TUCSON TAKES OVER
Redesigned Hyundai crossover now the ideal family vehicle
Ding- dong, the family sedan is dead — and it’s vehicles like the Hyundai Tucson that are going to drop the proverbial house on it. Completely redesigned for 2016, this new machine is stylish, peppy, efficient, capable, and packed with features. It’s the third leg of the Hyundai crossover stool and, among other things, it’s going to turn down the volume on Sonata sales.
Truck sales now account for twothirds of the Canadian passengervehicle market.
( Please don’t write me an angry letter pointing out that crossovers aren’t really trucks. I know, I know.) There are several good reasons for this state of affairs, but suffice to say that driving a larger vehicle with a commanding seating position and decent cargo capacity doesn’t come with much of a penalty to either fuel economy or handling anymore. The Canyonero and its bulky ilk are a phantom of yesteryear.
For Canadian buyers, that means the small crossover market is the ideal place to go shopping for a family car.
People are buying Honda CR- Vs instead of Accords, Nissan Rogues instead of Altimas, Toyota RAV4s instead of Camrys, and certainly CX- 5s instead of the Mazda6. If prototypical mom, dad and 2.37 kids wander over to the Hyundai dealership, there are strong offerings in the Santa Fe Sport and XL, along with a somewhat tired Tucson.
The arrival of this new version couldn’t be more timely.
It looks fresher, muscular and more purposeful than many other offerings in this segment.
Essentially, it’s a smaller Santa Fe — already one of the more handsome crossovers for sale — shrinking the dimensions and applying the same styling language has the effect of making Hyundai’s smallest crossover look even more aggressive.
Base front- wheel- drive Tucson models start at $ 24,399 in Canada, while the mid- range Luxury Limited AWD goes for $ 33,099 and the range- topping 1.6T Limited AWD carries a $ 36,649 price tag.
Note the way the wheel arches have been shaped to give the Tucson the appearance of being just about to spring. Note, too, that the base 17- inch alloy wheels don’t quite fill out those arches, but the huge 19- inch alloys that come standard on models equipped with the 1.6- litre turbo engine do. Those are 245/ 45/ R19 Hankooks, if you’re wondering, and they aren’t cheap to replace.
The exterior is well executed and immediately attractive, but the interior is a much more cautious play. If anything, it’s not all that far removed from the old Tucson’s layout, just with a better infotainment system and a sprinkling of interesting features. Hard plastic abounds nearly everywhere you’d touch, but there are amenities such as heated seats fore and aft, a heated steering wheel, widely available blind- spot monitoring and side- traffic alert, an eight- inch touch screen infotainment system and a rear power liftgate that automatically opens if you stand behind it with the key fob in your pocket — handy if you’re returning from grocery shopping with your hands full.
The fronts seats are comfortable and well bolstered, far better than those in the CR- V. While rear- seat room is good, and made better by reclining seats, the seating is much firmer, bordering on pew- like. Rear cargo room is excellent at 877 litres and swells a bit with a floor that can be removed and lowered. The cargo cover — a necessity for most urban dwellers — is an optional accessory.
Hyundai’s infotainment system is a sensible, good- looking and intuitive affair. Not only that, the Tucson’s conventional layout includes actual knobs — hallelujah! — for both radio tuning and volume control. Below the screen, there’s a cubby equipped with two power outlets and a USB port, and it is big enough to hold the largest smartphones, though I’d like to see one of those power outlets swapped for more USB charge points.
The first day of testing was in the top- trim Luxury 2.0- L model, equipped with a carry- over 2.0- L four- cylinder and six- speed automatic transmission. Power output is rated at 164 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 151 pound- feet of torque at 4000 rpm.
Performance is adequate in a straight line and close enough to competitors from Honda and Nissan to pass muster.
What’s more surprising is how well the Tucson handles the twisty, jump- and- dive tarmac of B. C.’ s Sunshine Coast. The steering is weighted, and although feedback is almost nonexistent, the Tucson performed well in these perfectly dry conditions.
While the 2.0- L engine doesn’t sound particularly happy when revved up, the cabin of the Tucson remains serene, unless you’re really flogging things. Hyundai claims an increase in the coefficient of drag from 0.35 to 0.33, cutting down wind noise and improving fuel economy; it also claims much lower decibel levels than competing vehicles, and at first listen, you’d tend to believe them.
However, that’s just the valueoriented model; Hyundai has something more interesting up its sleeve. Moving up a grade nets you a turbocharged 1.6- L fourcylinder and a seven- speed dualclutch gearbox. The snorty little four makes 175 hp at 5,500 rpm — not much of an increase versus the base 2.0- L — and a very useful 195 lb- ft of torque between 1,500 and 4,500 rpm. You may immediately identify it by the standard 19- inch alloys and slightly overcomplicated rear badge.
Glancing under the hood shows the 1.6- L engine to be almost comically tiny for the engine bay and fitted with some pretty low- rent looking heat shielding. However, when combined with the quick- shifting seven- speed, it’s a sprightly engine indeed. Hyundai gives the Tucson three driving modes; while Sport is the best for hoofing up and around the boa- with- the- hiccups coastal tarmac, even Eco mode isn’t boring.
Official fuel economy ratings for the 1.6- L are 9.9 L/ 100 kilometres in the city and 8.4 on the highway, versus 11.0 in the city and 9.0 on the highway for the 2.0- L engine. Given the way turbo engines often deliver good test numbers yet are much thirstier in the real world, it’s the performance benefit, not so much any fuel savings, that should guide the decision to move up.
With either engine, the allwheeldrive system appears to be very capable. Starting from a dead stop on a dusty gravel road, the Tucson didn’t spin a wheel. It also has hill- descent control for tiptoeing down slippery surfaces. On the tight pavement corners, the brake- based torque- vectoring system could be felt fighting any tendency toward front- end push. I’d like to see how it handles wetter B. C. weather — not to mention snow — but the initial impression is one of confidence- inducing competence.
The drive, along with a silhouette that’s vaguely BMW X5- ish, some genuinely interesting colours, and a lengthy feature list, puts the Tucson solidly in the forefront of the current pack of compact crossovers. Hyundai can expect to see its slice of the pie increase as the new model rolls out, but it shouldn’t worry too much if Sonata sales slide a little as a result.