Used 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Consumer Reviews

Best Mid-Size SUV-Beats Luxury models

My wife and purchased a 2014 Santa Fe GLS, AWD with Ultimate Package, Frosted Mocha in Oct 2014. We paid $36,000+ T&L, about $15,000 less then our next 2 choices ( Acura mdx & lexus rx350 ). The santa fe top of the line has more features, and rides just as good. Value is unbeatable. Looks, MPG, Ride, and power are top notch. Are friends are always amazed at how good it is ( most people are not aware of how good the Hyundai brands have progressed) We now have 4,000 miles, and not one issue UPDATE: 7-29-19- Santa Fe now has 62,000 miles, not one issue, except a few minor recalls ( Hood latch, bolt ) kumho Original tires still, but will need to replace at 65K, as they are making road noise. UPDATE: 1-29-20 - Santa Fe now has 67,000 miles, no issues. We did replace the original kumho tires, with new BF Goodrich Advantage T/A Sports. Excellent Tires with, and great in snow and mud.

Road Trip Test

5 1/2 years owned now. Not putting on as many miles per year as we used to. 4-5,000 per year. Live in rural area, travel mixed gravel/paved roads. Still, besides regular service work, has not ever been to dealer for a problem. Still running original tires, but need replaced, probably will get 50,000 miles out of these originals. Still very happy with this unit. No need to trade!

Look out for the true warrantee

I bought my 2014 Santi Fe with 52000 miles on it . Salesman told us " don't worry about buying the extended warrantee right now because you have 8000 miles left on the original factory bumper to bumper ". So I thought great because I only drive about 5000 miles a year . But what he didn't tell me was that the car was already out of warrantee because it was over 5years old by 1 month . My fault for not paying attention to details and trusting that a used car salesman is going to remind me of that . So all in all ,I love the car . Drives great , nice features and great gas mileage. I just don't have the warrantee that I thought I had . So before you buy that Hyundai with thay great warrantee they advertise or any car. Don't make my mistake , do your home work and please ask questions especially about the warranty. And by the way I found out that on a new vehicle ,the 100,000 mile warrantee is reduced to 60,000 or 5yrs for the second owner . So the 100k only applies to the original owner .

Santa Fe awesome again

i owned a 2011 Santa Fe limited awd and traded for this same model 2015. It's incredible. Everything is laid out really well. I enjoyed the captains chairs for the second row and the third row. I really think the panoramic sunroof is a great feature. However, the most important aspect is the drivability. I would say that the ride is a little stiffer than the previous Santa Fe, but it is miles of an improvement in terms of overall ride quality and luxury feel of the vehicle. I would highly recommend the Santa Fe.

Scared to Drive

At 49,000 miles engine light went on. Went through cam sensors and crank sensor. I think they are suppose to last to 100,000 miles? Then received recall notice on engine. Took to dealer because engine light on, again. Was told they "tweeked" the engine and it was up to Hyundai standards. Next day I lost all power, steering, brakes, etc. Towed back to dealer, oil regulator went bad. Sent me on way, again, stating all is up to Hyundai standards. I think part of the recall is metal shredding through engine. Gee, this is a no brained. To add insult to injury Hyundai offered me below value due to recall. I am driving an unsafe vehicle.

The Most Underrated Crossover in the Segment

I believe this car is the best value, most overlooked, and totally underrated in the three row segment. It is smooth, quiet, has a nice V6 engine, the interior ergonomics are well thought out, and it is pretty solid to drive. The cargo space is extremely usable. I have owned Honda's, Acura's, and Volvo's. This is by far my favorite car I have ever owned. There are really only a few things that I do not love about the car. The headlights are not very good, even with the HID's from the factory. I upgraded to a better bulb which helped but sideward visibility could be better. I think they may have fixed this for 2017. I wish the transmission shifted a little quicker and crisper. It's a little to laxed for my taste but it's not so frustrating that I hate the car. I wish the engine was tuned for a little more low end torque rather than high end horsepower. This would help with everyday fuel economy which is about average. Lastly I think visibility around the side mirrors and A pillars is sub par. Having driven Acura's and Honda's forever they really have that down. Otherwise the car is an exceptional value for the money and the recent 2017 refresh makes it even stronger. This car will be overlooked by many because it's a Hyundai. I took a lot of grief from people for going from an Acura to a Hyundai. Then they ride in it and are blown away. It is truly 95% of the car for about 75% of the cost if you shop around. It really has changed my whole impression of Hyundai.

