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Santa Fe Gallery
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| RELIABILITY AND QUALITY RATING: |
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Hyundai has a good reputation for reliability and generally scores well in customer satisfaction surveys. When things do go wrong, its cars are cheap to repair and, importantly, many of its dealerships are still family-owned standalone businesses rather than units in multi-brand franchises, meaning a better chance of one-to-one service and good relationships with customers.
The four-wheel-drive system is similar to that used in the smaller Tucson and Kia Sportage, and most of the Santa Fe's mechanicals have been well-tested in earlier vehicles: there's not that much new here and it's not overloaded with complex electronics or cutting-edge trickery.
There were a few glitches with the manual gearboxes of a few of the launch cars, but this is by no means a rare occurrence on a car launch: we'd expect the engines and transmissions of the production vehicles to prove as durable as most other Hyundais have been so far. Remember, the Sonata is very popular with high-mileage mini-cabbers, who don't buy unreliable cars.
But if you're still unconvinced, take note of this: Hyundai UK sells all its cars with a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty, transferable to subsequent owners.
Quality is much-improved over the earlier Santa Fe and, indeed, the cheaper-feeling Tucson. We haven't checked out the entry-level GSI models yet, but the CDX and CDX+ are finished to a good standard, with decent cabin plastics, nice leather upholstery and even paint finishes and panel gaps; even the strip of matt-finish wood trim across the fascia is pleasant to the eye. You wouldn't mistake the interior for a Range Rover/Cayenne cabin, but it's thoroughly pleasant and very good indeed for a car of this price.
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