UK Dealers know just as little as potential customers, indeed as little as Hyundai UK, who know nothing about the reason for the "delay" - or if they do they're under strict gagging orders to say nothing.

Dealers are being pressurised not to sell their demonstrators and many potential customers have got their deposits back and gone elsewhere.

This isn't Hyundai shooting themselves in the foot - it's cutting the leg off !!

Edited by RT on 16/02/2013 at 11:52

The long wheelbase version for the US is made in Korea, whereas the normal wheelbase for the US is made in Georgia, US. Production of LWB versions given a higher production priority over UK cars.

Korean production capacity to build the LWB has been made available by discontining the Veracruz, which the LWB replaces, so there should be no impact on Santa Fe itself, particularly just weeks after it's UK launch.

Its an absolute joke on Hyundai's behalf, they cant keep up with demand in the market for which sante fe's had the greatest market penetration on the last generation.

Dacia having the exact same problem with all of its models.

In this case Hyundai Korea aren't giving any prior details of which customers cars are being built and which are delayed until further notice - so Hyundai UK only finds out a specific vehicle has been released when it's put on the boat in Korea - once that happens Hyundai UK and the dealer can inform the customer but up to that point there's no way of knowing how long the delay will be - it's not a simple "9 months lead time", for instance.

The iX35 shortage was caused by more customers than predicted wanting the new 2.0 R-series engine and/or the new 6-speed automatic transmission, both of which were in high demand for the old Santa Fe.

In normal circumstances, Hyundai UK treats it's customers better than Hyundai USA - at least here we can factory-order unique combinations of colour, trim and equipment - in the US, factory orders are banned, even from dealers, so customers wanting specific combinations have to spend hours trawling dealers internet sites and then either buying from a distant dealer or persuading their local dealer to swap - the problem is that too many low spec models are being built by the factory despite demand for the higher ones.