Hyundai Santa Fe (2006 - 2012) 2.2 CRDi Premium (5 Seats) 5d Auto Owner Review

You get quite a lot of car for your money, had a Terracan previously which managed to do 150,000 miles without any problems so purchased a Santa Fe (Premium) due to my good previous experience with Hyundai cars and the fact that they stopped making the Terracan in 2007. I don't use dealers, I prefer my local independent garage who take care of me and don't over charge. As with all cars, I suggest you take responsibility for asking the garage to do certain work - eg. dealer advised the transmission oil was 'fill for life' - I got my local garage to change the oil after 50,000 miles. Now drives better and quieter. I've only had one problem - the hand brake mechanism came loose under the car (which was quite dangerous) - but was a cheap fix by my garage and was 'wear and tear'. I replaced the tyres with General Grabber AT tyres which have improved the performance no end (I use it to tow a trailer and need to get on and off muddy fields sometimes) - if you only use it on road then leave the road tyres on since you will get fewer miles per gallon with the all terrains . My favourite toy is the cruise control. Tows a 500 kg car transporter trailer with a 1000kg classic car on the back plus all my equipment for the weekend (tent etc) with ease. One slight criticism is that you need to be careful with your right foot otherwise the turbo seems to cut in with a massive surge of power and just spins the front wheels. This is a problem on a slippery/wet road when pulling out into traffic etc. I suppose it's due to the trend of smaller engines with bigger turbos and mainly front wheel drive bias. Modern diesels really need to be looked after, I've read stories of vehicles being written off due to expensive engine repairs. Again, Hyundai advise oil change every 20k miles! this is madness - I get mine changed every 5000 miles. Oil is cheaper than a new engine or turbo! Whatever it says in the manual is a minimum - not a maximum - don't take risks with transmission or engine oil. Will probably keep this car until it's done at least 150K miles then see what's available at the time. Best Hyundais to buy are well looked after, low mileage up to three or four year old models.