[frost]

The Santa Fe is an excellent vehicle. Congratulations on your purchase!

I extensively test drove the Santa Fe and still occasionally find myself drooling over their looks. The SF is really a nicely designed vehicle with nice lines and proportions. Hyundai's colours also seem a little more defined than Toyota's... Ie: Whites and blacks just seem to look a little more high-end than what Toyota ships with. Could be a simple matter of a clear coat, hard to say.

The interior of the SantaFe was exceptional. It was very comfortable to drive. I'm 6' tall and don't fit nicely into a lot of vehicles. The Rav4 and Santa Fe were two very comfortable cars for me. The one major drawback of the Santa Fe though for interior is the rear seat comfort for an adult. I was very very uncomfortable back there in the SF wheras the Rav4 has exceptional comfort in the rear seats. This matters alot to me because while my wife & i don't have kids, we do have parents that often ride in the back seats. They always comment on how comfortable they are in the back of our RAV.

As far as features go, the Santa Fe lost out in one KEY area for my wife and I, it didn't have an available AUX port... where both my wife and I have iPods, this was critical to us.

As for PRICE... I was surprised at your comments on the price. But I guess it depends on which Rav4 model you are looking at. Here in BC Canada, we wanted a base model 4cyl. This was actually significantly cheaper (2000-3000 less) than the Santa Fe and the Hyundai dealership was just as stubborn about a deal as the Toyota dealership which doesn't deal at all. Once we found out the Santa Fe wouldn't save us anything, and cost us more in the long run in terms of fuel economy, the choice was settled on the Rav4.

Also the Hyundai dealership was horrible to deal with. They took 2 weeks to get back to us with a price on the Santa Fe! We figured if they couldn't handle the sales process correctly, how would their service be. Scary.

Nevertheless, these last two points are clearly regional and it looks like you did save some $$$ by going with the Santa Fe, so that's great news It's a really nice vehicle and I'm sure it'll serve you well.

~Frost