Hyundai Santa Fe 2007+

wheelz4

I think what John Krafcik meant was that their 5/10 warranty has been around now for almost 5 years (nearing the end of the 5 year warranty/half-way through the 10 year) and that the costs to Hyundai to support this warranty
have been far less than they anticipated.
I would think that because it's been a successful marketing tool and has cost them less than they thought to boot, they will be keeping it around.

mtice1979

The only ammendment that Hyundai is going to make on their warranty, pertains to the roadside assistance. it seems their are idiots taking advantage of the gas, like getting the $15 worth about three times a month. So they are ammending it to only 2 roadside claims per year.

dbros

I think you're not comparing both vehicles apples to apples you have to consider that the pilot has 8 seaters, cargo capacity is not comparable and towing capacity is way behind. They are not really in the same category.

And another thing you don't buy a vehicle by its MSRP price, you can buy a Honda Pilot EX-L around 26,500.00 right now (check Honda Pilot Prices and Buying experience Forum) plus Honda is offering 2.9% & 4.9% financing for 36 mos and 60 mos respectively. While 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe is non existent. :confuse: :sick: :P

arumage

I believe driveyourway was comparing 2wd models. Towing is the same on 2wd models at 3500lbs. Only the 4wd Pilot tows 4500lbs according to Honda's website. Also, I wouldn't even seat 3 of my worst enemies in the 3rd row of a Pilot being that it's only a few inches wider than the 3rd row seat of the Santa Fe and it has even less leg room. They are really not in the same category as Mike stated earlier. The Mesa (if its going to be called that) will be more in the Pilot's category. The Santa Fe was built more to compete with the new Rav4.

I can't disagree about the financing and dealer pricing though. We'll see what happen when the 2007 Santa Fe is widely released in larger quantities, maybe we'll see some breaks. I don't expect 2.9% though.

Before I buy, I plan on driving them all (Pilot, Freestyle, CX-9, Santa Fe, Pacifica). We'll see what happens then. You never know, I might be more impressed with the Pilot then.

mtice1979

Don't expect much on interest rates withe Hyundai anymore...The low interest was more targeted on jumpstarting the economy post 9-11. Look for more great lease programs as the federal reserve rises once more.

samirataustin

Somebody posted a few days ago that manual transmission GLS is available with touring package based on dealer info sheet. I can't locate that posting any more. Whoever posted that message, could you plesae confirm that this combination is orderable from factory?

danf1

It will be available in theory.

jrehnke

I have been looking into the Santa Fe and everything I look at does not show a towing package - is there one for this vehicle? :confuse:

danf1

Not presently, but I'm certain that one will be available shortly. We reccomend that our customers go to U-Haul usually if they want a tow hitch installed. It is considerably less expensive than going through Hyundai.

antoninb

Hi all. My short list includes both the new Santa Fe, and the Subaru Forester. The latter (with the turbo engine) includes HID headlights. A recent trip through New Hampshire and area has highlighted how helpful HID headlights can be on winding, unfamiliar roads. With all of the cool new features that the 2007 Santa Fe has, I don't see any mention of HID headlights. Can anyone confirm/deny if these are a feature? I'll be leasing, so I don't want to go aftermarket to install them myself. Thanks!

danf1

No HIDs this year.

taz16

No antoninb, not even standard or an option in the top of the line model of the Santa Fe.
Maybe when Hyundai plans release its new full-size truck and SUV they'll probably have it.

taz16

Also,
even though the new Santa Fe in a mid-sized SUV it's priced squarely to compete with compact SUVs

Toyota RAV4
Upcoming Dogde Nitro
Upcoming Suzuki XL7
Upcoming Ford Edge
and its own sibling the Kia Sorento

Pricing probably will be the same as the Azera philosophy,
the top of the line and with all options still under $30,000.

arumage

The Santa Fe goes all the way up to around $33,000 msrp with all option packages, which is still very competitive with the msrp's of the other brands. You can build the edge on Ford's site, and similar options price it over $34,000 w/o a 3rd row seat.

