We bought our Hyundai Trajet in 2000 from new and were initially absolutely delighted to find a people carrier with not only space for passengers but also an ample boot for (at the time) a double buggy. We also drove annually to France for the summer towing our large trailer tent. It seemed to offer exactly what we were looking for at the time. Whether we have simply been unlucky with our Trajet we will never know. Interestingly however, they have stopped importing them into the UK. The only ones now on the market are second hand models.

I have owned the Hyundai Trajet for 18 months and have travelled 45 thousand kilometres in that time. We have a large family (by the current meaning of family it seems) with 5 children. 7 seating positions are used every time the vehicle is used for family outings.

As most of our driving is in a rural area, there are some particularly good and bad features about the vehicle; the best being the feel of the controls, and the worst being the high beam lighting. In the driving position, all controls fall to hand and are nice and firm feeling with quite heavy steering and pedals (this is my personal preference). The steering is very accurate and makes for a safer vehicle when passing large trucks, farm machinery and negotiating dirt roads. Having driven a few other "people mover" type vehicle (Mitsubishi Starwagon, Toyota Tarago, Chrysler Voyager), I prefer the Trajet as a driver. The Trajet has more power than the Starwagon and Tarago, and better all round than the Voyager. The room in the back of the vehicle was the seller for us as a family, the other vehicles have nowhere near the room to put shopping or camping gear etc.

Driving the vehicle is a pleasure on the open road, where it really matters. The other vehicles mentioned have a "top heavy" feel to them, with both cornering and side wind affected by the apparent higher centre of gravity. The Trajet feels solid on the road, and does not move very much in any but the strongest side winds. This is important when passing large vehicles, being far safer.

The real problem with the vehicle, although sounding minor at first, is the lack of appropriate lighting for night driving. In Australia, for those not in this country, we have a lot of large vehicle traffic, and animals running on the roads. The lighting on the vehicle as standard limits proper visibility at night to 90 km/h. This is not much use when the speed limit is 110 km/h, and the fact that trucks operate at 100km/h, meaning travelling slower will often create a traffic hazard. To fix this problem, a set of high powered (but modern looking) set of Hella driving lights were fitted. This issue is a real hazard and warrants a real improvement in the next model.

The person driving the vehicle most is my wife. This entails all of the usual family daytime activities with small children. The main uses of the vehicle during the week is shopping and school child delivery. The Trajet does this very well, with enough steering power to get this large vehicle into tight spots, and my wife commenting that she likes driving the vehicle, which is a fairly high recommendation (although not a very technical description :-)

The fuel economy being poor is not very surprising really, considering the curb weight of the Trajet is around 1700kgs. Of course we have the usual paraphenalia for children: books, food, spare clothes etc, so we carry around a bit of stuff. The accessories added to the vehicle include a towbar and driving light bar and lights.

Some other issues are; the squeaky struts on the rear door are a bit annoying, but this is often caused by the red dust that we live with every day in rural Western Australia, the rear door has developed a dent next to the number plate recess on the right side, this is not just on our vehicle, as every other Trajet we have come close to has exactly the same problem. This seems to be caused by the weight of the door panel pushing against an internal structure when closing the door.

Bits tend to fall off the vehicle when placed near young children, like seatbelt covers, drink trays etc that seem to be a bit flimsy (like most vehicles really).

All in all, we like the vehicle and how it suits our purpose.

I have done 30k miles in my Hyundai Trajet 2.7V6 automatic with NO major problems that could affect the car in any way. The leather gives it the luxury of a voyager along with the engine at the price of a vauxhall vectra. It drives so quietly that I sometimes try to start the engine again at traffic lights etc. The performance is great! We leave boy racers trailing behind at the lights and they think it's just a cheap people carrier. I got a spoiler in with the deal and I put some wiper aids on to make it look sportier and believe me it does. It was driven previously by hyundai car UK by one of the managing directors and i've kept it just a mint as they had it.

Inside the car is huge and claims to have a bigger luggage capacity than pretty much all of the MPVs. (look in what? MPV and 4x4). There was a period last year when we travelled everyday to Derby with all 7 seats in use and there were no problems finding room for the other bits and bobs.(performance wasn't hampered at all). There is cruise control in my car but I don't bother but my brother-in-law did and he said it was just as good as his merc.

The sound system is great and the bass is probably the best again I have had (especially when my son is playing bhangra music). hummmmm I think thats about it so comment on the review if you want.