Rav 4 or Sta. Fe for a lady driver

[Jun aka Pekto]

*Jun: the takeoff G-force of CRDi VGT is addictive . I believe what you are saying about the Sonata as it's a luxury sedan probably aimed at taking down Accord, Camry and Cefiro (that must be insanely expensive though ). But personally, i won't choose a 3.3L V6 over a 2.2L CRDi VGT for the simple reason that diesel is cheaper here and that it's more energy efficient compared to petrol.

the Santa Fe's ECU can be chipped and from 150Hp/335Nm, it will become 180Hp/395Nm. I'm not sure how much "chipping" is though. hehe

Q: is the Azera same as Sonata? I've seen quite a lot of Azeras here.

The Azera has a more powerful engine than the Sonata. 3.8L 263hp V6. It'll smoke my Sonata and is close to new 3.5L V6 Camry in acceleration. I don't know why people think the Azera is bigger than the Sonata. I've seen the two cars side by side and the Azera seems a bit smaller (less trunk space). Otherwise, they seem to be almost the same size.

I've been wondering what the gas mileage is for the diesel SF since we don't have them here. It'd be nice, though. But, the 3.3L V6 SF gas mileage is in the region of 8km/L city and 10.2km/L highway.

We've been watching that guy's trial closely because I made a $100 bet with a friend that the Sonata can't reach 147mph. Looks like I lost the bet. Maybe he won't remember. Anyway, there's been rumors (in Korea) of the Azera being able to reach 160 mph. I won't make a bet against that one.

Sonatas are relatively low cost here. We got ours for less than $20k with our old 1997 van trade in and 10 year bumper to bumper warrantee (not the regular warrantee) plus free oil changes for 4 years.

Add: You do realize that chipping the diesel SF will lower the gas mileage, right? Plus, the base gas engine, the 2.7L V7 still makes more hp (189). That reminds me. The SF 3.3 makes 242hp versus 235hp of my Sonata. I'll bet I can have my Sonata chipped to the same 242hp.