Ubiquitous on the roads, I’d only ever driven a Tucson on one other occasion – when hiring a car for a drive across New Zealand’s South Island a few years back.
Owner: Josh V
- Ride quality
- Lack of power and engine economy
Ubiquitous on the roads, I’d only ever driven a Tucson on one other occasion – when hiring a car for a drive across New Zealand’s South Island a few years back. At the time I found it spacious and comfortable, if rather underpowered. Now, following the unfortunate totalling of our trusty 2020 Honda CR-V VTi-S AWD we have been driving a 2020 Tucson Active-X courtesy of our insurers until our new vehicle (A 2021 Subaru Outback AWD) arrives.
In spec terms, it looks like it sits at the bottom of the tree (proper “rental” spec, then), and features basic aircon, basic cruise control, imitation leather seats (somewhat weirdly), and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto (thank goodness!). The engine is a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre petrol that has the same outputs as the entry i30 hatch I have previously owned and isn’t exactly impressive for either power or economy when compared to many of its rivals.
First impressions when I picked up the car at the rental counter were on par with what I remembered from my previous experience; it’s a reasonable looking and well-proportioned car and has Hyundai’s solid build quality. The seating position is good and the imitation leather seats are comfortable too.
Cabin ergonomics seem as good as any and there are some nice soft touches up high on the dash. Unfortunately, the steering wheel feels a little uncomfortable in my hands and there are lots of scratchy plastics lower down. Overall, it lacks the hard-to-define quality of cabin ambience that I always felt when I closed the door in my CR-V.
On pulling away, the 2.0-litre naturally aspirated engine in the Tucson is revealed as a weak point to anyone who grew up driving turbo-diesels in the UK and Europe or V6s in Australia and it felt immediately less responsive and powerful than my dearly departed Honda. So long as you live in a flat area it’s actually relatively quiet and refined around town up to speeds of 80km/h. Outside of town or in hilly areas the lack of torque is obvious with the gearbox working hard to give you the revs to make it up the hill or reach 100km/h. Some of the steeper inclines in suburban Geelong were enough to give me flashbacks to driving a Tucson out of Queenstown and struggling to keep pace with a fully laden tourist coach.
In terms of ride and handling, the Tucson goes about its business just as you would hope for a family SUV; minimal fuss, easy driving characteristics and pretty decent along rough country roads. I wouldn’t say it’s as plush as my CR-V but neither is it as jarring as I found testing a Mazda CX-5 – so that’s fine. The steering is a little odd at first. It’s hard to describe exactly, but ‘unfeeling’ is the best I could come up with. However, you soon get used to it.
Safety is a high priority for a family SUV and the Active-X is a mixed bag. It has AEB for around town but lacks blind-spot monitoring and AEB for highway speeds. Higher spec versions of the Tucson get more sophisticated systems so you can pay to get that extra peace of mind if needed. Active-X spec has lane-keep assist but I find it a little less reliable and a little more twitchy than the Honda equivalent.
But as a family SUV, driving qualities are probably less important than practicality and it’s here the Tucson wins back some merit points. It has good storage bins, space in the centre console for phones, sunnies and other loose items, and the rear passenger space is good enough to fix a rear-facing child seat with room for a 185cm tall passenger in front. The lack of rear air vents on this spec is pretty unforgivable in our Australian climate, however. Boot size is pretty handy but again, I can’t help but compare it to the CR-V which had greater volume and more usable length of load space. The Tucson is better than a Mazda CX-5 but not on par with a CR-V, and in the Tucson our folding Redsbaby Jive3 stroller has to go in sideways instead of lengthways, making it both a little more effort and a little more space-consuming (to parents of young toddlers these things really matter!).
One final word on practicality; I realise now there is one feature that is an absolute must-have for any future car as a parent; keyless entry and proximity locking. More so than an electric tailgate, trying to juggle my daughter, her day-care bag, nappies and other such multitudes of gear modern parenting involves and then having to dig around in my pockets for a key has proven to be the most irritating thing about the Tucson.
The 2020 Tucson Active-X is a compelling family SUV that should probably go on your shortlist if you’re in the market for a budget-friendly second-hand motor. That said, it has some shortcomings in terms of power and equipment that to my mind at least erode its value proposition.
Owner: Josh V
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