Terrific Vehicle, Lots of Standard Features

This is my 3rd Santa Fe, my last was a 2006 GLS. The exterior styling makes this SUV stand out in the segment. I was amazed at the high level of interior quality and the standard features in this model. My ONLY complaints are the small glove compartment and that the height of the front passenger seat is too low and not adjustable. I remedied this by installing a front seat cushion (made for automobiles) for my wife. There are plenty of interior storage places. I like the storage bin under the rear floor that also includes a roll up storage compartment cover. The ride is very comfortable. The engine is quiet, very powerful and works well with the transmission. The middle row and rear seats are easy to lower and the floor is virtually flat. It's a vast improvement over earlier models where I had to remove the 2nd row head rests to lower the seats. I make frequent trips to a home improvement store and it's hauled everything I load into it. I really like the A/C vents for the middle row seats and the heating and A/C controls for the rear. seats. The best car I ever owned. My 2015 Santa Fe was so good I leased a new 2018, my 5th.

Not reliable

When I purchased the Santa Fe, it had 23k miles on it. It had only had one owner. Within a week, the AC went out. No biggie, the dealership fixed it. When I went in for my first servicing to change the oil, the dealership listed off all these things that needed to be done to keep the car in great running condition, so I did it, and paid $500 for said service. This was probably just the dealership ripping me off, but anyway. Now, I’ve had the car for 3 years and it has 68k miles on it. Out of nowhere on the way home from a concert, the vehicle starts ticking pretty loudly while accelerating and just running really rough. I get home, park it, and attempt to drive it to the dealership the next day. The car completely dies on me about two miles from my home. I get some help to get it running and make it to the dealership. When I arrive, the guy tells me that he knows the engine is blown. He gives me a repair cost of $9-10k. Currently waiting to see what Hyundai will do, but another car (same make/model and year) is sitting at the dealership waiting to be repossessed because of the same issue and Hyundai will not take responsibility. The car is also 8k miles out of warranty, so I don’t know why my local Hyundai dealership advertises that they are home of the million mile warranty. You have no warranty after 60k miles. It’s a joke.

Overall Great Car but....

I went from a 2011 Buick Enclave to the Santa Fe. It's the perfect size for us. I like the looks, comfort, overall performance and economy. Road noise somewhat greater and road comfort not up to the Enclave. However the real annoyance is the front passenger seat is not height adjustable , this is a real problem for my wife. In fact had she ridden in the car before leasing it, we would not have leased it. I've ridden in the seat also and agree with her, it's annoying and neither of us are short people. She sits on a cushion when we travel....can't understand the design not including height adjustment. The other shortfall is the nav. system....we loved the OnStar system in the Buick. This one is OK, but not nearly as user friendly as the OnStar.

A pleasure to own

It handles like a more expensive vehicle, the six cylinder is very quick. Engine runs almost as quite as an electric car. I purchased the car used from an estate and have owned it 14 months, aside from an oil change nothing else has been needed for maintenance. This SUV is extremely smooth driving, so much so that you find yourself doing 20 mph over your intended speed.

Poor Reliability

We bought our 2014 Santa Fe Limited, brand new, and I was really hoping that this was going to be the vehicle for the long run. It has great features, technology, and storage. Unfortunately, we've had nothing but reliability problems from the start. We've put 25k miles on it and owned it for 2 years. The first issue we had was a crack in the black edge of the windshield which we noticed two or three days after driving it off the lot. The dealership did right by us and replaced it. Not a big deal, but a year later the replacement also developed, what I can only assume to be, a stress crack as well and needs to be replaced. Next, the hood had to be repainted due to multiple rust spots forming on the corners. After that, the blind spot detection system failed and required the passenger side mirror to be replaced. Now, during the last snow storm we noticed that the car is leaking anti-freeze and from time to time the navigation will go blank and require the car to be turned off and back on again to resolve it. For the most part the warranty has covered the issues and out of pocket cost will be the anti-freeze leak and new windshield but these are too many issues too fast. We may be the unlucky ones who got the bad one out of the bunch but I can only imagine what we'll be dealing with at 100k miles.

Best SUV for the Money

Styling and performance beat expectations. It gets great gas mileage for a 7 person SUV and I never felt lacking power getting on freeway or passing. Handled with confidence on curves and wet roads even without AWD and the braking is solid. The ride quality and comfort is definitely not a 'luxary car', but it is above average and certainly good enough for a young family. Seats are a little harder than I would like for an SUV and I noticed on longer trips I did get a little fatigued. All the features work as expected, I would have definitely preferred the larger screen on the Limited model. The AC compressor died around 50k miles, but the dealer replaced it under warranty for $0 cost!!! The resale value isn't amazing, but its a good compromise to get lots of creature features for a fraction of the price of a comparable Highlander, Pilot, Pathfinder.