jrehnke

I went to the U-haul site and do not see Hyundai as an option to choose a hitch for under the 2007 model year. Looking underneath the rearend of the Santa Fe I don't see where they would attach it anyway as the spare tire is mounted underneath the rear. :confuse:

arumage

You can look it up on hiddenhitch.com under fit guides. They have a picture of it.

musky1gfm

Here's something for all you possible 07 Santa Fe buyers to ponder!
Shipping charge on the 06 is $600,all the way from Korea to the Chicago area--that's half way around the world.
Shipping charge on the 07 is $650,from Alabama to Chicago area.
Not only is it $50 more,it should be less than $600---isn't the trip just alittle shorter than from Asia!
Just another instance of THEM nickle and diming you when they can.That's a bunch of B.S.! :mad: :mad:

mike_belknap

LOL! The $600 destination charge on the '06s only included the average shipping cost from port in the US (my '02: Houston) to any dealership in the US -- not from Korea! That cost was included in the vehicle price.


Mike

jcspohr

Go to eBay and type "2007 Santa Fe" into the search box.

You'll find someone offering class III hitches for the 07 for $159.99 plus shipping - I didn't pay attention to how much the shipping charge was -sorry.

JC

aneesh

You can compare the 06 and the 07 specs on the HYUNDAI WEBSITE....

jcspohr

I test drove the 07 last night. I noticed the dealer had added "Fabric Protection" for $595, and 2 or 3 other BS items thus inflating the price by about $1500 on each 07. A Southern Illinois dealer who had 7 on the lot.

While I like the vehicle, I ain't paying a dime for these BS add-ons. I assume that's why this dealer has sold none of the 07's in the few weeks they have had the vehicles. Too many others who think like me.

JC

prosource1

Took a look at a Santa Fe today and all I can say is that this is going to really challenge a lot of SUVS and challenge peoples paradigms in a way that Hyundai never has before. This is one solid, reasonable and yet sorta remarkable SUV. It looks every bit as good as anything more expensive. Hyundai is really getting good at this.

jpanozzo1

I agree entirely on the "extras" dealers add on , but they can stick the extra stuff where the sun doesn't shine. I can't believe that anyone still falls for those tactics.

Joe in Texarkana

arumage

There are still alot of very uninformed consumers out there. I'm sure there are still some people out there getting their headlight fluid changed.

stlrod

JC,

I have a suspicion that you and I were at the same Southern Illinois dealership yesterday. You just have to ignore that stuff and go armed and ready with what you know about pricing (which with this car, isn't a lot so far other than invoice--which was shown to me when I asked.)

In any event, I bought a Limited yesterday and am satisfied with the price I paid. I did have a trade-in and honestly cannot remember when I asked for a breakdown exactly what it showed for car discount vs. trade. The final invoice just states MSRP of $26,790 minus $10,940 for my 2003 Sienna w/ 98,000 miles and body damage for a difference of $15,850.

Probably could have negotiated a slightly better deal, but when comparing prices to what else we were looking at, it seemed fair. We did a side-by-side comparison with the Murano and found we liked the Santa Fe better. The difference at the Honda dealer next door between a Pilot EXL w/ Entertainment and my trade-in was over $26,000. Also, looked at 2006 Santa Fe--the difference was like night and day--biggest mistake ever was buying 2003 Sienna right before larger 2004 model came out.

dastolfo

Burlington Hyundai has 3 models in right now. Was able to drive a 3.3L base model unit. Given that I am used to driving more sporty small vehicles, I must say that I was impressed with the drive. The 3.3 has lots of pull when needed and it cornered well. I think that having the 16" wheels with a lot of rubber between the rim and the road made it feel a little more "elastic" on the corners than it would with the 18" on the Premium model (which is what I want)....

Interior - the quality of the interior was what I would expect. The plastic molding looks cheaper than say my Mazda Protege5, but it was not bad to look at. Fit and finish was fine. I found the AC controls a little confusing. There were 2 buttons for AC, one to turn it on, and the other seemed to be a "AC blast" mode - I suspect after reading the manual it will make sense.

