Hyundai Tucson
Price/as tested £32,450 Model 2.0 CRDi Premium SE Driver Sam Philip Why it’s here Is there more to the Tucson than the pricetag?
The Too-son (or is that Tuck-son?) is off. Sam is going to miss his car equivalent of a tumble dryer...
White good. This is one of the cruellest insults to level at a car. White goods are, after all, characterless, forgettable, all those things we don’t want from automobiles. But the Hyundai Tucson is a white good, and I mean this as the deepest of compliments.
After all, white goods have their place. If you want to keep stuf frozen, a freezer will do you very nicely. For a two-seat sports car to be bland is unforgivable, but that’s because two-seat sports car buyers buy two-seat sports cars with heart, not head. Most don’t choose mid-size, mid-price SUVs for their ability to get the nostrils faring and the neighbours talking. We choose them for their ability to transport people and stuf without complaint, and frankly I couldn’t give a damn if they do so without much personality.
It’s a switch-of car. You hop in at 7.30am on a frosty Monday morning, and then broadly fail to engage with it for the next hour-and-then-some until you arrive at work. I mean, obviously you need to take care of the basic faster/ slower/turning stuf, but beyond that, it just... sorts itself out. And that’s a good thing. Yes, there are times where it’s joyous to be dialled into the driving experience, but those times don’t tend to include rush hour on the M25. An unremarkable commute is exactly the commute I desire.
No doubt Hyundai’s brochure is smeared with de rigueur images of waterskiing couples, quad bikes strapped to roof racks, ruddy-faced imps gazing over imposing mountain vistas and the like. I haven’t checked. But the Tucson, in practice, mercifully sidesteps this modern pretence that an SUV will somehow transform you and your pasty, suburban family into Scandi super-adventurers. No, what the Tucson will do is transport you and your slightly pasty family around suburbia, and it will do it damn well. That’s not to say it can’t play Scandi super-adventurer if called upon – as these photos demonstrate, the Tucson’s (optional) 4WD copes fne away from the tarmac – simply that it doesn’t sacrifce day-to-day function in the name of some ill-conceived notion of ‘lifestyle’.
It’s also resolutely unsporty, and that’s an excellent thing. Too many modern SUVs seem convinced you’re going to spend more time hot-lapping Silverstone than shunting along on the schoolrun. Not the Tucson. You sense the phrase ‘enthusiast driver’ never crept into the engineering department’s brief. It’s in no way unpleasant to drive, simply untaxing. Similarly the interior, which is as well-constructed, ergonomic and utterly unforgettable as the fascia of an upmarket washing machine. This, again, is the deepest of compliments.
OK, the Tucson is not a car that’ll do a whole lot to forge the distinctive brand image Hyundai so craves. I must admit that, on the odd occasion, I would forget who made it. But then I can’t remember the maker of my tumble dryer, and I like my tumble dryer very much. White good, good.