How many miles can an American-made Hyundai Santa Fe last? When you’re in the market for a new or second-hand Santa Fe, that’s, of course, a very reasonable question to ask. After all, you’re probably looking to get the most bang for your buck. In this blog, we’ll look at the most popular models but first, let’s start with a quick answer:
On average, a Hyundai Santa Fe lasts between 190,000 – 220,000 miles. A Hyundai Santa Fe needs to go to the garage for unscheduled repairs about 0.24 times per year with a 10% chance of a severe problem. Furthermore, Hyundai Santa Fe owners spend an average of $515 per year on repair costs.
Having said that, we’re certainly not done. Below we’ll first explain in more detail how many miles a Hyundai Santa Fe can last. After that, we’ll compare the Santa Fe to its main competitors in terms of potential mileage and compare the Santa Fe to other Hyundai’s. Furthermore, we also discuss the common problems that a Hyundai Santa Fe can have, how much maintenance will cost per year and how to maintain a Santa Fe. Read on!
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How Many Miles Can A Hyundai Santa Fe Last?
To see how many miles a Hyundai Santa Fe can go, we first had to research. For this, we used the database of Autotrader.com. Here we selected all the Santa Fe’s for sale in the United States (all 18,059) and divided them up into categories based on the number of miles they had driven.
What we created by doing this is the table below. Here we can clearly see that about 2.31% of the Hyundai Santa Fe’s have reached 150,000 miles or higher. However, we can also clearly see that most cars currently have less than 45,000 miles on their dashboard.
The reason for this is that the Santa Fe has gained popularity in the past five years, which means a lot of cars on the road today haven’t yet had time to reach higher mileages. We also looked at the Hyundai Santa Fe’s that had the highest recorded mileage to work around this.
| Amount Of Miles | Percentage Of Cars |
| Cars With 150.000+ | 2.31% |
| Cars With 100.000 – 149.000 | 7.82% |
| Cars With 45.000 – 99.999 | 20.46% |
| Cars With 0 – 44.999 | 69.41% |
We did this because this number can give us quite a good understanding of what the Santa Fe is capable of. While doing so, we found that quite a few Santa Fe’s had reached the 270,000 miles mark. It won’t come as a surprise that these are the Santa Fe’s produced before 2010.
Therefore, we feel it’s safe to say that the Santa Fe can go past the 200,000 miles mark quite easily when taken care of properly. However, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Also read: The Types Of Gas A Hyundai Santa Fe Takes (Explained)
How Reliable Is A Hyundai Santa Fe Compared To it’s Competitors?
To know how reliable a Hyundai Santa Fe really is, we also have to compare it to its competitors. We compared the Hyundai Santa Fe to the Ford Edge, the Nissan Murano, and the Toyota Highlander. The results are displayed in the table below.
What we found is that the Santa Fe seems to do average compared to its competitors. Regarding how many of them reach the 150,000 miles mark, we can see that the Santa Fe outperforms the Murano but underperforms the Edge and the Highlander.
In terms of the highest recorded mileage, we found that the Santa Fe does pretty well. With 270,000 miles, the Santa Fe outperforms the Edge and the Murano, who still have a respectable 250,000 miles. It won’t surprise that the Highlander is the most reliable car here, with 290,000 miles.
| Model | Sample Size | Cars With 150.000+ Miles | % Percentage Of Cars With 150.000+ | Highest Mileage |
| Hyundai Santa Fe | 18,059 | 418 | 2.31% | 270,000 |
| Ford Edge | 19961 | 776 | 3.89% | 250,000 |
| Nissan Murano | 16140 | 320 | 1.98% | 250,000 |
| Toyota Highlander | 19176 | 1052 | 5.49% | 290,000 |
How Reliable Is A Hyundai Santa Fe Compared To Other Hyundai’s?
Furthermore, it’s also important to compare the Santa Fe to other Hyundai’s. The reason for this is that this gives you a better understanding of what kind of quality Hyundai generally delivers and what you can expect from this carmaker.
In the table below, we can clearly see that the Santa Fe is in the middle of the pack once again. The car does pretty average in terms of how many of them reach the 150,000 miles mark. Furthermore, the Santa Fe does good in terms of the highest recorded mileage. The Santa Fe outperforms the Santa Fe, but all the other Hyundai’s slightly underperform the Santa Fe here.
| Model | Sample Size | Cars With 150.000+ Miles | % Percentage Of Cars With 150.000+ | Highest Mileage |
| Hyundai Elantra | 22,574 | 331 | 1.47% | 260,000 |
| Hyundai Sonata | 24,172 | 497 | 2.06% | 310,000 |
| Hyundai Santa Fe | 18,059 | 418 | 2.31% | 270,000 |
| Hyundai Tucson | 15,448 | 175 | 1.13% | 240,000 |
| Hyundai Accent | 2,677 | 85 | 3.18% | 250,000 |
| Hyundai Genesis | 814 | 43 | 5.28% | 240,000 |
How Much Does Maintenance Cost Per Year?