The only gripe I will add (and its likely personal opinion) is the accellerator feel. I am used to drive by wire type of accelleration where the accelleration of the vehicle is directly tied to the linear motion of the acellerator pedal. In this unit, I found that starting from a stop seemed to lag as I pushed the pedal, then suddenly it goes. When it goes, its not because its dropping into a lower gear (automatic), it simply seemed that the electronic system just did not give much juice for the first little bit and then suddenly it gave a jolt... This is something that I would ask the dealer to look into. I'd imagine that in this day in age they can simple plug the computer into a console and adjust this... (well I am sure they can do this, but they may not want to, or tell you they can)...

Overall, I am happy with the drive and plan to buy - just have to convice the wife now... She things its too big (remember, we both have small cars - Mazda Protege's - so everything is big)...

Dave

arumage

Part of that accelerator lag could deal with all that extra weight. The Santa Fe probably weighs 1000lbs more than your Protege. My Father-in-law's truck is the same way even though it has 300hp. It seems to wind up when you get in the accelerator before it actually goes.

Thanks for the nice review.

kmwilson

I test drove the 2007 Santa Fe yesterday and I loved it. It was much smoother than the 06 model and was very nice looking. I did have a few questions though that the dealer could not answer. I drove an SE model and a Limited model and the window sticker on both said it had a tilt and telescopic steering wheel. However, the wheel only tilted and did NOT telescope. One person at the dealer stated the telescope only came on the limited models, but was not on any of their limited models even though all of the stickers included both. I was under the impression that the telescopic wheel was standard. I am short so this would help me. Any thoughts on this?

My other question concerns a color. I see that the slate blue is one of the blues for the US. I went to the Hyundai international web site that someone had posted at http://newsantafe.hyundai-motor.com/index_sub.html
and there is a titanium blue. Is the slate blue going to be similar or the same color as the titanium blue? I also love the color blue that was shown in the pics at http://www.welaf.com/2007-hyundai-santa-fe/index.html Is this blue going to be available in the US? I did see the deepwater blue and silver blue at the dealer yesterday.

Thanks for any help on these questions.
Karen

dastolfo

All,
Not sure if this is a repost, but it may be of interest to some. For some reason, they have a dealer training presentation "public"...

http://www.hmatraining.com/HMA_2007_CM_NewModel/main.html

jimsist

here in north carolina there are 4 dealer ships with in a 25 mile apart one in fort mill hyundai adds to the price mud flaps strips paint protect and something called vin itsh where they put the vin into the windshield and etc the cost for all this is about 1500to 2000, depends on model. also dick caftenr hyundai also puts exter on theirs the only one that does not is harrelson hyundai of charlotte. at fort mill i told him i wouild not pay for something that i didnot want he said well maybe we could work somethiing out. isaid no and left.

mike_belknap

The telescoping adjustment is standard on all Santa Fes. Something I didn't realize at first was that there's only one lever for all adjustments (the wheel was all the way forward, so of course it didn't move when I modified the tilt). To tilt/telescope, push the lever under the steering wheel forward and push, pull, raise, &/or lower the wheel until it's at just the place you want.


Mike

jcspohr

Stlrod,

From your mesage details, we were at the same dealership.

We test drove the Sage Green Limited. They had a White SE on the lot, a White GLS in the showroom, the rest were Limiteds (1 Dark Cherry, 1 Dark Blue, and rest were silver or silver/blue I think.) I think allof the Limiteds had only the Sunroof, floor mats, and cargo cover as options.

Which one did you buy?

Did they appear to be very flexible on price?

I am also looking at the Pilot EX-L w/ RES. I have requested internet quotes yesterday so I expect I will start getting response tomorrow.

Thanks,

JC

booster94

All,

I was at a dealer yesterday test driving the 2007 Santa Fe and really liked it. I had a specific model/trim/color in mind that I wanted and I asked if this could be ordered and be available when my current lease run out in September. I was told they couldn't order any specific cars because they were imports and they could only "preference" a certain one for delivery (which I understand as if there is a model leaving the factory and they put in for it they would get dibs on it unless another dealership who sells more also wants it).

