So Wednesday my friend and I set out for a nice little town called Butner, North Carolina just outside of Raleigh. We both drove about 250 miles. I have had my Santy for about 4 months and have just hit 7,000 miles! That is a lot for me since I average about 9,000 a year. I have gone on a few road trips but this was by far the longest.

Going down there I averaged 28.2mpg according to the trip computer. I filled up before I left and the "range" said 202 miles, well I made it 411 and still wasn't on E when I filled up. Most of the driving was local driving down there and it performed very well. We debated about leaving Friday night because of Hannah. If we left Friday night it would be blinding rain and driving during the night and if we left Saturday then blinding rain and driving during the day. Now, I don't mind driving in any kind of weather especially since I drove thru white out conditions in western pennsylvania a couple years back. We left at 9 yesterday morning and all was fine. Not even 20 minutes in, it started pouring and was very windy. The whole ride home was a blinding rain with visibility down to maybe 100 feet.

The Santa Fe handled exceptionally well throughout the whole trip and I had no fears of driving it home thru the flooded I95. Other drivers had spun off of the road and hydroplaned, but I knew I would be safe. The wheels did lift alittle when I went thru a puddle and the cruise shut off which is a nice feature. Coming home I averaged 23.6 due to the fact it was more up hill.

My parents wanted me to pull over yesterday ( I am only 20) and wait it out, but my Santa Fe performed great and I love it even more.

Sorry for the long post, just thought I would post my experience. Questions/comments welcome.

Edit: I forgot to add at one point the read out was 51.1mpg going down hill at 65 with cruise on.

:clap: That's what I love about the Santa Fe. My 2004 took me thru blinding snow storms and up steep hills passing other vehicles that slip and slide. I bought an SUV so I wouldn't have problems in bad weather. Now you should hear me cursing all the people in their cars who are stopping traffic because they have no traction in bad weather-LOL

This post has been edited by wtnlvr: Sep 7 2008, 06:41 PM

Do you remember how long it took you to see those mpgs?
I only have about 700 on mine, and I'm only seeing about 20.4 mpg.. mostly highway with very little city driving.

I've read that the santa fe does really well in the snow. It's good to hear that it handles the rain as well.



This post has been edited by ehkewley: Sep 7 2008, 11:26 PM

Just one thing man...you should NEVER be using your cruise control in rain, let alone the conditions you're describing.

Glad you had a fun trip. :)

don't count on ur MPG gauge all that is, is a vacuum gauge to tell u approx miles per gallon...

real life mileage may vary :)

I never knew that, Thanks! I'll see how it matches up to the trip computer next tankfill.