The IT Nerd

After my review of the 2016 Hyundai Tucson Limited AWD, my wife and I were so impressed by it that we bought one. When someone who reviews products buys something that they review, that’s a pretty powerful statement about how the reviewer feels about the product.

Here’e a look at our new Tucon:

We got ours in black and it really looks good. It kind of looks intimidating from the front.

Here’s the side view which looks really striking. I’d like to focus on the wheels for a second.

The design of the 19″ alloy wheels is pretty striking. They also fill out the wheel wells really well.

In my original review, I didn’t highlight the fact that you get turn signals in the body colored mirrors. That gives the Tucson an upscale look.

The rear of the Tucson really looks bold if I may say so.

Now there were some things that I became aware of after purchasing the vehicle. For starters, the Tucson supports Siri Eyes Free which allows you to make phone calls, send texts, check weather, make appointments in your calendar, post updates to Twitter and more via your voice without ever taking your eyes off the road. All you need to do is press and hold the voice command button on the steering wheel. This wasn’t mentioned on Hyundai Canada’s website which I find strange as I think you’d want to promote this feature as it would be a feature that would get some attention from potential buyers.

One thing that I wish was present was the ability to import saved addresses into the navigation system. I couldn’t find a way to do it, so I was forced to retype the addresses from my Garmin 2595LMT into the Tucson’s navigation system. It wasn’t the biggest deal in the world and it took an hour. But an import feature, and an export feature for that matter to allow you to back up your data, would be preferable. Now to be fair, Hyundai isn’t the only car company in this boat. But car companies may want to take this under consideration so that users of their cars can treat them like the rolling computers that they are.

Finally, the glove compartment is a bit small. I can have the owners manuals (which are really thick by the way) along with a couple of pairs of gloves in it and not much else. Fortunately, the center console is deep and it allows me to keep stuff in there.

Here are some other things that caught my attention:

For the front passenger, there’s this area to store something like a map or a magazine. Very clever.

The interior is very upscale and easily rivals the interiors of luxury nameplates. For example there’s this stitching on the dash that is very well done. Most of the materials are soft to the touch as well which adds to the upscale feel.

In the cargo area is a 12V outlet which can come in handy for camping or tailgating.

There are cargo hooks all over the cargo area to allow you to strap down your cargo.

Speaking of hooks, there’s this handy flip down hook in the cargo area that allows you to hang a shopping bag from it so that it doesn’t slide around the cargo area.

I highlighted this feature before, but I want to show it to you. You can drop the floor down to give you additional depth in the cargo area. The only downside is that you no longer have a completely flat load area for long cargo.

Behind the driver and near the grab handle is this hook to hang your jacket on. Or, the other use case that I can think of is that this is where you would hang your clothes when you pick them up from the cleaners.

Behind the driver and passenger seats on the “B” pillar are hooks like the one in this picture. I was able to hang a jacket here and I can see how this might come in handy.

In terms of driving the Tucson, the impressions that I had in the original review are still the same which is that I never was left wanting for power and even though this is a turbocharged engine, there’s no turbo lag that I could find. Speaking of power, something else I really like is the fact that you only need 87 octane gas to power the Tucson. That combined with single digit fuel economy (8.7 l/100KM as I type this) means that it will be good on my wallet. In general, the driving experience feels solid…. Almost Germanic. Visibility is good all around. Though the mirrors are slightly smaller than I am used to. As a result, it took me a while to find a position to set the mirrors so that I could see what’s around me comfortably. Fortunately the blind spot monitoring system helps with this by warning you of what’s in your blind spot. Speaking of blind spots, my wife said that she had a bit of a bind spot over her shoulder. But I didn’t find that myself. Thus I think that this might be one of those “your mileage may vary” things. Getting in and out is easy as we didn’t have to step up into the Tucson. Handling is very good and it has a tight turning radius and it is much more nimble than the size of the vehicle would suggest. Finding the ideal driving position does take some work, but you’ll be very comfortable once you’ve found a position that works for you. Passengers will be really comfortable as well as there’s a lot of head and leg room available in the front and the back of the Tucson. The fact that the rear seats recline is a bonus for passengers in the rear. Another item in the plus column is the audio system. With 8 speakers scattered throughout the Tucson, you get impressive sound that will make you want to play all your music inside the Tucson instead of your home. Finally, road and wind noise is minimal…. If you hear it at all. That’s a trait that you normally associate with BMW and Mercedes rather than Hyundai which illustrates how far they’ve come as a car company.

Gripes? Memory settings for the drivers seat would have been welcome. And I did mention the size of the glove box earlier. But the big item on the list are non-working “welcome lights” which is Hyundai speak for lights in the door handles that activate when you walk up to the Tucson with the key fob in your hand. Apparently Hyundai made a “boo boo” and didn’t turn this feature on for people who were supposed to get it. Such as yours truly for example. There’s a very lengthy discussion about this topic on a third party forum called the Hyundai Forms and apparently Hyundai is working on a fix. If Hyundai were smart, they should get this fix out to owners quickly…. As in right now.

The Hyundai Tucson is getting attention wherever it goes. I’ve personally been stopped a few times to answer questions about it since we’ve got it. So it will clearly attract enough attention for Hyundai to get people into showrooms. What may turn them off is the price. When we got it, the price for the 1.6 Limited AWD trim level was $36,649 CDN. But I hear rumors that prices might be going up as of October 1st. You can likely blame the weak Canadian dollar for that. Still, you get a lot for your money. Thus I believe buyers will be able to get past the sticker shock and Hyundai still has a winner in the form of the Tucson and other car companies in the “cute-ute” space will have to up their game as a result.

Just fix my welcome lights sooner rather than later Hyundai.

UPDATE: I spoke to Hyundai Canada Customer Relations. They have confirmed that the non-functional “welcome lights” is a known issue and they are working on a fix. I got a case number regarding this (Hint: Always get a case number when you deal with any customer service department) and they promised to reach out to me when a fix was available.

UPDATE #2: I’ve posted a three month follow up on the Tucson here.

UPDATE #3: The “welcome lights” have been fixed. Click here for details.