My 2nd Santa Fe

I owned a 2014 Santa Fe Limited for 3 days. I was t-boned at an intersection, resulting in all but the front air bags deploying and the rear axel snapping in two. The EMS at the scene kept repeating to me that the air bags and design of the Santa Fe saved my life. I replaced that Santa Fe with a 2015 Santa Fe Limited Ultimate. I had been driving Chevy Tahoes since 1999. This Santa Fe is a breath of fresh air! It drives like a dream, holds the road well, and the safety features are awesome. I greatly prefer the navigation system to OnStar. I will be replacing all my company vehicles with Santa Fe's as needed.

A great value proposition in this segment

It is one of the better 3 row crossovers in the segment.Smooth ride,great handling,refined engine and transmission.Reliable electronics and cool features such as panaromic sunroof,Heated and cooled seats,heated rear 2nd row seats,smart liftgate and good comfort overall.If there are some weak points it has to do the front seats not height adjustable(my spouse doesn't like it),Brakes not so effective especially under full load and suspension that bottoms out under full load of passengers.

Love in a Hyundai Santa Fe

The only problem was the 2nd row seat does not fold down flat for cargo. We drive several 14 - 21 day road trips each year. You cannot place a cooler or picnic basket behind the front seat without it sliding back out of reach. Dealer experience was great. Warranty excellent and no real issues after ten days. Resale value could have been better.

Our 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited AWD

My Wife and I have been very happy with our Santa Fe, it is a Great looking car and drives and rides Great. When we first bought it we noticed that the passenger seat sat a little low and made it uncomfortable for me to ride long distances in that seat but after doing a little research online I found a spacer kit that was made to raise the passenger seat up to a very comfortable level. Our Santa Fe has never let us down, and we have received a lot of comments from people telling us that they really like the looks of our car. We have been very happy with the performance of our car and with the gas mileage. The 3.3 V-6 engine has plenty of get up and go and the handling of the car is amazing for a vehicle it's size.

the best of the best

we have over 118,000 miles on this one and we have owned eight of the hyundai's incluedind an awd tucson all have gone over 100,000 miles no repairs or problems they are the best of the best

Couldn't Be Happier

I shopped them all. Price, within reason, was not an issue. I really like this SUV a lot. It rides well, it's quick for a heavy vehicle, it has every feature out there that I wanted, and it seems bulletproof so far. In mixed driving I got 24.4 MPG in the first thousand miles. Love the way it looks, the huge sunroof, the power lift gate, the sliding driver seat, the onboard computer control, the solid feel when driving ... Just everything about this vehicle is excellent.

2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Base Model: Good, but Basic!

Keep in mind, that when I bought my 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe base model (FWD) in 2014, I was due with our second child in a couple of months, so I had mommy brain for sure. I was trading in my previous model refresh Hyundai Santa Fe, which as you know, doesn't come with the optional third row. For me, buying the new third-row version was a very last-minute decision. Even though it's not terribly roomy in the "back-back" (as we call it in my family), I'm VERY glad that I went with the bigger Santa Fe. We're a family of four that doesn't use the third row every day or even every week, but with a lot of extended family and traveling back and forth to see everyone, that third row has proved itself to have been a GREAT decision. It doesn't fit grown-ups too well, but for hauling kids, it's great. I also came to love my Bluetooth and back-up camera, which were completely new to me since my previous Santa Fe had none of those safety options. The next year (2015), my husband bought a loaded Hyundai Sonata and it came with all the safety bells and whistles that are pretty much standard across the board these days. What I don't like about my 2014 Santa Fe is my fault - that I made the mistake of buying the vehicle with virtually none of the modern-day safety features that are pretty much standard today. While I rely heavily on my back-up camera, my media screen is so small, that it looks comical compared to newer vehicles. Also, I must say that - as my family grows (in size, not people) - even the third-row Santa Fe is just a little too cramped when full of seven passengers. My three-year-old still sits in a bulky car seat, so that may be part of the problem, but I've noticed even when there's just four of us in the car, it can be pretty tight, which is why I'm currently in the market for a new third-row SUV that's just a little bit bigger. If I were to buy a new Santa Fe today (and I won't, because it's about to get a refresh in 2020 and I don't want to wait that long for a new third-row SUV), I would definitely spend the money on getting the safety features that seem to be standard on most cars today. I'd also check the specs to see if Hyundai increased the cabin size.

Great family SUV

Have owned 8 Hyundais and never had a problem with any of them!

2014 Santa Fe

Not really satisfied with my Santa Fe. There is a problem when the gears shift, the transmission makes a sound. We took it in, had a New trans. (so they say) put in and it still does it! When we took it back in, there was a Car hauler there with new Santa Fe's on it, my husband and one of the service personnel took it for a drive and it did the same thing! We've had the car Ten months now and have had no issue from it as of yet. The Bluetooth does not download my phonebook contacts like it should. Cannot get it to download my Home phone number, so everytime I want to call my house, I have to tell it to "dial a number"! Sad when you pay that much money on a car and things don't work right!

