Took my 2022 Tucson with 5 passengers on its 1st road trip: Experience

The car returned an overall fuel efficiency figure of 14 km/l.

BHPian KrishKallapur recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Last week I took the road to Belur and Chikmagalur in my Tucson with full 5 members in the car. Just wanted to share my experience. Here is the write-up.

Start of the trip

I noticed the TPM unit was complaining that the tyre pressure was low. It was showing 31 psi on all the tyres. I got a bit concerned. Filled up the air in a petrol bunk up to 35 psi in all the tyres. But the warning didn't go away. My son referred to the service manual and confirmed that this was not a TPM malfunction.

The fact is when you drive in very cold conditions TPMS does show this warning. The previous night was very cold in Bengaluru and we started early. So that warning popped up. It lasted till we rode for about 50+ Km and stopped for breakfast on Hassan highway. Once the engine was restarted, the message went away.

Pleasant meet

On the way near Belur, we met another Tucson from the opposite direction. It was a red one. We shared thumbs up to each other If the owner is on this forum - Hi, Hello

Driving experience

I drove all the way in eco mode. Even in eco mode, Boss has a lot of power. Whenever I pushed it obliged without a second thought. Just noticed that a couple of times when I tried sudden pedal floor, the engine roared too much.

On some stretches where traffic was least, I tried the lane keep assist with my hands just touching the steering. It works like a charm. Even in curves and speeds around 100 km/h, no problems. It is very very accurate, I must say. It picked up the speed signal boards correctly.

I tried adaptive cruise too, even that was very well working. However, I felt I am disconnected from the drive so switched back to normal.

We never had a single anxious moment or sudden/harsh braking.

The thing I really want to appreciate

We went to Mullayyanagiri and Manikyadhara falls the next day. It is the highest peak of Karnataka with narrow Ghat roads. All the way I drove in Eco mode. I am proud of my Tucson, it pulled everything very very gracefully.

On the way we saw a Honda Jazz from TN met with an accident on a hill ascent, it was hit from the backside. Probably because was not able to pull up.

Tucson - no problems at all uphill or downhill Absolutely no issues.

Returning from Mullayyanagiri was really challenging. The narrow road had parked vehicles and cars/jeeps wanting to get in. Some really insensitive drivers create too much hassle. The picture below shows how tight it was. This is where the 360-degree view came to our rescue and we escaped without even a minor scratch. To achieve that in such a reasonably big car is in my view outstanding.

The way to Manikyadhara from Chandradronagiri (Bababudan) is some off-roading. Even here, Eco mode - no problems; never got sucked anywhere. My car is 2WD.

However, it does get panicky when pedestrians come close. It thinks that they will be hurt. It did apply sudden brakes once when pedestrians suddenly crossed when the car was like crawling. Hyundai needs to fine-tune ADAS for India.

One important tip: Use auto hold in such places, you will take a bit longer and hear some shouts but it is really safe. Will reduce the chances of dents/scratches due to motion under stress.

Overall I am very satisfied.

I wasn't expecting good mileage because of the low speed in the Ghat section (always in the 20s). Overall it returned close to 14 km/l.

One pic of my car parked at Aadrika Hotel in Chikmagalur.

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