This seems silly to me and I'm not sure I quite understand it. First, while these are Korean cars they are being made in the US so they aren't really "imports". Second, I remember when I got my Lexus Rx300 in 2000 I had to wait for it to come over on the boat. They had no issues ordering an import. So what gives, am I getting accurate info from the dealer?

berniedg

I test drove 2 Santa Fe's yesterday, 1-base 2.7l, 1- GLS 3.3l AWD. Keep in mind I'm coming from '98 SWB Dodge Caravan. Finally, an SUV that handles well enough not to be embarassing, good value, fuel economy and STYLE. I only had to wait 10 years. Noticed the lag on accelerator, tuned for 0-60 time, not 0 to (boat out of the water time). Torquier feel would be better for me. Less space than I'm used to, but acceptable. Interior trim, a notch down from Honda Pilot, but thats O.K, 10k less in Canada, for some reason ? The twin oval tail pipes, nice touch ! Congrats, Its a baby Tourareg, looks good on ya Hyundai !

stlrod

JC,

I bought the dark blue one for my wife. It was w/o sunroof. If you were there in the afternoon, it might have been being readied for delivery. My experience has been that it is a fairly good dealership (and that wasn't always my impression.) I bought an Elantra for my 16 year-old there back in March. They are happy to take you over to their sister stores to look at other makers' cars. One salesperson can sell out of any of their lots. When we checked out the Nissan, they sent us out with someone who was more knowledgeable about the Murano and he was very factual, not trying to steer us one way or the other. By comparison, the Toyota dealer next door "knocked" Hyundai and the Honda dealer, while treating us well with the exception of the offer, had posted an article criticizing Kia with the worst comments highlighted (very tacky.) My guess is that the best you can do is about $1500 off MSRP, but others might have more experience. I just don't think the dealers have as much room to play right now. By the way, the Honda dealership told me they are not getting $3000 cash back right now, just $1500 due to their sales level. You might want to try the other side of the River.

jcspohr

Thanks Stlrod,

I was there Friday evening - and the Dark Blue one was still out on the lot with the others.

Coincidently, this vehicle is for my wife and my oldest son has an Elantra.

Previously, we had talked to this dealer about the Tucson Limited and with the 07 Santa Fe being released we decided to wait to see what it would be like. We would like to have 7 seats to accomodate our family.

I haven't started talking price yet with them but add-ons like the fabric protector, and such are red flags to me.

Wish me luck! :-)

Thanks again,

JC

guyf

What do you mean 10K less in Canada??? :confuse:

marsha7

Please tell me what is wrong with getting my headlight fluid changed along with my oil changes every 5000 miles...shouldn't I take as good care of my headlights as I do my engine????? :P :confuse:

arumage

While headlight maintenance is important, I don't think fluid change is one of the steps necessary for proper care. That story was from Car Talk. A girl's boyfriend asked for extra money so he could buy headlight fluid for her car. She told her father about it, and he wouldn't answer her. He told her to call in to the show to get an answer. They said that they hoped she misunderstood him. :P

berniedg

The Santa Fe I'm interested in (GLS FWD) 3.3l lists for $28,200 Cdn. Pilot starts at $39,000 (Cdn) in Toronto area. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Easy decision.

prosource1

Are you serious?!!!! I own a Pilot and there is no soft touch surface on the dash whatsoever.... and it is loaded with grey and black platstic only. This is the biggest disappointment I have with a $30k+ Pilot. The Pilot has many very nice features but Honda has decontented this model to increase profits. This Honda also rattles and squeaks in the cold! I looked at a Santa Fe yesterday and my wife commented how much nicer the Santa Fe interior was compared to the Pilot. I am happy with this Pilot as we have put 84k on it in 22 months and it has never been to a dealer or had any work done except brakes and fluid changes and filters changes.

guyf

I did not realize you were comparing to the Pilot. I would think the Pilot is bigger however.

