Hyundai Santa Fail Drivers

"Dunnik" (dunnik) 10/10/2013 at 21:49 • Filed to: BAD DRIVERS, HYUNDAI SANTA FE

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Maybe it's just coincidence. Or maybe I'm crazy. But I've had so many close encounters with Hyundai Santa Fe drivers that I'm starting to think bad drivers somehow gravitate towards them, as they do to Volvo.

Bad drivers are attracted to Volvo due to its vaunted safety reputation (they assume they will crash, and want to be protected when it happens) but there's nothing about the Santa Fe that might explain this. It's your typical Crossover/Compact Utility Vehicle, a breed I wish would become extinct already. From what I remember of various random reviews over time, it's a passable car...truck...thing. It might have a best in class feature, but across the board its average or above average.

Photo Credits (Top) Hyundai, (Above) Auto123.com

The first Santa Fe driver almost totalled me on the highway at 110 km/h (68 mph). I was unsuspecting at this point, you see. A sudden change in the flow of traffic put me in the Hyundai's blind spot. I started to give some more throttle - didn't seem necessary to punch it - to make myself visible and get ahead of any cutoff attempts when...the driver suddenly yanked the wheel over hard without warning or signal.

My front right corner was square in its sights. Brakebrakebrakebrake. I had just checked my six, and I knew nobody was close. I was desperately looking for an escape route in case it wasn't enough when the oversized Excel wagon on stilts continued on its merry way.

Photo Credit: Autoblog.com

It's license plate made me feel as if the car gods were trolling me. PEGGY 4 or something like that, and I said to myself - and to co-workers later, when I told them of this - "What, so it's PEGGY 4 because there was a PEGGY 1, 2 and 3 and you crashed them all?!?"

I thought it was just the usual random one-off, but then it started happening more and more. So now I drive with a great deal of caution around them, as if they're drunk. I hang back or pass at power and with as much distance as I can.

Whenever you ask the Internet, "Is it just me, or..." the answer is always "No. It's just you." but still. Is it just me or...

GhostZ > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 21:55

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At the same time, some drivers flock to Volvo because they are paranoid about wrecks, and they also conscientiously avoid them constantly as well. That, and many of Volvo's offerings do not appeal to the average "indifferent" driver that just wants to get A to B, and doesn't care about safety, speed, or quality.

Those people drive the Hyundai Sante Fe.

MountainCommand > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 21:56

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my manager has a sante fe. And you are correct. Her driving skills are far lower than an average driver. Plus that car has more problems than anything ive ever heard of. SO it could be the crappyness of the car multiplies the effect of a semibad driver.

RMudkips > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:00

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You're talking about new Volvos right?

TheOnelectronic > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:00

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At first I thought you meant drivers from Santa Fe, NM.

In which case I was going to wholeheartedly agree.

Fun fact, you can buy a Hyundai Santa Fe at Santa Fe Hyundai.

Dunnik > TheOnelectronic 10/10/2013 at 22:03

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Didn't occur that it could be read that way hah.

I'll add Hyundai to the title.

POD > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:03

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I'm going to make some wild generalizing statements here, so take it with a grain.

The Santa Fe is one of the cheapest new vehicle family haulers you can buy. Most people finance right up to, and sometimes beyond, their debt service ratio. So if it's the cheapest, and you're maxed out to get it, you are likely lower middle class. Lower middle class is usually high-school educated with a few years college, or a community college/trades school degree. General IQ and Logic quotient is strongly correlated to the highest year of school completed (but not always). So we are talking average IQ and lower for the "typical" Santa Fe driver. More concerned about social media and checking their twitter feed then they are about checking their blind spot and using their turn signals.

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:08

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I think it was Jeremy Clarkson who said something along the lines of if you own a crap car, it shows you have no interest in cars, and thus no interest in driving, which means you're probably not very good at it or don't like it, which makes sense. I've driven a friend's Santa Fe and it's just awful, not compared to my SVT Focus or my little brother's N-body Cutlass (which I previously had thought to be the worst car I'd ever driven), but terrible to the point that it's kind of scary to drive just because of how disconnected it feels. However, it sits high, gets decent MPGs, can be found for not a lot of money, and aren't actually all that unreliable, so there's a lot of them out there... waiting...

Dunnik > RMudkips 10/10/2013 at 22:10

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Yes. Newish. Newer is safer, yes?

You're safer around older Volvo's, but you never know: could be the original asshat still driving it...

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > TheOnelectronic 10/10/2013 at 22:17

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Santa Fe is terrible just because of all the snowbirds and elderly tourists tooling around in Sebring convertibles and Chevy Aveos. We drove through and in about 20 min of driving two people (grandmas, of course) nearly totaled our car, one from changing lanes like she was dodging a landmine in the road and another who came within about three feet of t-boning us at an interesection.

RMudkips > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:19

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Yeah, with your pedestrian airbag and sliding engine bay and sensors and whatnot, it's a false sense of Swedish security.

Very true, although you have to hope that by the time they get older they realize how plain their cars are over time and change their habits (wishful thinking)

TheOnelectronic > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him 10/10/2013 at 22:21

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Mostly during winter it's the colorado college kids in beat-to-shit Accords and the Middle-aged wealthy folk from Texas in Navigators.

The Texans are the worst for getting stuck behind going up to the ski area. That road is so much fun; slow people shouldn't be allowed. They can walk or something.

During Summer, though. It's anybody's game. My favorite are the people doing 50 on the interstate. I don't mean like 1 car. I mean like a third of them.

Dunnik > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him 10/10/2013 at 22:22

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Yea, and he also talked about the bad-drivers-drive-Volvo's-because-safer theory one one news segment on Top Gear.

I almost t-boned a Volvo. Was coming down a hill to an intersection, a then-newish Volvo 740 (likely turbo) wagon was waiting to turn left. Has time. Doesn't go. I bottom out and pass the point of no return and the light turns yellow. I go for it, as both common sense and the road rules say.

He pulls out directly in my path.

Then stops.

Had he continued, he probably would of made it if I had braked (which was doing already). But he just stood there like a deer in headlights.

I braked like mad - rear drum brakes on my family hand-me-down 1986 Century wagon not helping thx GM - but knew it wasn't enough. I yanked the wheel hard over for the avoid, and somehow that longroof A-body got around the Volvo. I yanked the wheel hard over again to get through when a city bus suddenly appeared turning right. The driver's eyes and mine locked for a moment, but he knew what to do: he stopped on a dime, giving me enough room to thread the needle and resume course.

My American-born friend in the passenger seat looked over at me, and without a word, put on his seatbelt.

Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him > Dunnik 10/10/2013 at 22:35

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And those people who do what you described in a Volvo are always somewhat old, like you'd figure they would've learned to drive by now... I've never understood the people who switch to Volvos after an accident. It's like one just happened, statistically you're chances of having another one soon are miniscule at best. The slower-is-safer argument always annoys me as well, and not just in Volvos. My brother got rear-ended at 50mph in our parents' Mazda3 (love that car), and now he drives it like an old woman, which sucks because it's a fun little car, it deserves to be cautiously and respectfully hooned.

PS It is interesting how the bad-drivers-drive-Volvos stereotype is international. I can't think of another parallel (besides the obligatory Camry circlejerk we seem to like here on Oppo).

Dunnik > Tyler's SVT Focus Hates Him 10/10/2013 at 22:39

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Yep, middle-aged white dude, upper-middle class neighborhood.

Deep in Volvo territory.