January 2012
Having found other owner reviews very useful on this site, I thought I should try to reciprocate and put together my experience and thoughts on 5 months ownership of my Santa Fe.
Bought the car, a 2.2 diesel, auto, 7 seat Premium, new in August 2011. Getting the internet broker price (£4k+ off list) from a main dealer who had six in stock was not at all difficult but only achievable if I took a package called Affinity which included G3 paint protection, gap insurance and a season ticket to Warrington Wolves rugby league club which in the end I swapped for a further £150 off because a family member worked in either the police or NHS. Insurance is £480 for a 55 year old with max no claims. I don't know if that is a lot as I've had company cars for quite a while. On average, I cover about 18,000 to 20,000 business miles a year and around 7,000 private miles. I might end up doing quite a bit more business miles over the next 2 or 3 years so I was attracted to to the 5 year unlimited mileage warranty.... Read more
My passenger door window comes down using the passenger door button but does not come down using the drivers door button. When i push the button on the drivers door for the passenger door window to come down all i get is a clicking sound from the passenger door. The drivers door window does not go down at all, it makes no attempt at all to go down.
My central locking does not lock all the doors when i push the button on the key pad, it locks everything apart from the drivers door. When i am in the car and push the button that locks all the doors nothing happens.... Read more
I opened
Intermittent ( but now of increasing frequency) failure of windscreen wipers coincides with SRS malfunction warning light and passenger airbag 'off' light.
Mercedes dealer says diagnostic codes do not help to identify fault and that there is no connection between wipers and SRS and airbag.
Any suggestions as to cause/ cure would be very much appreciated Read more
Faulty wipers on these can be caused by a problem with the stalk switch.They suffer internal wiring faults within the switch.I have not seen this coincide with an srs fault ,but due the the complexity of the circuits on these anything is possible.Also the wiring for the airbag system and wiper stalk run together up the steering column.Remember to check that the bonnet is fully closed ,as there is a circuit to inhibit wiper operation if open.hth
Now, before I upset anyone, I'm talklng about 'Dodgy Car Dealers' not Car Dealers per se.... Read more
Any dealer that didn't try the well worn pendulum selling/ good cop/bad cop sales routine would get my business. Typical the salesman will dissapear several times for 5 mins while he 'twists the( ficticious) sales manager's arm' . Just give me the lowest price you will accept and cut the BS!.
I had that done to me just once but never again - I walk as soon as they try that - if the manager is ficticious it's an insult, if he's genuine then sack the salesman and get the manager in the showroom or let the salesman negotiate
on depressing clutch pedal, pedal dropped as if cable had snapped A,A called out and advised that a ratchet on the pedal had stripped it`s splines can anyone shed any light on it (grandaughters car AGAIN!!!) p.s he also mentioned it was made of bakerlite . Read more
Well, what do the AA know about cars these days.
Not bakelite, but possibly nylon or some similar plastic chosen for the specific application. Normally as good or better than a similar metal component built to the same cost....
Have a 70 mile round trip mostly motorway commute each day.
Looking for something diesel and reasonably reliable or at least not too expensive to fix. Age and desirability are not much of an issue. Following research on previous threads I think maybe a Peugeot 406 HDI 2 litre or an older Mondeo [not TDCI due to various reliability horror stories I've read]. Alternatively a Rover 75 possibly or a Skoda Octavia.... Read more
In December 1999 i bought a 6 month old 406 with1,500 miles on it. Later it passed to my Father, who still drives it. Apart from 2 radiators nothing has failed or stopped working. The second radiator failed 9 years ago. Its well looked after and only done about 130,000 miles now. However its a 3 litre petrol, but as has been said before Peugeots diesels go on and on too. Of course any old car with an unknown history is a potential money pit, but 406's are brilliant if you get a good one, and i dont think that is too hard.
I may be in the market soon for an Estate, me being me, I want something a little exclusive, me being me I like my leather and luxury, and as readers may know, I like my Jags I always remember Top Gear (JC) reviewing a X type estate very favourably, it beat a Volvo Estate (don't remember which one) in a group test. I liked the improved front end treatment after final facelift. I like the interior as it also improved in the later years, and was thinking of going to see this at the weekend. Before doing so, I wanted to se what HJ says about it, and was rather shocked at this statement om the car by car analysis. "Late X-Types on 08/09/10 reg best avoided as quality went down because a lot of the work force were working notice and because a lot of the cars sat in compounds for extended periods before being sold." On my part I would like as near to new as possible, meaning an 09 car, and conventional wisdom is that later cars are better as problems get ironed out during lifespan, yet this rather sweeping statement seems to wipe out the last 3 years of production as not being worth looking at, and in turn means HJ is suggesting looking only at examples which might be 5 years old or more. I have no aversion to driving older cars, but really want to sanity check that analysis. What is the detail behind that statement above? can any users of later Xtype estates comment? Thanks Read more
The X type 2.2 is a Ford unit, the XF is from PSA.
Mine had a blocked EGR after less than 20,000 and is a common problem. Blanking them off is common practice, plenty on the net about what you need to do. My auto did about 40 on a run, but 50 was possible when I was sensible, manual is better.
Im hoping someone may be able to help. About a month ago my passat alerted me to the fact the oil pressure was low. Although it was driving perfectly and the oil level itself was fine I immediately took it to a garage. On the way to the garage the breaks went hard.
The garage told me it was the oil pump and that although VW charge £3000 to fix it he could do it for £1750. He also explained that the vacume pump had gone, causing the breaks to harden.... Read more
You should not have driven it as soon as the light came on.
I posted a similiar thread a couple of weeks ago, when I was trying to decide between a 1 Series, A3, & Golf or similiar.
So my question to those that know is... Is it really that risky to buy a Golf or an A3 considering all the problems mentioned in the buyers guide.... Read more
'OK you won't have an Audi/VW badge on it but if it makes you feel better buy an Audi/VW key ring, no one will know since the key is exactly the same.'
Not forgetting my VW/Audi cap and jacket ! ;)...
Hi I am looking for some advice on behalf of my girlfriend.
We recently sold her car privately to another private individual. Since then the new keeper has contacted me claiming that the car is clocked. He showed me a website where you can check the mileage of a car, its called VOSA. I looked it up, and yes it does look like the mileage is incorrect. The clock says 67k now, but there are figures saying 157 k on the website. I have rang trading standards and they say that we havn't done anything wrong as we were unaware the car had its mileage tampered with. By the way, the car had a stamped BMW service that supported this mileage. My girlfriend has owned the car for over a year, having no trouble with it.... Read more
any news?
Browse
Looking at changing my 08 Santa for a new one. I've been offered £11.5K for my Limited 7 seat manual version with nearly 50K miles, against a new Premium SF auto 7 seat + media pack (works out about 14% off he new one). HJ or anyone out there in the trade be able to give an opinion on this deal?