[Glos Guy]

In a quarter where there has been very little good news and yet more AP price hikes, one positive standout has been the sizeable reduction in AP of the top spec Tucson PHEV. Not that many months ago, the AP on this car (which retails at over £46k with metallic paint) was well over £5k, and that was for the pre-facelift model. From 1st October, the still relatively new (and much improved) facelift model is now down to £2,999. Still not cheap, especially when you factor in the sacrificed benefits on top of that, but a lot of car for the money and very good value compared to its direct competitors available through the scheme.

We’ve had one for a couple of months now and have done just over 1,000 miles in it, so I guess now is a good time to give some first impressions.

To keep this manageable (I can type as fast as I can talk 😂) I will do this in several parts

Part 1 – Background – Why did we land on the Tucson?

By way of background, our previous Motability car was a BMW X1 2.0i 4WD xLine. This car was hard to fault. It had all the attributes of a BMW – an engaging drive, excellent build quality, class leading infotainment, a hushed and refined engine plus the perfect blend of performance and economy. Amazingly, the car averaged 42.2 mpg over the 3 years that we had it, which was better than the diesel Tiguan that it replaced!  The only two negatives were road noise on certain surfaces and the lack of AutoHold (which still bugged me after 3 years of ownership). Sadly we had to change the car, as my wife now needs a person hoist to get in and Motability insist that you have to have a new car to have adaptations fitted.

We didnt want a BEV (full electric), even though we can charge at home. We just would not want to be faffing about with charging away from home. Any stops that we make on long journeys are quick pee stops or a 5 minute refuel, so anything more would be an inconvenience for us. We decided that a PHEV might be a compromise, in that our local journeys (circa 25-30 mile round trips) could be 100% on electric, but with longer journeys or holidays we could start with a full charge but then run on petrol, with no range anxiety or otherwise unnecessary stops to charge the car.

Having had four Tiguans in the past we were keen to look at the new version, but neither of us liked it. Build quality has taken a step backwards and the interior layout was a big ‘No’ for both of us. Build quality also put us off the facelifted Ford Kuga, which seemed quite cheap and nasty inside, even in ST Line X trim. The Mazda CX-60 was significantly better, but the AP was excessive and reviews haven’t been brilliant. Nothing else on the scheme even remotely appealed.

We have an excellent Hyundai dealership fairly near us who I have bought a few cars from for one of my daughters. I’ve never really considered a Hyundai for myself though for a number of reasons. I’m not a fan of their styling direction, a friend had a number of Santa Fe’s and I found them uncomfortable and low rent compared to our BMW, and I had learned the hard way from our last VW that being taken in by a high equipment count is no good if the systems don’t work terribly well. The improvements that we noticed in the BMW X1 over our VW Tiguan were significant, and we didn’t want to take a step back.

For all these reasons, I left looking at the Tucson until we had eliminated absolutely everything else!

……..Part 2 to follow (the test drives)

Topic

[BigDave]

kezo wrote:

Glos Guy wrote:

BigDave wrote:

Glos Guy, A couple of questions from a veteran friend who works down at the garrison who is thinking of ordering one, but can’t seem to get a straight answer – from either the Hyundai website or main dealer! Is the 4WD system controlled by the driver (i.e. has an on/off button somewhere) or is it a fully automatic system only controlled by the vehicle? I take it there is no option to lock the diff(s) either centre or side/wheel control? Does the 4WD (if auto controlled) in effect cut out above circa 20mph or so on straight roads (or even cornering)? Does the vehicle come as standard with tyres to enhance the traction of the 4WD system or just standard summer road tyres – i.e. more for economy than traction? Thanks P.S. – He has had a drive in my Ineos Grenadier and I think he is hoping for something like the 4WD control and capability that I have. However, I think he may be somewhat disappointed, but I did say I would ask!

Like most modern 4WD systems on cars designed for road use, the system is fully automated. The car will determine whether to run in 2WD or 4WD but it will also vary power to each individual wheel if required. There is a graphic you can easily call up in the instrument cluster that gives a constant live display of the power applied to each wheel (each wheel has a mini bar graph which ranges from one bar to – from memory- 5 or 6 bars). There are also switchable drive / terrain modes for different surfaces (snow / mud / sand) but I’ve not used them yet. The tyres are Michelin Primacy4 235/50 R19 so I assume they are normal road tyres, perhaps designed for 4WD cars, but that’s a guess based on the ‘4’. I don’t believe that you can switch 4WD on / off and / or lock the diff but I’m not technical. @kezo knows far more about the technical / mechanical stuff so hopefully he may add or correct the above. P.S. When you said you’d got a Grenadier, as I hadn’t heard of them I watched a YouTube review of them. What a beauty. A proper luxury off roader. Did I read the other day that they have just suspended building them?

Hi BD, The Tucson has Michelin Primarcy 4’s, extra load rated. They are a summer tyre. It’s actually AWD rather than 4WD and does not have Diff lock or HI and Low gearing. However, Hyundai’s HTRAC all-wheel drive system is designed to combine the capabilities of a 4WD system with the performance and full efficiency of front-wheel drive. While the AWD system is always engaged drivers have the option of selecting one of three driving modes. It is also mechanical, rather than an electric motor seen on many AWD SUV’s today. There are plenty of video’s showing its off road capability, including this hybrid one. https://youtu.be/wq3Gg2–qmk

Thanks Kezo,

I will pass it on.

Hopefully he will watch the video and decide from there.

[Author]

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