Faults:

We have had only ONE 'problem' in a year - the driver's seatbelt catch wouldn't always latch first time - but this was very minor and fixed at the first service.

General Comments:

The car pulls like a freight train - large gobs of torque from low down - which is what you want with a 7 seater SUV. The CRDi is the top of the range, and comes with everything - from leather seats to a cooled storage box.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

This is the second V6 2.7L Hyundai Santa Fe I have owned, and I have had zero problems with either. I took my first one off road and traveled around Australia (sand and minor off road tracks); never missed a beat.

Fuel economy was slightly higher than expected, but nothing too bad.

The Hyundai dealership has been fantastic, and service costs are reasonable, not like the Ford Explorer I used to own, which was a disaster from new, but that's another story..

Price is good, and it's built tough for general day to day use.

Faults:

Nothing as yet. I bought the car brand new and have only done 1200k.

General Comments:

I can't understand why I haven't seen more Santa Fe's on the road. Toyota Rav's seem to rule, but I have put these two cars head to head (back to back test drives of 1 hour each) and I can't believe how much more value appears to be in the Hyundai.

My Santa Fe is a 2.2 turbo diesel and blows the petrol only Rav off the road. Torque from the diesel engine kicks in from about 1500 rpm and screams through to 4000 rpm, pulling hard all the way. You must alter your normal driving instincts from putting your foot flat to the floor as the diesel seems to respond better with half to three quarter throttle. Anything else is a waste.

In contrast the RAV requires your foot flat to the floor and then responds well as the revs increase up to near redline.

The interior styling in the Santa Fe is what really caught my eye. It has superior space and styling to the RAV and easily accommodates my 6ft 3inch son and 5ft 10inch daughter in the back seats.

It was disappointing not to be able to option up the base manual version that I bought (SX). I would dearly loved to have had the SLX version with its curtain and thorax airbags, electronic stability control, and traction control, however I did not want an automatic and I did not want 7 seats, being the only option in the SLX.

The 5 seater Santa Fe has a great wet storage box where the extra 2 seats are located in the SLX. I can live without the stability controls etc, but would have been happy to pay a couple of grand more to obtain the extra airbags, but nothing is an option in either the SX, SLX or Elite.

The claimed fuel economy (7.3l/100km) of the diesel looks close to the mark and it’s been great to go for a couple of weeks without having to refuel or watch the fuel prices!

I intend going to Fraser Island to test its 4WD credentials in late March so I will add a further review after a bit more driving, on and off road.

So far so good, but it's early days yet.