thinking of buying a santa fe

[timguyli]

Hi... Im thinking of Buying a new 05 santa fe, is this a decent vehicle or should i go with my second choice of a Jeep liberty? thanks for any input.

[timguyli]

and Oh yeah, My last experience with Hyundai was with my 2001 Elantra that i bought new.. Peeling paint, disintegrating wheel bearings and No brakes what so ever... any no help from hyundai at all. I might as well not even had a warranty. Im just hoping things have changed

[twospirits]

I responded in part to your other post in the Elantra section so I won't repeat all of it here, but I will say this. The Santa Fe has (at least to me) been the best vehicle overall I have ever bought. I've had other models and all of them were with problems. The most was with the Mazda Protege, but in all fairness it was a used vehicle and the service department was not really the best there is and so the vehicle was never really up to par.

While the Santa Fe is a very good vehicle you have to accept that not every vehicle is perfect. There are some that will come off the assembly line with problems due to circumstances beyond the norm. Overall the vehicle is very well built, has a good engine (abit to some they wish more power) and handles very well in ice and snow. I've seen vehicles here in NY that I thought would handle the icy roads well and they were slipping and sliding all over the place, yet the Santy was holding well.

Now comes the issue of the dealership/service department. While Hyundai has one of the best if not the best warranty in the business, it all depends if the dealership is a good one. I can tell you the good, the bad, and the downright ugly dealerships here in NYC (and some in Nassau) from my own personal experience. Some are great while others I wouldn't even send my enemy too.

The owners in here as well as in other interent forums for the Santa Fe will attest to the quality of the vehicle. Plus we have a heads up with the very well resource that Hyundai Webtech provides us owners if any problem does come up.

If you plan on getting one, you can probably get good year end deals. The updated version will be coming out soon next year. Its bigger, but will cost more.

If you need more resources and info just pm me or look at my website (both in my profile).

TS out

[mazdatech]

Well said TS.. I have never owned one but have worked on them(Santa Fe) and they have had very few problems and the few, are very minor. But the only reccomendation I can give is to pay the extra for the V6. The 4cyl is a crappy/noisey motor and under powered to boot either V6 is good(2.7 or 3.5).

[jroxx042]

Originally Posted by timguyli

Hi... Im thinking of Buying a new 05 santa fe, is this a decent vehicle or should i go with my second choice of a Jeep liberty? thanks for any input.

Hi.......I do like Jeeps but I did go ahead and bought a 05 Santa fe and my wife and I love it. I'm really impressed with it. Plenty of power and great in the snow. I think if you got one you will be happy. John

[rac43]

My first post in this forum but I just had to tell about my recent experiance. We just bought a 2004 Sante 2.7 auto FWD with 15k miles from a dealer here in Denton Texas. Sold our 98 Mercedes E320 so moving from luxury to Hyundai. With 300 miles so far, love everything about the Santa Fe. We rented a 2005 Jeep G. C. Laredo for a week recently and what a waste of road space. With 2K miles, it wallowed down the road at 70 like a small boat in the wind. We drove Jeep, Chevy Trailblazer, Buick SUV, Ford Explorer on and on ,coming back to the Santa Fe each time. Without a doubt, best value for the dollar and a pleasure to dirve! Hope this helps someone decide.

[twospirits]

Welcome to the forum.

Interesting, I have seen and heard quite a few owners that jumped ship from other brands to Hyundai, but this is the first I hear about going from Mercedes Benz to Hyundai.

TS out