Hyundai Tucson Review

The Hyundai Tucson comes with absolutely loads of room in the front, so you won’t have to worry about your head touching the roof if you’re very tall. You get a decent amount of seat adjustment as standard, too, and all but entry-level S Connect cars come with adjustable lumbar support to help stave off backache on long drives. Top-spec Premium SE versions even get heated and ventilated front seats – perfect for cold winter mornings and roasting hot summer afternoons.

Passenger space in the back is pretty good – there’s more room than you’ll find in the back of a Nissan Qashqai – and the Tucson’s standard reclining rear seats are just the thing for making sure tall passengers are comfortable on long journeys.

There’s a slight lump in the Hyundai Tucson’s rear floor that’ll get in the way of your middle passenger’s feet, but its wide body means there’s enough shoulder room for three adults to sit side-by-side without feeling cramped. There’s a decent amount of space under the front seats for three people to put their feet, too.

The Tucson’s tall roof and wide rear door openings mean it’s dead easy to lift in a bulky child seat. The standard Isofix anchor points come with neat folding covers, too, so you can secure the seat base without having to remove any fiddly plastic caps.

You get a decent number of storage bins dotted about the Hyundai Tucson’s cabin, from a large bottle-shaped recess in each door to a pretty spacious glovebox and a pair of generous cupholders in the centre console.

There’s space under the front armrest to tuck a few valuables safely out of sight and you get a USB port and 12V socket for keeping a few gizmos charged, too. In the back, your passengers get a folding armrest with two built-in cupholders.

The Hyundai Tucson’s 513-litre boot is slightly bigger than what you get in the Kia Sportage and leagues ahead of the rather small Nissan Qashqai’s load bay, but it can’t match the more practical VW Tiguan for load-carrying ability.

That said, it’s still more than spacious enough to carry a large weekly shop, a few bulky baby buggies or a family’s luggage for a week away and there’s a handy space to store the load cover under the floor if you need to remove it.

The back seats fold in a two-way (60:40) split so you can carry some long luggage and a rear-seat passenger at once, but some alternatives come with a more practical three-way split which leaves room for two passengers in the back seats.

If you need even more space, fold all the back seats down and the Hyundai Tucson’s load bay grows to a roomy 1,503 litres. The completely flat floor makes it as easy as possible to push heavy boxes all the way up behind the front seats and there’s even space to carry a bike with its wheels attached, but a VW Tiguan is even roomier still.

You can get the Hyundai Tucson with two petrol and three diesel engines and with either a manual or automatic gearbox.

If you do lots of city driving, go for the 132hp 1.6-litre non-turbo petrol. It’s far from the most powerful engine around, but it’s quieter than the diesels and slightly cheaper to run than the perkier 1.6-litre turbo unit. Hyundai claims it’ll return more than 57.6mpg, but you can expect it to manage a figure in the high forties in normal driving conditions.

If you do a fairly balanced mix of town and motorway journeys, the turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine with 177hp will be much more suitable. It has enough power to overtake slow-moving traffic and cruises along fairly quietly at 70mph. With a gentle touch on the accelerator, it’ll return around 30mpg – that’s compared to Hyundai’s claimed 37.7mpg.

If you do lots of motorway driving, a diesel will be a better bet. The entry-level 115hp 1.6-litre unit feels a little underpowered – especially with five people and lots of luggage on board – but the perkier 136hp model is right at home cruising along at motorway speeds. Hyundai claims it’ll return 54.3 mpg but you can expect it to return a figure in the low forties.

The most powerful Tucson you can buy is the 2.0-litre diesel model. It comes with a 186hp four-cylinder engine that’s assisted by a small electric motor. Together, this combination helps boost performance and reduce fuel economy – although you’ll probably see it return a rather modest 40mpg rather than Hyundai’s claimed 49.6mpg.

The 1.6 petrol and diesel engines come with front-wheel drive and only top-spec 2.0-litre diesels get four-wheel drive as standard for a little extra grip in slippery conditions. Unless you regularly tow, however, the standard two-wheel-drive models will be sure-footed enough for most.

The Hyundai Tucson irons out bumps in the road more smoothly than the likes of the Kia Sportage, but it’s not quite as comfortable as the Nissan Qashqai. It’s still pretty relaxing to drive around town, however, and it doesn’t lean much in tight corners so your passengers are unlikely to feel car sick.

The high driving position gives you a good view out over the road ahead, but the pillar between the front doors and the windscreen is quite thick so you have to lean forward to spot traffic approaching at junctions.

Still, at least the Hyundai Tucson’s light steering helps make it easy to manoeuvre and you get rear parking sensors to help you avoid low-speed bumps and scrapes. To make bay and parallel parking even easier, top-spec cars come with an automatic parking feature that’ll steer for you into tight spaces.

The standard six-speed manual gearbox is reasonably easy to use in traffic, but the optional seven-speed automatic can be slightly jerky at low speeds. It does make driving for long distances a bit more relaxing, however.

Head out onto a motorway and you’ll notice some wind noise coming from the Hyundai Tucson’s door mirrors, but there isn’t too much tyre noise and you don’t feel any unpleasant vibrations through the steering wheel or pedals.

To help make long drives as stress-free as possible, you’ll want to pick a Premium SE model with adaptive cruise control as standard. This helps you maintain a safe distance to cars in front by automatically braking if it senses you’re getting a little too close.

Thankfully, all Hyundai Tucsons come with automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assist as standard which helps make it a very safe family SUV.