FABULOUS!

big but not too big, fabulous acceleration, great price,

Got rid of this vehicle

Got rid of this vehicle because of issues with electrical circuits and check engine lights. Was good until three years and 31500 miles. That's when problems started. Dealer could not find or fix electrical problems. So much for the "best warranty in the business." I cannot recommend this vehicle if you are looking for a long term vehicle.

Best Value of many.

We searched for a replacement for our 2006 Toyota Sequoia, wanting to go down in size. We looked at Toyota first, not finding the Highlander very appealing to us and dealer selection was awful. We also looked at Buick, Ford, GM and Dodge. We were very surprised when we began comparing features, options, overall cost and warranties of all the above. We found the Hyundai to be the best overall value by wide margin. Love driving it and the features are great. We had to drive a long way to find the one we wanted but well worth it! 11-14-18: Still working perfectly. Has not been taken into dealer for any issue, serviced regularly with no issues whatsoever! Even still driving with original factory tires. Would buy vehicle again but, no need to. Looking to hang on to this one for many more years.

Spontaneous cracks in navigation screen.

About 27,000 miles down the road, <4 years ownership (3 yr/30K) warranty I noticed I couldn't enter info into the GPS screen for directions. I brought the car to the dealership and they discovered 2 cracks in the screen that would cost $4K to repair. Yes, 4 thousand dollars!! Needless to say that wasn't going to happen at that price. HYUNDAI USA wasn't able to help either. So we're stuck owing several thousand dollars on a 5 year loan. Otherwise the car runs great and we love everything else about it -- and would have recommended it to anyone until now. We're extremely dissatisfied and disappointed in the lack of support from Hyundai. So much so that we just purchased a second SUV and it is NOT a Hyundai.

Hyundai Santa Fe STEERING PROBLEMS

My 2014 Hyundai is a nice vehicle but unsafe when driving on highways due to steering wandering all over the lane I am supposed to be in. It wanders from side to side and the wandering increases as the vehicle increases in speed over 50 MPH. Constant steering corrections have to be made just to keep the vehicle in the lane it is supposed to be in and even then it still wanders back and forth noticeable.

Very happy with this purchase

I did so much research before finally making a decision on an SUV. I am so excited and pleased with the Santa Fe! I purchased a GLS with the Premium and Tech packages, and I could not be happier. The build quality, look and feel, and handling are such a huge leap over my 2011 Highlander Limited. I could not be happier.

Incredibly impressed

We added this to our 2013 Sonata after the other midsize SUV we lease was bought back by another manufacturer as a lemon. We are incredibly impressed with all of the features in this car. It looks great, rides nicely, if a bit firm, has tons of room for 2 car seats and all the stuff that little kids come with and great technology. I admit that the panoramic sunroof was one of the biggest selling features. If you haven't seen it - you must - it beats all other competitors. The only demerits I give are on the telescoping steering wheel - wish it came back a little more and the rear view camera - the lines do not move when you turn the wheel - which is weird as the Sonata does.

Uggg. It's a Hyundia. Need I say more?

Had no choice but to rent this vehicle when I selected an SUV via online rental website for my trip. If I had known that my only choice was this car, I would have asked for a non-SUV and definitely not anything KIA or Hyundai. Cheap interior, cheap ride. From the grip of the steering wheel to the road feel, it simply isn't up to snuff with other more venerable economy car companies. If you're looking for this as a new car because the other makers' SUVs may be a little more expense, then buy used.

AWD failure

Was told the spines in the transmission have broken, you have no way of knowing they broke until the dealership inspects the transmission. The tranny could have broken under warranty but i have no way of knowing. The dealership was able to inspect the tranny as it was off due to the engine blowing, cost the fix the tranny is 6k. A 2014 1700,000km car with a blown engine and tranny, was not worth the price at all.

Great family vehicle

Smooth ride nice lots of room new engine..

There's a reason they have a 100,000 mile warrenty

At 92,000 mile we experienced a total engine failure due to, what we found out was, a known flaw in the engine's oil system. Thankfully we had a contract in place and Hyundai replaced it for free otherwise as second owners we would have been completely out of luck. Now at just over 100,000 miles, even with regular maintenance, other components are failing on a regular basis (rear differential lost at 60K miles, alternator at 98K miles, Transmission slipping at 101K miles). Stay away.

Nice one

Good clean looking SUV no issues

All around great car

Santa Fe

Love Santa Fe’s great quality SUV and fits our family’s needs

POS and uncomfortable

after buying the vehicle with 76,••• miles on it we’ve put another 68,000 miles on it in little over a year this suv has by far been the most uncomfortable vehicle I’ve driven. The only good thing it has going for it is I usually can get 28 to 31 mpg