Hyundai

[tfrain]

I sat in a Hyundai Sante Fe today at my towns fair on the square. It was a green color similiar to the aberdeen. It was a base model. She said it was about 20K MSRP.

It was very nice inside the vehicle. It was very comfortable and the interior was very well laid out. It felt very "volkswagon" like in there as far as the interior goes. I really liked it.

I realize the Sante Fe isn't built to compete with the Pilot, but the Veracruz is, and while I haven't seen or sat in one of those, I do feel, based on this Santa Fe, that if it the Veracruz is as nice/cool as the Sante Fe, then Honda needs to step it up if they want to continue getting sales from people that pick vehicles based solely on features/looks/styling/gadgets than they do history/reliability/reputation (which is obviously a pretty big portion of the population.

I personally wouldn't risk 30K on a first year, unproven vehicle from an up and coming Korean maker, ALTHOUGH, there is something to be said for their efforts to break into the market and create a name for themselves. Perhaps this would encourage them to make SURE their build quality is up to snuff and better than the competition, but that is just a hypothesis.

For what it's worth,
tom

[colorider]

Moved from General.

[TheEaglePilot]

I sat in a top-of-the-line Veracruz while waiting to pick up our Toyota from the shop. Nice car -- great space in first two rows, but significantly less cargo space. Not a work vehicle by any means. HUGE wheels -- I think the one I saw had 19s or something.

MSRP was a little higher than my Pilot's, and chances are they aren't seriously dealing yet.

It felt like a wannabe Lexus, not a wannabe Honda. It all depends how it drives and how it holds up over time.

Chris