I saw one GLS FWD on the dealer lot yesterday. Looks very good.

berniedg

Everyone has a different reference point. My benchmark is a Mini-Van. Yup, I said it ;-) Therefore all the mid-SUV's are smaller, costlier, thirstier,(ie Basically Less Utility in Economic terms). A Marketing marvel. I will not be measuring the differences in millimeters in backseat shoulder room between Pilot and Santa Fe.
Greater utility, than I am driving now, comes with the Yukon, Suburban class, (room, towing ability etc.) Since I don't pull a horse trailer, or big load, not required.
With respect to interior, I was testing back to back, Santa Fe and Pilot, and my GF, went on about superior Honda plastics, might have been the Shine off the Honda Halo me thinks.
Good luck in your search guyF.

lindaww

Karen,
I saw all three blues available at a dealership I went to last week. They are deepwater (dark) blue, silver blue (almost a baby blue), and slate blue. I was hoping that the slate blue would be prettier than what I saw (I also like the blue in the picture you suplied the link to). The slate blue is basically a dark grey with a blue tint -- looked more grey than blue to me. It's not bad, just not what I was hoping for.

The trouble with pictures on the internet or brochures is that they can be VERY deceiving! That's why I have visited more than one dealership so that I can see as many of the colors as I can first hand. Color isn't my main factor in buying a car, but I have eliminated a few colors that I know I don't want. For instance, I was hoping the red would be more of a true red, but it's more of a maroon. Again, not a bad color, but not what I would want. It's all a matter of personal taste, so try to see the colors at a dealership -- don't rely on picutes

Has anyone seen a grey interior? I have seen quite a few Santa Fe's and all I've see is the beige interior!

Karen, thanks also for asking about the telescopic steering wheel -- and thank you Mike for answering. My sales rep was trying to show me that feature, and neither one of us could figure it out -- we could only get it to go up and down!

My sales rep did demonstrate the shiftronic feature (he really likes it) -- good to use when passing or when you need a burst of speed. He obviously enjoyed the feature -- but did mention that if you use it too often, your mpg will go way down!

Linda

kmwilson

Linda,

Thanks for the response on the blues. It sounds like I will also be disappointed with the slate blue. I will prob. be going with the silver blue, but will wait to actually see the slate blue. I did however see a grey interior. The vehicle I test drove was deepwater blue with grey interior. It was very nice. The wood grain dash was also like a black/greyish color and looked very nice. It did not look cheap like the dashes in the 06 models. I think that I am planning to go with a grey interior, hoping it doesn't show dirt as well.

Karen

enka

Hyundaiusa has just updated their website. Now it shows the new 2007 santa fe the old one is out. You can see more options features about this car now. www.hyundaiusa.com

jimsist

yes i,ve seen the gray and my wife and i didn,t like it at all. I have a 2005 with the gray and it looks better then the new one the wood grain is a dark color. the one i saw was on the deep water blue and the slate blue neither color was that great. i saw a gls which was white with the beige and it looked great with the lighter wood grain. those are the only colors i,ve sen so far. jim

flwonder

Who in the world is Mike Belknap? Does he work for
Hyundai. He is the only one who knows most of the
answers and you can trust his information. Mike, if
you're out there give us a little bio info about
yourself. Maybe you already have but I haven't been
reading here for too long.
All the 07's I have seen have the biege interior.
Which colors have the gray interior. The biege is nice
but not for a 5 year haul. Thanks Mike.
Flwonder

berniedg

On Colours: I'm gonna wait till all the colours drive by me while sitting on the patio at Starbucks, lol
Engine: Anyone know about the Lambda 3.3l engine (Mike ?), its so new(checked Wiki), I wonder about longterm testing and reliability.
Deals: Feel free to pass along deals found in Canada(Ontario) on this forum. ie. I believe 2.9% financing 24 months is avail.
Is MSRP holding firm ? The U.S is entirely different competive environment from Canada.

arumage

That motor has been out for a year now (in the Sonata). There's not much documentation about it, even in that dealer training site for the Santa Fe someone else posted. I haven't really read anything bad about it online so far though.