Hyundai Sante Fe

Anyone have any experience with these? They seem to be a good buy around here.

In reply to D2W :

My friend had an 05 or 08 for 8 years, 160k. Aside from the remarkably annoying Philips head screws holding the brake rotor ok, it was a good little appliance. 

Only problems I remember it having at all were the hinges that hold the back window on breaking and when he traded it in he was developing a pinhole in the oil pan. 

First gen's front control arms can rot out. They are stupid cheap, though. If they've been replaced before, kill yourself, because the captured nuts inside the frame rails are now egged out. If so, save time buy cutting the rails. installing the arms, and welding it back up.

From personal experience.

The timing belt that has to be changed every 50K miles is the only "bad" thing that I can think of. 

Bought an 04 3.5L new, loved it. Traded it in on the new-for-07 3.3L and loved that one as well. We ran both of them up to about 60K before trading them in so we didn't really get any long-term ownership impressions. We did recommend them to a neighbor who bought a '12 shortly after we traded in our '07 for a 4Runner, and now they have one of the current generation so I'm guessing theirs are treating them well also.

My biggest gripe with the '07 was that the dimmest settings on the dash lights was far too bright. Talk about a minor flaw. It also went through rear brake pads way faster than anything else I owned. I swore something was wrong and took it to the dealer to figure it out (under warranty). They called back and said nothing's wrong, it just needs pads which they'd gladly do for $300+.

We bought a '13 Santa Fe (non-Sport) last fall to be MrsSTM's daily/baby hauler/dog hauler. We wanted a vehicle with lots of rear seat leg room since we're both tall, and enough room behind the 2nd row for our Mastiff to ride. Fuel economy was important as well, so full size stuff was off the table. Hyundai honors a warranty until 5 years from original purchase date or 60k miles which is comforting.

The current generation comes in 2 basic versions. It takes a bit of a trained eye to see the differences. The Santa Fe Sport has a slightly shorter wheelbase, comes with an NA 4 cyl or turbo 4cyl, and 2 rows of seats. There's also the longer Santa Fe which comes only with a 3.3L v6, AWD and 3 rows of seating if that's your thing. The rear 3/4 windows on the Sport are smaller and shaped differently than the regular Santa Fe which hampered rear visibility for us. The additional legroom might not be a big deal for most, but we found it nicer to have a couple of extra inches in the second row.

We were also considering several other midsize crossovers.  We were looking for something 5 years old or less, with under 60k miles, and max budget of $20k.

The GM triplets (Traverse, Acadia, Enclave) had similar size, but didn't get the fuel economy we wanted, and I don't get good vibes about the long term ownership  prospects of the engines.

Ford Explorer and Flex seemed nice, but were over budget, and MrsSTM didn't care for the Edge.

Toyota has the Highlander and Venza. The Highlander suffers from the Toyota Tax. There was a single Highlander under budget within 100 miles of us, and it was a base model 4cyl FWD version. The Venza was a legitimate candidate but it still cost more than a comparable Santa Fe and most examples that met the mileage and budget requirements were a bit older. MrsSTM preferred the Santa Fe slightly after test drives too. No warranty either unless it's CPO, and you pay a premium for that.

Honda CR-V was similar to the Highlander. A comparably equipped one would've been several thousand over budget.

We ended up paying 16k for a 2013 Santa Fe with 42k miles which was a pretty good buy compared to anything else around. Overall, it's been very nice. We see 25mpg according to the onboard display. I did have a rear drive coupler replaced due to some looseness in the rear end, and that's apparently common on this generation. The cylinder 3 fuel injector needed to be replaced too after we'd owned it for less than 2 weeks. Both were done under warranty. The Hyundai dealer has been great to deal with so far.

My wife has a 2010 Santa Fe; it's the 4 Cyl model, this isn't an issue for us as we weigh 261lbs combined so the 175hp is fine. It's been trouble free for  75K, it's the first new car she's ever bought. The interior noise is lower than some of the other small SUVs she tried. We commute in it every day, you can hustle it around on ramps, it doesn't do anything ugly and is pretty benign.  

Thanks for the replies. Around here it seems that you can buy a 1 or 2 year old Sante fe with 20-30 thousand for 20K or less.

check the Kia Sorento as well. Same vehicle but in some areas Kia depriciate faster.