, because the rear is neither rigid axle nor torsion bar, as in some of its rivals, but mounts a deformable parallelogram scheme. The Staria is light years away from its predecessors, the Hyundai H1 of the last generations, which had a dynamic behavior, let’s say, unconvincing. The Staria is comfortable (except in the third row, where rear-axle bouncing is most noticeable) and well-insulated, and it leans and pitches relatively little in corners and on corners. Obviously it is not a car with sporty pretensions, but a travel vehicle and as such, it not only complies, but also gets an excellent grade.
This Style version is four-wheel drive and has a lock to keep the all-wheel drive engaged, as it normally only uses the rear axle when grip loss occurs. The lockout theoretically allows it to move on slippery surfaces, but we couldn’t test that in our touchdown. The rest of the versions are front-wheel drive.
The safety equipment is extensive with frontal collision warning, with junction assistance and warning of possible collision in reverse, lane keeping, blind spot control, intelligent cruise control and speed limiter, sign recognition, climate control, reverse gear, keyless entry and start, and a full-size spare tire.
Prices are 52,990 euros for the Maxx version, 54,990 for the Tecno variant (both with 9 seats) and 62,990 for the luxurious Staria Style. The brand discounts 1,800 euros if it is financed with it and another 1,500 if a used car is delivered in exchange.
