HOLIDAYING IN TUCSON: part 1
Starting our long-term staycation in Hyundai’s popular Tucson II
As far as holiday destinations go, Tucson rates up there with Santa Fe. You’ve probably heard of it, but know nothing about it. At least we can offer the correct pronunciation, phonetically as “Too-son”. It helps a little, because the Tucson is one of those cars that you don’t realise is everywhere, until you start driving one.
When we picked up our Hyundai Tucson, on the first 120km drive from Hyundai in Auckland to Hamilton, I stopped counting at 10 . . . even passing the exact same Series II range-topping diesel model in the exact same Limited spec in the exact same Stargazing Blue. Popular? Exactly!
It should come as no real surprise, however, as the Tucson ranks highly in SUV sales, seventh most popular in 2019, which is a feat in itself given the number of and popularity of SUVs. As part of an eight-model range that spans 2WD/4WD, 1.6 or 2.0 petrol or 2.0 diesel and three trim grades — standard, Elite and Limited — there’s plenty to choose from to suit a buyer’s needs.
Our plan is to spend a few months with the Tucson, in two grades, starting with the range topper. Starting from $39,990 for the medium-sized SUV, we’ve picked up the other end of the price scale, and at $63,990, that’s a $24k price span to choose the exact price and spec that best suits.
For now, it’s our Limited model, and at first meeting, seems to offer a lot. Climbing into the cabin, you’re met with electric leather seats, both heated and cooled, a heated steering wheel, and a clean, logically placed layout: wipers on the left, indicator on the right, huge panoramic sunroof above.
A large 8.0in touchscreen houses CarPlay/AA, along with a very impressive Surround View Monitor camera that includes rear cross-traffic alerts and multiple camera view options which really helps navigate smaller spaces without fear of scrapes of scratches. Plus a button enables it manually, which is handy when creeping forward to a tight spot, without the need to trigger the camera with reverse.
There’s also a smart power tailgate — that opens a few seconds after standing behind it. Inside there’s wireless phone charging and other tech, such as stop-start and lane-keeping, which works best with the active cruise control at slow speeds in heavy traffic. An Infinity audio system with subwoofer, plus puddle lighting are both nice touches in different ways, and both the rear passenger area and the boot offer large spaces, our model including the very handy boot rubber liner, which we made good use of with a trip to the tip.
Towing a small unbraked box trailer with 500kg of junk presented no problems, as the rating is up to 1.9 tonnes.
The boot itself is large without being cavernous; but its second row of seats folds flat to accommodate some larger things like big boxes or bikes.
Typical of most SUVs, day two it was straight into action shuffling the kids around, with some neat spring-loaded covers over the Isofix booster seat mounting points, eliminating the problem of storing/losing plastic covers.
Jump in and go, and bad habits are notable by their absence, with a soft and compliant ride without being rolly. Pushing harder might induce squeals (from the kids) or screams (from the wife).
At night, SBL — Static Bending Lights, of course . . . — illuminate, making turns into dark driveways or curves more illuminated.
Day three was a run back up SH1, via the Huntly bypass, with fuel use quickly dropping to 7.1l/100km. The official combined claim is 6.4l/100km, so we’ll see how that drops over time as the diesel gets some km on. Though it does delight the senses to refill and see a range of 800km+ appear on the dash cluster, from its 62-litre tank.
It’s not slow, either, with its 2.0-litre diesel serving up 400Nm, and through its smooth new eightspeed automatic, it does a great job at everything, and is a rather quiet diesel, too.
We just scraped under the barrier, recording 9.9 seconds for the 0-100km/h sprint, which is somewhat of a drawn line between decent and slow. A Santa Fe, for comparison, does 9.6 secs; a Kia Sportage is 10.8.
Our RAV4 Hybrid long-termer did 7.8 seconds.
It may be all-wheel drive but in true city SUV fashion, the HTRAC all-wheel drive system is predominantly front-wheel drive, creating less drag and lower fuel use, until it’s summoned to provide grip or acceleration. There’s also a hill-descent and sport mode but we’ll look at those another time.
For now, we’ve got a few months with our Too-son to enjoy, and if first impressions count, we’re rather enamoured (though we do mumble the price if someone asks).
As far as Tucson is concerned, it’s the second largest city in Arizona, about a day’s drive east of Los Angeles.
Now you know.