Besides knowing how many miles a Hyundai Santa Fe can last, it’s also important to know how much maintenance will cost you during those years. To find this out, we used data from repairpal.com. Using this database, we put together the table that you can see below.
What we found is that the Santa Fe seems to be pretty reasonable in maintenance cost overall. However, the 2015 – 2017 and 2007 – 2010 models seem to have the lowest maintenance cost (below $500 per year). The 2010 – 2014 models do have a bit higher maintenance cost but still not something very worrying considering the size of the car.
Overall we would therefore say that the Santa Fe does not only seem to be a reliable car so far but is also fairly affordable in terms of general maintenance.
| Year Of Manufacturing | Hyundai Santa Fe Maintenance Cost |
| 2017 | $ 347 |
| 2016 | $ 470 |
| 2015 | $ 465 |
| 2014 | $ 504 |
| 2013 | $ 556 |
| 2012 | $ 563 |
| 2011 | $ 528 |
| 2010 | $ 525 |
| 2009 | $ 477 |
| 2008 | $ 454 |
| 2007 | $ 418 |
Also read: The Complete Cost Of Maintaining A Hyundai
Hyundai Santa Fe Common Problems
Besides knowing how much the Santa Fe will cost in maintenance, it’s also important to see what problems normally cause the repairs that the Santa Fe needs. Below we’ve outlined the four problems that commonly occur in Santa Fe. Let it also be said that it was pretty difficult to find common problems with the Santa Fe, which shows it’s a reliable car.
NOTE: Before buying a used car, I always like to make sure the vehicle isn´t having any problems that you should be aware of. The easiest way to do this is by buying an OBD2 scanner. These scanners can easily be plugged into any car you’re interested in, and they’ll give you a rundown of potential problems.
Failing Crankshaft Position Sensor
The crankshaft position sensor may fail, which will cause the engine to stall or not start at all. Replacing the sensor is the only option and will cost you around $200.
Problematic Shifting
In general, the shifting of the Sonata is not its strongest point. Sometimes it just shifts rough, and general maintenance needs to be done to fix this problem. This includes changing the automatic transmission fluid and updating the computer that controls the shifting. For changing the automatic transmission fluid, you can expect to pay around $150.
Also read: Hyundai Santa Fe Transmission: Overview, Problems, Fluids
Unstable Idling
The 2.4L 4 cylinders and the 2.7L V6 may have idling issues caused by a faulty EGR valve that doesn’t open and close properly. Replacing the EGR valve will cost between $250 – $300.
Speakers Without Sound
The speakers may suddenly fail in Santa Fe’s that have a navigation unit. This problem will require a hard reset which means disconnecting the negative part of the battery for 15 seconds and then reconnecting it. This should reset the system completely and fix the problem.
Is The Hyundai Santa Fe A Smart Buy?
Finally, it’s a good idea to answer the question if the Hyundai Santa Fe is a smart buy or not. To answer this question, we have to consider the life span of the car, the maintenance cost, and how much value you get for the money you’ll spend on the car.
As stated before the Santa Fe seems to be a good buy in terms of reliability and highest recorded mileage. Many Santa Fe’s are still fairly new, which makes it difficult to draw hard conclusions. However, the Santa Fe does so far seem to keep up with its competitors.
In terms of maintenance costs and possible problems, the Santa Fe is also a good buy. The Santa Fe does not have any major problems, which is a sign of good engineering overall. Furthermore, all model years also have reasonable annual maintenance costs, which ensures you won’t have to break the bank when owning a Santa Fe.
Finally, it’s important to consider how much value you get for your money. Using data from caredge.com, we found that a 5-year-old Santa Fe has lost around 50% of its value. Considering the car has driven 75,000 miles at this point, you most likely still have 125,000 miles left for half the price. In general, it does therefore seem that a used Santa Fe is a good buy.
Hyundai Santa Fe Maintenance Schedule
Finally, it’s important to know what kind of maintenance a Hyundai Santa Fe needs to reach higher mileages and the Santa Fe has a short list of common problems so it’s more than capable of getting to higher mileage. Below we’ve outlined the necessary steps that Hyundai recommends for the Santa Fe to reach its maximum life span.
- Change the oil every 7,500 miles
- Rotate the tires every 7,500 miles
- Replace the cabin air filter every 15,000 miles
- Replace the air filter every 30,000 miles
- Flush and replace the coolant every 30,000 miles
- Replace the spark plugs every 97,500 miles
Sources
Hi! My name is Stefan; I’m the owner and lead writer at TheDriverAdviser.com.
I’m an active writer on this blog myself, as well as a novice car mechanic. For the really technical stuff, I find writers with experience as a mechanic or who have studied mechanical engineering.
Read more about our fantastic team on our about page!