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CORNWALL, N.Y. I should’ve taken the six-cylinder version of the 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited crossover utility vehicle.

But I drove its four-cylinder sibling in what was an unfortunate attempt to relieve the pain of driving in an environmentally and economically battered world.

I was suckered by The New Frugality, a major theme of the 2010 New York International Auto Show, which opened to the public over the weekend and remains underway until April 11 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, about a 90-minute drive south from here.

There are new four-cylinder models aplenty on the Javits convention floor, including the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, Nissan Juke and the totally reworked Ford Focus. The buzz over the four-cylinder rides is matched by the hoopla over the many electric and gas-electric models on display.

But surrounding those sober green exhibits are the glistening symbols of what normally drives the North American automotive market — power, speed, beauty and more than a little bit of lust. There is, for example, the new Chevrolet Camaro, available with your choice of a 304 horsepower V-6 or 400 horsepower V-8 engine. And there are the usual European suspects — Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Mercedes-Benz high-performance AMG editions.

Thus, the show is a statement of progress made in the campaign for alternative fuels and better fossil fuel economy expressed in a celebration of motorized schizophrenia.

Global automobile manufacturers nowadays seem to be working from the Save Your Cake-Eat It Too School of Product Development. But my road trip here from Northern Virginia in the four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited demonstrates that the have-it-all-and-save approach is more myth than reality.

If your goal is to travel at moderate speeds and occupy the right lanes of the nation’s highways, four cylinders are fine. But if you wish to move fast, carry a heavy load and drive uphill — get six or eight cylinders to do the job.

There was a stunning difference in performance between the six-cylinder Hyundai Santa Fe I used to make the same trip last year and the four-cylinder model employed for this year’s journey.

Last year’s 3.3-liter V-6 Santa Fe (242 horsepower, 222 foot-pounds of torque) ran with gusto, making easy work of highway lane changes and uphill climbs. The 2.4-liter, inline four-cylinder model (175 horsepower, 169 foot-pounds torque) this year was a snail on wheels, whining every time it was asked to move beyond 65 mph, groaning and hesitant when asked to take on a steep roads.

Hyundai, like many of its rivals, offers premium interior materials and a wide range of electronic communications/infotainment equipment in its cars and crossovers. That remains the case in the 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited. It’s all very attractive and pleasing — until it hits the road for a long trip with four cylinders being where six or eight should be.

Under that circumstance, especially when carrying a load as I was on this trip, power and handling trump fuel economy. I’m much in support of cleaner, more fuel-economical engines. But mine is the attitude reflected in many of the vehicle displays on the convention floor in New York City.

I want my cars and trucks to be clean and fuel-efficient. But I also want them to flex muscle when muscle is needed. The four-cylinder Santa Fe did not satisfy my last demand.