Getting great mpg and being able to tow a decent popup aren't all that
possible.  Something has to suffer!  Either you get good mpg and poor
towing or great towing abilities but poor or mediocre mpg.

I towed a popup for many years with a Nissan 4x4 V6 pickup.  It got
about 13 towing and 18 not towing highway.

One of the problems is with todays popups.  In the 90's my 1st popup was
a Coleman Roanoke.  It weighed about 1200lbs fully loaded.  It did not
have a shower or potty. My next popup was a Coleman Shenendoah.  It
weighed 2000lbs fully loaded and had a shower and potty.  Todays popups
are HEAVY!  Theres only a select few that are light and I'm not sure if
a 1200lb loaded popup can be bought new anymore.

Most of the smaller SUV's don't get very good mpg.  Especially since
you'll want the larger engines for towing.

Our 2004 Hemi Durango 4x4 is overkill for your needs.  But it pulls our
5000lb Hybrid easily and gets 13mpg towing and 20mpg not towing highway.
 Perfect for us.

Greetings,

Instead of the Santa Fe, I would consider the Kia Sorento.  They both share
the same 3.7L 6-cylinder powerplant, but the Sorento has three major
advantages over the Santa Fe when it comes to towing.  Both are the same
size and have similar capacities, and since Hyundai owns Kia both are very
good quality and share many of the same components.

The first advantage that the Sorento has for towing is rear wheel drive,
which has a stronger transmission than the comparable front wheel drive in
the Santa Fe.  It's the nature of the beast that a FWD tranny will be more
compact for the same application, plus RWD handles better for towing.

The second is a solid rear axle instead of the more car-like independent
rear suspension of the Santa Fe.  This is better for handling while towing
and overall load capacity.

And third, the Sorento has a full frame with nine crossmembers instead of
the more carlike unibody design of the Santa Fe.

You're not going to get much more in the way of capacity and still stay with
the caveats of not being too truck-like, good comfort and fuel efficiency if
you move up to anything larger like the Trailblazer or the Explorer,
especially in this price range.  For the price and size of a Sorento or
Santa Fe, the comparably price Honda CR-V or Toyota Rav-4 aren't in the same
league for towing as the Sorento.  Of course it all depends on how much
money you want to spend...

Just my two cents worth!

Cheers - Jonathan

Unless you have a pretty light pop-up, you're really going to want to look
for something that is "truck-like".  The truck-like vehicles are going to be
designed to tow and do it well.  Whatever you get, don't expect to get
stellar gas mileage while towing.  I heard someone once complain about how
horrible their first trip was towing a 21' travel trailer...the gas mileage
was horrible...like 10mpg!  Huh...imagine that, towing around something
about as heavy as the vehicle itself!  :-)

Good luck!

Wesley