@kezo Just got back from my nighttime drive. I wanted to test the matrix headlights for three reasons. Firstly, I thought that the headlights on the pre facelift Tucson I had yesterday were poor. Secondly because they are absolutely brilliant on my BMW and I would miss them and finally because the last VW that we had with them frustrated me because the VW ones were too slow to react. Well I’m pleased to say that I was very impressed with them. Whilst they weren’t quite as bright as the ones on my BMW they were still great and reacted just as quick.
Having gone through every option and setting on the infotainment (blimey there’s a lot) and configured everything, I was impressed at how much you can programme. The system is far more user friendly than the latest BMW iDrive. I could find everything very easily, whereas the latest BMw systems are far too complicated. I’m still not overly keen on the Sat nav but I discovered that the round dial on the right zooms the map in and out, which I like to do (and couldn’t fathom earlier). I like the fact that it gives you speed camera alerts (the PDI hadn’t enabled that, but I did 😈).
As you said, the Krell system isn’t as good as I’d hoped, but is better than the standard system in my X1. The Tucson is definitely a quieter ride than my X1 in terms of road noise, although there’s a bit more wind noise around the door mirrors than the BMW. The engine in the Tucson is noisier and doesn’t sound good when revved, but with the PHEV I’d try to drive mostly in EV.
I can’t see the point of the normal hybrid model. The 20 mile round trip that I’ve just been on (motorway and A / B roads) achieved 42mpg. Thats no better than my 2.0i petrol BMW would have done at the same speeds. The PHEV is the way to go I think, having attempted some maths. I reckon that the miles travelled on electric will cost around half (in terms of pence per mile) than my BMW. That will constitute most of our mileage. On longer journeys I suspect that it won’t be much cheaper than the BMW but we don’t do as many of those now so, overall, I think there will be a decent saving.
Having chatted it through with my wife, on the basis that we have to have a new car to have a hoist fitted, we don’t think we will get anything more suitable, so we are going to order tomorrow. It will be a Cypress Green Ultimate PHEV with Moss Grey leather interior. There are a few of them at the port available for delivery within weeks, whereas the Cypress Green interior version isn’t and would be a 4 month lead time. I think it will be a nice contrast with the dark exterior and, as you say, it looks classy. The only niggle is the seat comfort, which I’m still struggling with a bit. I’ll just have to hope that with a lot of fiddling with the (thankfully electric) adjustments I can find a position that is OK.