5 Months with My '25 Calligraphy… Tips & a Quick Question

Hey Santa Fe owners! I’ve had my 2025 Hybrid Calligraphy for about five months now, and I’m absolutely loving it. This is my first Hyundai, so it’s been a bit of an adjustment, but in a good way. Figured I’d share some of the lesser-known tips I’ve picked up along the way, both from my own experience and from the community.

These are based on the US model, so I know there might be some differences with the Korean version.

  • Cold winter knocked my tire pressure way down. Turns out, all tires need to be at 36 psi or higher to clear the low tire pressure warning. I had to pump them up to 38 psi before the warning finally disappeared.
  • When in Reverse, you can adjust the left or right mirror to have a specific tilt setting just for backing up. It’ll only work if you’ve selected the mirror using the switch on the driver’s door. Seems like you can only do one mirror at a time, though. Super helpful for curb parking!
  • Want to put the wipers in service position? Turn the car ON, then turn it OFF, and within 15 seconds, hold the wiper stalk UP for 3 seconds. The blades will move to the raised position. Great for changing wipers or preventing them from freezing in the winter. They’ll return to normal when you turn the car on and flick the stalk.
  • Sunglasses tip: I use a visor clip and non-polarized Ray-Ban Clubmasters, and the driver attention sensor doesn’t bother me at all.
  • In Eco mode, you can press and hold the right paddle to turn auto regen braking on or off.
  • The built-in voice assistant is actually useful! If you short-press the voice button, you can tell the car to do things like turn off heated seats—this way, you don’t have to activate Siri unless you actually want to.
  • If you want CarPlay to be your default home screen, place the CarPlay icon on the same screen as the built-in navigation. That way, it’s the first thing you see when you start the car.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll update if I remember anything else.

One question: Does anyone know if there’s a way to park the car, keep it ON, and still use Smart Park Assist with the key fob? Right now, it seems like you have to turn the car off first, which is kind of annoying. Would love to know if there’s a workaround!

Happy driving!

You have to turn the car off first before using Smart Park. I think it’s a safety thing so you’re definitely outside and watching while using the fob.

Also, great tip about the mirrors! I just learned about that recently, and I’ve had my car since September.

@Sloane
Ah, that makes sense. Appreciate the confirmation!

If anyone’s interested in hybrid driving tips, here’s one:

  • If you slightly lift off the gas pedal when cruising, the car will switch to EV mode (as long as the battery has enough charge and conditions are right). Works best when you’ve got momentum at higher speeds.
  • The adaptive cruise control (ACC) is optimized for hybrids and can actually get better MPG than manual driving because it manages acceleration and regen braking more efficiently.

@Miller
What kind of ‘optimizations’ are we talking about? I’ve tried both, and I actually get better mileage driving manually since I can be more gentle and anticipate stops better than cruise control.

Can you clarify what you mean about placing the CarPlay icon? How do you do that?

Adler said:
Can you clarify what you mean about placing the CarPlay icon? How do you do that?

Just tap and hold the little rectangle icons on the touchscreen, and you can rearrange them however you want. It’ll save to your driver profile too.

@Teal
Oh, that’s awesome! Didn’t know that. Thanks!