All Good things must come to an end

Ive handed over the keys for the last time.  The Hyundai Summer Holidays experience has been brilliant.  We have loved having the cars and trying them over the last five weeks.  I am only sorry I never got to test there Hyundai break down cover, but I'm guessing theres a few people that will be very glad about that.

So I guess the question is would we now buy a Hyundai, Yes without a doubt.  We loved the Santa Fe it was a lovely looking car which was comfy and great on fuel.  The i800 proved itself over and over on a camping holiday with the ability to carry 6 passengers and equipment. 

If we had to choose as a family of 6 it would be the i800 purely because of the space we had, as a family of 4/5 it would have been the Santa Fe as with one or more seats down the Santa Fe has a more than adequate boot space and the fuel consumption was great. 

I can only urge people to not dismiss Hyundai, if you haven't looked at there range before give it a go you may just find a car you like, or like us two cars we like!

So I guess from us Kim, Gary, Jessica, Thomas, Melissa and Joshua its just one last thing to say which is

 xxxxxx

Journey to Silverstone.

Yet again we have had great mpg from the Santa Fe,this was recorded whilst driving to Silverstone at the weekend. 

I was pleased to see I had a improved cup holder in the Santa Fe. Its these silly things which as a passenger you tend to notice.

I couldnt help but laugh at Gary and his lack of ability to work out where the indicators were.  He is a very experianced driver but having the indicators on the right not the left really did ruin the driving experiance of the Santa Fe.  For some reason this was something that didnt phase me, and im sure it is something you would get used to although I can imagine it would cause confusion if you drove more than one car.

Silverstone

I drove the Santa Fe to Silverestone for a Renault day at the weekend. The drive there was a comfortable one but it took a lot of getting used too driving a 6 speed manual, the other thing that can take a lot of getting used to is the indicator stalk being on the right side of the steering coloum when most vehicles are on the left, which meant the windscreen got cleaned quite a few times, much to Kims amusement I should add.

On looking at all the Renault vehicles on display we found that there was nothing that Renault could offer a family like ours i.e four children and two adults, the only vehicle that has seven seats is the Renault Espace with a price tag of £36,000  The Santa Fe which is the closest thing to the Espace has a lot more to offer with a much lower price.

The Hyundai vehicles we have tried have been a real eye opener. Vehicles that in the past I would have completely dismissed but are now on the top of my list when we change cars the problem now is which one, the i800 is a more practical vehicle for us but, the Santa Fe is also a very good option. 

What Goes Down ............

Must come up and in this case its our dog Tasha.  Drove back to my mum & dads today to collect Tasha.  After driving the i800 down the previous week I can say that the Santa Fe seems a lighter drive, not as heavy on the steering.  The fuel mpg was a lot better, I noticed 40.1 mpg at one point.  But ...... I missed the i800 so did Tasha ................

Carrying an extra passenger again, Jessica's friend, making the car carrying 6 people we once again found we were a bit lost for space.  Tasha did have enough room although various bags and a suitcase were round the passengers feet.

This Sante Fe was a 6 speed manual gear box and there was a visual display on the display panel encouraging me to go up to gear 6.  I also found at one point it encouraged me to go up to gear 4, gear 5 then gear 6.  I found this was a great reminder, especially to go into gear 6 and suspect this was a good factor on the fuel usage. 

My dad is very impressed with the Santa Fe and likes the fuel mpg I'm getting, and the way the seats fold down into the floor, with the added bonus of having the seating available for extra passengers (I'm thinking 4 grand children lol) We have both agreed with the colour not being the best as although black looks lovely on both the Santa Fe and the i800 it is showing lots of marks and needs to be polished after each wash to remove water marks and make the cars look there best.

Swap Day

..........

A new toy to play with Yeah

Journey Home

Amazingly as we have now become Hyundai spotters lol, we have not seen one other i800 on the road.  We have had a lot of people look at the i800 then wander round the front to have a look at the badge so obviously they were not sure what it is either.  We did find a Santa Fe on the way home ...

but even they were far and few between.  When we spoke to a Hyundai salesperson at Norwich previously, he said to Gary that if he could only get hold of cars for people to use like we have had the chance to do, he would sell so many more cars, and I have to tend to agree with him.  Hyundai has not been a make that we would have considered as a car and we really have no answer as to why, both cars the Santa Fe and the i800 have been absolutely great so much so we even gave the i800 a birthday on the way home a quick wash ....

then a polish and hoover once back safely on the drive and what do I get rewarded with Monday morning .........

Time To Go Home

Well all good things must come to a end.  Tent to come down and it just means we have to re pack the car with this lot .........

Amazingly it all fitted

Thats 2 adults, 4 children , 12 man tent, sleeping bags, air beds, BBQ, table & chairs, clothes and all the other bits and bobs that go with camping and being away from home for 5 days with 4 children. 

The i800 did everything that we asked of it since we have had it.  It let itself down by only having a car charger at the front of the vehicle so our phones died very quickly one by one whilst away, much to Jessica's horror! We were also not to sure of the mpg whilst away as we did seem to be popping in and out of filling stations daily but we did do a lot of mileage (sorry about that xx) and carried a lot of equipment so to be fair it did have to probably work alot harder than on a average week.  I will be very sorry to see the i800 go, not as much as Gary though as he has taken a right shine to it as has Thomas.  And of all things I will not be sorry to pass back the key though .........

It has a up down switch on the side of the key which is a bit of a fiddle to use when you want to use it but seems to have a mind of its own whilst in my hand, pocket or bag! Twice I had locked the car then checked as you do as you walk of to find it had opened itself again, leaving the car unlocked is not something I would have wanted to do!