More features than all competitors
I wanted a midsize SUV. I was an avid honda/nissan fan, but after doing months of research, I ultimately decided on the Sante Fe and I will do my best to summarize why.
1) The Sante Fe offers more features than any of its midsize suv competitors for their base or lower models. To get a remote start, lane-keeping assist and heated seats, you have to get into the 35k-40k models of Honda or Nissan. But with the Santa Fe, they offer it starting around 25,000. Everything is app-based, rather than honda's remote start, where you need to be in proximity to the vehicle to start it. I can start my Santa Fe from anywhere in the world, lock/unlock it, even shut it down if it gets stolen. Yes.
2) I encourage everyone to check out the government crash test safety website and don't just take a company's word for it. https://www.nhtsa.gov/ratings
The Ford Escape offers almost as many features for the price including auto parallel parking, but none of that matters when their crash test safety ratings are so low that you can barely find them. I want to like Ford, I really do, but they have dropped the bar and I won't put my family at risk over it. Go look at how bad their passenger-side safety rating is. That's a nope from me, I would prefer my friends stay alive.
3) The Sante Fe still has manual temperature controls. Now, that doesn't sound like a plus to some, maybe even a few steps back, until you find out that many companies that have switched to digital, and tend to freeze up on people to the point where you are stuck in a firey inferno or an arctic blast of air and there's nothing you can do to stop it without restarting your car. No thanks.
4) Transmission. The Sante Fe's engine is not very powerful, let's be clear, you won't be winning the Indy 500. But one thing it doesn't have is the stupid new CVT transmission that practically everyone else has switched to, to try and save on gas mileage. Do a little googling or youtubing and you will find that these new CVT transmissions are dying well before their time because the technology isn't perfected. Thanks, but no.
6) Kelley Blue Book. Read reviews people. I read them. All. The Sante Fe was the only one without terrible reviews. I really had my heart settled on a Honda Crv until I read the reviews and discovered CRV's have this problem mixing oil and gas in their turbo engines and have essentially done nothing as a company to fix the problem. They sent out a recall that didn't work, and the engines are dying after 10,000 miles in some cases. People are trying to resell them before the market fins out. Don't take my word for it. Google Honda CRV oil mixing with gas and thank me later. I'll send you my cashapp.
7) Hyundai was rated most reliable car company by the government in the UK.
8) Hyundai also had the least amount of problems noted on all of their vehicles in terms of servicing on CarFax.com. That's millions of vehicles, by the way.
Recommended
Verified Owner
