EE FR Namwheels FR EE THE YEAR 5 MOTORING AFRIKAANS 6 ECONOMY RUN 2016 • Two new Tucson Turbo-diesels 10 440i AFRIKAANS 13 1 LITER GALIMOTO MEDIA cc 14 RIDES AFRIKAANS 15 WORD 70

MONTHLY FOCUS DECEMBER www.namwheels.com EDITION 14 Dozens of New, Demo, Certified and Pre-owned Vehicles in our brand-new Namtrader A PRODUCT 7 - 11 or online at www.namtrader.com

Hyundai’s new Tucson has been making waves since it arrived in our market around March of this year.

Besides its somewhat perplexing name change from Tucson to ix35 and back to Tucson again for this third generation S.U.V., it has also garnered a lot of praise from the local media. Chicks dig it.

No really, they do. South Africa’s “Women on Wheels” awarded the Tucson their coveted 2016 Car of the Year award.

Dudes seem to be smitten as well, judging by the equally favorable comments of the men-folk at the recent Hyundai launch.

This event was held to introduce a pair of important newcomers to the range – turbo-diesel engines.

Good news for Hyundai and not so much for their competitors as the Korean brand was recently voted 35th best ( globally) with 6th place in the automotive list and 5th in terms of volume. Since March of this year, South African sales figures also show a sterling effort – 20% share in the Tucson's market segment which climbs a further 2.6% with fleet sales.

Back to the two new turbo-diesel motors though and first up is a 2litre four-cylinder (carried over from the ix35) with respectable maximum outputs of 131kw and 400Nm.

Although its emissions may only conform to Euro 2 standards, this trusty unit is mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox and it should become any suburban parent's darling.

A bigger novelty is self-igniting engine number two in the shape of a very advanced 1.7-litre fourcylinder turbo-diesel motor with new-age trickery like exhaust gas recirculation, intelligent valve lift control, lightweight construction as well as some state-of-the-art fuel injectors which are capable of producing pressures up to 2,000 bar. How much is 2,000 bar? A lot.

So much, in fact, that this engine achieves the highly coveted Euro 6 emissions standard.

Its outright power of 85kw may be less than that of its senior 2L counterpart but this 1.7 produces up to 280Nm of torque from just 1,250rpm.

That's a smidgen over idle!

Hyundai let us loose with a whole fleet of their 1.7L Tucsons and I teamed up with two co-drivers to give the newcomer a thorough test on highways, congested city traffic and a fair bit of dirt road.

Currently available with a sixspeed manual gearbox and frontwheel-drive, we were all suitably impressed by the little motor.

Top (sixth) gear clocks 2,000rpm at 120km/h but isn't suitable for speeds under 80km/h. All three of us deliberately drove in high gears at slow road speeds to test Hyundai's torque claim. While its power output is not earth-moving, the new engine's response from just 1,250rpm is highly impressive – smooth and quite linear.

Passenger space and comfort is commendable, the ride is pretty acceptable too as long as you stay away from huge wheels.

The two- litre Diesel Tucson is available in Elite trim while the 1.7- litre comes with Executive specifications which include the usual powered- this and autothat, pleather, as well as multiple driver aids.

The Korean S. U. V.’ s active and passive safety arsenal includes six airbags, some ISO-FIX child seat anchors, ABS brakes with VSC and ESC stability control.

You also get blind- spot assist, a rear cross-traffic alert (which warns you of approaching danger when reversing out of a confined space), hill start assistant and a five-star EURONCAP (crash test) rating. Other standard items fitted to this S. U. V. include climate and cruise control, Bluetooth, rearview camera as well as a huge panoramic sunroof (Elite model only).

Any potential owner may also order an aftermarket eight-inch touch-screen media and sat-nav system which seamlessly fits into the vehicle's dashboard.

Colour and wheel choices get a bit tricky as the Tucson is built at two different factories – the older 2litre auto’ in Korea and the superclean 1.7 manual in the Czech Republic.

This will also affect one or two interior specifications but at least the default paint colour choices like whites, silvers and greys are available from both locations.

Prices for the 1.7L start at about N$461,000, while the cost of an R2.0 Elite Auto will be announced later. Petrol models cost between N$382,000 (2.0 Premium M) and N$540,000 (1.6TGDI DCT AWD). All box- fresh Hyundai Tucsons are delivered with a five- year 150,000km warranty (with two additional years and an extra 50,000km for the drive-train) as well as five years or 90,000km worth of service plan.

Compared to main rivals, the new turbo- diesel models are in the ballpark for pricing with a few niceties and extra features here or there.

If one considers the new Tucson's well-received styling and all the technical updates, Hyundai most certainly has a strong contender on its hands; that huge warranty and the service plan should seal the deal. 2.0 Premium (M) N$382,000 2.0 Premium (A) N$403,000 2.0 Elite (A) N$472,000 1.6 TGDI Exec (M) N$455,000 1.6 TGDI Elite (A)* N$540,000 1.7 UII Exec (M) N$461,000 R2.0 Elite (A) to be announced Prices (November 2016)