Hi

I currently have a 2004 Santa Fe 2.4 2wd with 35k miles on it. I have owned it for a few months now and my wife and I love it! This is our first SUV and for us and our 17 months old baby boy is just perfect.

My father-in-law wants to sell us his 2005 Tucson. We took it for a drive this weekend and it was really nice. It was loaded with a V6, leather, CD changer and sunroof. The car has about 26K miles on it and feels tight and smooth. I even like the color, is a light champaing with charcoal cladding. I could not find a single scracth on the paint.

If we do get this car we would keep our santa fe and sell my wifes sedan. So we would have two similar SUVs -but I will drive the Tucson :grin: . With this in mind I would like you guys to answer a few questions:

1) How is the real life fuel consumption of this v6 compared to my SF 2.4 4cyl?
2) I noticed that the trunk space was about half of what I have on my SF is this a big issue for you Tucson owners?
(3) The only problem that I noticed was a green transaxel light that was blinking all the time. Is this a common problem or serious?

Thanks you all your input guys.
BTW, any good sites for Santafe owners? (besides this?)

This post has been edited by HDSalinas: Sep 19 2007, 11:51 PM

do not buy a tucson, I had less than 33k on mine when it starting leaking fluid from the transfer case, 13 visits 44 combined days with out the car later the car is still messed up 52 k on it and the same seal is leaking and they refuse to take care of it. DO NOT BUY A HYUNDAI.

Not quite a fair answer from Tucson428 I have now owned 2 Tucsons and only changed my first due to the 2nd being a different engine and even better spec than I had owned before.

In the 4 years since the Tucson came out the report by Tuc428 is the first case of something like this happening that I have heard of AND it sounds like the dealer could be a problem for him.
Now all vehicles have one or two that get faults after they have covered some mileage but you could ask why tuc428's started leaking at 33k yet its been going strong till 55k when the dealers been involved all that time.
its only 20k later he says dont buy a Tucson, I appreciate thats how he feels but when the other 30,000 Tucsons + haven't had this problem then I see no reason to try to blow your offer from your Pa in Law up from the start. I suggest you ask the same question on a model specific site like www dot tucsondrivers dot com and you will see that this site with over 2000 members are all pleased with the Tucsons they have- most report that the Tuc is a juicey beast but all love what they have got.

Reference the blinking light -get your Pa in law to have it checked out as thats not normal.

One other thing Would your Pa in Law rip you off? Has he offered it to you for a real great price that's better than at a dealership? Go Get it.

Cheers
Itza :beer:

This post has been edited by Itsatusconmatey: Oct 3 2008, 05:54 AM

I know it's been a year and you've made up your mind by now, but since another poster said not to buy I wanted to give another point of view.
I have a 2006 Tucson 2WD with over 50K. I really like this vehicle! I'm currently getting about 22.5 mpg, but I tend to have a bit of a heavy foot. What is odd is that I get better mileage when I do only surface street driving, but I live 20 miles out of Tucson (yes, really) so I'm piling on the highway miles to get to work.
I've taken this vehicle on several long trips (500+ miles each way) and have been fairly satisfied with the cargo space. Although I have a roof rack I've only used it for a long ladder a time or two. I get tons of groceries in the back and the seats fold down so easily I can get even more when needed. I did install a hitch and use a cargo basket for long trips, but that has as much to do with the outdoor nature of my cargo as any lack of space inside.
I was a bit disappointed with the factory tires. They needed to be replaced within 18 months, but that's pretty minor.
Would I buy this vehicle again? Yes, as long as the payment didn't come along for the ride!

Hi Sharon welcome to the forum, I too answered as if it were happening now as tuc428 had brought this old message to the top of the heap again and I felt it was a bit of an unfair salvo against what is a reasonable little SUV. come along and meet us all atwww dot hyundai-forums.com where you will find a forum dedicated to Tucsons and the Kia lookalike the Sportage.
Cheers
Itza :beer: