Faults:

The one and only thing that has gone wrong with the car is that the car pulses at times, It vibrates severely. I took it to the dealer to get it fixed, but they couldn't get it to pulse, so they did nothing. I had the manager sit in it when it pulsed and he told me they would fix it. I haven't had the opportunity to drop it buy because they have no loaner and I have to work. (Pulses till this day.)

General Comments:

This car has no pick-up.

Rides surprisingly smooth.

I get 20mpg on the highway, (very disappointed)

Good factory radio.

Great safety features.

Back seats recline. Why is Hyundai one of few that recline?

Very disappointing performance.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

Very smooth driving, and comfortable seating. Very good view, controls well placed. Does shift a bit jerky at times, but no big deal. Running pretty much at 24 mpg most of time, varied driving. Towed my boat quite well, 1850 pounds, plus 450 for motor and? for heavy trailer. Does not have a lot of oomph at very low rpm when towing, Does real well once rpm hits 2k, not at all uncommon on V6 engines.

I use father's Blazer with a 4.3L and I find the similarities quite close in performance, but it only gets 21mpg in exact situation. Sure isn't near as comfortable as the sante, by a long shot. Father was quite impressed as well.

I have had some minor noise when I moved the roof rails into certain positions, easily cured that.

Faults:

No mechanical complaints so far, this being a new car.

A few of the fittings do feel a little "plasticky" and Hyundai would do well to improve on this for the Santa Fe - just like they did for the Sonata.

As such, there seems to be a bit of noise coming from one or two of the fittings (e.g. the cargo shade) when the car is on the move. Hopefully, this won't worsen as the car clocks more miles.

Lastly, for a family SUV, there are not as many nooks to store little items in the passenger compartment as one would have hoped for.

General Comments:

This is my third Hyundai.

The first was a Stellar which didn't disappoint me at all - in spite of advice from well-meaning friends against buying it.

The second was a Sonata which proved to me again that, unless you're very brand-consciousness, a Hyundai is well worth owning.

Now to the Santa Fe itself:

I was pleasantly surprised by its good pickup, usually pulling me ahead of other cars at the traffic lights.

Its roomy interior is comfortable for a family of five, with (manual) seat height adjustment for the driver.

The electric side mirrors are big and give a good view of rear traffic.

Auto transmission was relatively smooth, and its "tiptronic" or H-matic switch (for switching between auto and manual or "sports" modes) are a breeze to use.

The car came with almost every feature and accessory that anyone on a budget would be glad to have as standard: roof racks, extended bumpers, spotlights, rear parking sensors, Pioneer hi-fi set including a 12-CD disk changer, vanity mirrors (with light) for both driver and passenger sides, cargo shade and cargo floor netting, leather seats, remote central lock, ABS, airbag (driver side only), 17-inch alloy sports rims with Falken 512 tires (great for road-holding).

Finally, consider that I viewed several other brands of MPVs and SUVs before settling on the Santa Fe.