2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Wins Cars.com/USA Today/MotorWeek 3-Row SUV Challenge

CHICAGO, April 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com, the leading online resource for buying and selling new and used vehicles, has named the 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe the winner of the site's 3-Row SUV Challenge. The challenge pitted seven 3-Row SUV's, all $40,000 or less, against each other in a series of expert and car shopper testing to determine which was the best overall SUV in the class. In addition to the 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe, others tested included the 2014 Chevrolet Traverse, 2014 Dodge Durango, 2014 Honda Pilot, 2014 Mazda CX-9, 2014 Nissan Pathfinder and the 2014 Toyota Highlander.

"The Santa Fe continues to be a favorite among Cars.com editors and car shoppers for its ability to offer loads of features, a premium interior and great driving ability, all at a competitive price," said Kristin Varela, Cars.com's Chief Mom. "This isn't the first win for the Santa Fe this Year. In January, we named the Santa Fe the Best New Full-Size SUV of 2014, and its smaller sibling, the Santa Fe Sport was named our Family Car of the Year."

Experts from Cars.com, USA Today, MotorWeek and a family in the market to buy a 3-Row SUV tested the seven contenders over several days, and compared features, comfort, fuel efficiency, and overall drivability.

Tests included:

• 200 miles of driving on varying roads to test each car for real-world fuel economy.
• One day of round-robin driving where each expert evaluated each car on the same route back-to-back to gather overall impressions on drive, features and comfort.
• Testing by a family in the market for a new 3-Row SUV who evaluated each vehicle for the same categories as the experts, from a family point-of-view.

"3-Row SUV's are frequently the first choice for families because of their ability to haul the entire family comfortably and stylishly, not to mention their great gear hauling attributes," said Varela. "There are some key family-friendly features that parents should be on the lookout for when evaluating 3-Row SUV's, including storage capacity and easy access to the third row, and of course a great driving experience is important for mom and dad too."

Full results from the 3-Row SUV Challenge can be found at blogs.cars.com, or at Cars.com/family.

ABOUT CARS.COM

Cars.com is an award-recognized online destination for car shoppers that offers information from experts and consumers to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, expert and consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison and build and price tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other resources. As the 2013 "Highest Ranked Third-Party Automotive Mobile Site" by J.D. Power, Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make stress-free buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

SOURCE Cars.com