Used 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Consumer Reviews
Used Santa Fe Hybrid for sale
Good fuel economy but sluggish and UI issues
Luc, 06/11/2021
2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (1.6L 4cyl Turbo gas/electric hybrid 6A)
30 of 44 people found this review helpful
32+MPG in city driving, 16-24 MPG highway, 28-29 MPG combined. Above 70 MPH (even on cruise control) fuel consumption goes up very quickly, even as the car is in "economy" range. As many stretches of road have traffic running at 85MPH (regardless of posted speed limits), you may get a lot less MPG than expected if you want to keep up with the trucks :) Drive mode defaults to ECO in each drive cycle - so far I found no way to make it remember the blended or sports modes. Parking brake auto-applies based on a TBD algorithm (randomly?) at engine off. Left steering wheel button decreases the radio channel number when pushed up; right steering wheel button increases MPH settings when pushed up - it would be nice if they were consistent (increase / decrease when pushed in the same direction for all buttons). Radio has a single "unified" memory for all bands, and rearranges the order of the stations based on their frequency / channel number. There is no way to store radio stations in your own preferred order in memory or to use the MODE button to toggle between a couple memory banks as with prior Santa Fe versions (one bank for news stations, second bank for morning music, third for the afternoon drive, etc). You are stuck having to go though ALL stored stations, in the frequency / channel number order, when you want to change stations. Acceleration (compared to my old 2011 Santa Fe Ltd AWD V6) is pathetic. 40 to 60 is slooow. It is almost OK for driving (as I get older and slower), but you cannot rely on this car to pull you out in a pinch by accelerating hard (as in merging on a short ramp in high speed traffic). Top view of the vehicle and dead spot view cameras when using the turn signals are great and were a big factor in getting this model. The AUTO settings for lights is useless, as it does not turn on the rear lights. I consider the daylight lights (both front and rear) to be part of the passive safety features of any car, but only the front lights are active in this car, so the selector will stay on low beams at all times (no improvement from 2011 SantaFe). There is no trunk cover and there is no way to order one - this is a big let down as far as I am concerned. I have yet to figure it out how to use the cargo net - it has features which do not connect to anything and it came with no pictures on how it was intended to be used. The adaptive cruise control, even on its most aggressive (shortest) setting, leaves more than enough distance to the car in front to invite people to cut in front of you - basically it cannot be used in heavier traffic as any car cutting in front of you invites the car behind you to hit your rear bumper due to your unexpected breaking. The top trim available in Hybrid (Limited) no longer has fog lights (headlights mounted real low) - if you live in a zone with frequent fog, you need to add them aftermarket which is a hassle. Navigation can show up both your speed and the legal speed limit, but it has no way to change color or beep when you exceed the posted speed limit by more than 3 (adjustable limit would be great) miles (standard feature on my 10 year old TomTom GPS). While it can be set to 3D mode, it changes to 2D mode when waiting at a stop light. It can be set to avoid tolls, but to change the setting you have to go a couple of levels down through the menus, it is not a "Yes/No" question to answer as with other GPS systems. There is no setting for "shortest time" vs "shortest distance" and you have no say on how the traffic information is used by the GPS. Many features for phone or nav are only available in PARK mode - there is no way for the person next to the driver to use them while driving, and it is not practical to exit the highway, stop and PARK to change navigation destinations (even to a stored location). For now I keep my old TomTom handy, who does not have these user interface issues / features. Fuel tank is bigger compared to 2011 Santa Fe Ltd, so I get 450-500 miles between refills (engine not yet fully broken in). The auto unlock is great (when key proximity is detected), but there is no auto-lock as you go away from the car with the key after parking (if it is, it takes too long to activate to be usable). Remote start is only possible using an app on your phone. There is no way to remote start the car using the key remote. In other words, if your phone does not have good signal where you want to use the app, you are SOL. Amount of storage for the driver is very limited - there is no ashtray (great for keeping change), and you only get a single enclosed / covered storage cavity for the driver, between the front seats. The number of cigarette lighter sockets is down to one - you get a lot of USB type A slots, which may (or may not) work better for your toys. The slot for wireless charging is vertical and works with my iPhone, but I do not see any easy way to recover any coins you may drop into the slot by mistake.
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Vibrates when accelerating slowly
Rick, 11/13/2021
2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (1.6L 4cyl Turbo gas/electric hybrid 6A)
16 of 24 people found this review helpful
A lot of people are having this issue (check reddit and hyundai forums) - the car vibrates when accelarating at slow speeds and Hyundai doesnt know whats causing it. Stay away from this vehicle.
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2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid for sale near you
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Love it!
Sue, 02/23/2022
2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (1.6L 4cyl Turbo gas/electric hybrid 6A)
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I bought this SUV in June of 21 with 37 miles on it. I have had no issues at all everything operates as it should. The interior has had no issues as well. No chipping or fading of the Interior or exterior. With all of that said I love how quiet it is. I get about 31 to 32 mpg I drive from a country town into the city, around the city, and a little freeway driving mixed in. On a bad day, I can average about 29 mpg. The ride is smooth and comfortable we gave taken it on long road trips over the mountain range and it performed well, granted it's not a sports car but we were able to keep up with the flow of traffic. I would recommend this car!!
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No heads-up display and backup beeping horn
ColoCurt, 11/18/2021
updated 05/20/2022
2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (1.6L 4cyl Turbo gas/electric hybrid 6A)
6 of 10 people found this review helpful
It is disappointing the Santa Fe PHEV Limited does not get heads-up, while the gas version does. We bought a new PHEV thinking it would meet our night time driving requirements with more safety that heads-up has. The car drives nice just was expecting heads-up. We also don't like the back up trucks sounds the car makes. Not sure how to mute! After 6k miles on the car, we have had a service call and two check engine lights for gas being rich. We run the lowest octane so nit sure what's up, but time wasted at dealer for servicing. Like the gas mileage at 55 mpg. Do not like the manual as needs an English tech writer to make sense in English.
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Almost perfect
SixMileSC, 07/11/2021
2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (1.6L 4cyl Turbo gas/electric hybrid 6A)
5 of 11 people found this review helpful
No seat memory: unacceptable. Low gas mileage for a hybrid. Also, 4WD system is suspect (See Driving Sports test of the Tucson hybrid). Otherwise it’s perfect.