Tucson owner compares SUV to his old Jetta after 3 weeks of ownership

Fuel efficiency on the 4WD SUV is around 10 km/l in the city & 16 km/l on the highway.

BHPian etrast75 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

3-week update on Starry Night diesel 4WD. I am going to try and put my review in different categories and things that I feel are important for people who are thinking about buying this car. Most of the thoughts will compare and contrast with my other car (2014 Jetta diesel)

Ergomonics and comfort

I am yet to find the perfect driving position. The arm resting position is just not the same as my Jetta (which I feel is perfect in terms of driver ergonomics). It is not horrible but I find myself having a bit of shoulder pain after a long drive. I still need to work on finding the perfect driving position, assuming it exists.

Cannot complain about the back seat comfort though. There is adequate under-thigh support (which was majorly lacking in Volvo XC40) and the seat recline angle is perfect and very comfortable.

Ride Comfort and handling

Ride comfort is where it scores much better than Jetta. The ride quality is the perfect balance between boat-like riding and a very stiff ride. I drove on all kinds of roads (thank you Coimbatore corporation for digging up all roads and leaving them like that) and I felt I could take them on with more confidence than I could in my Jetta.

There is no suspension noise when you have medium-sized potholes. I did not feel any highway expansion joints when riding in the back seat.

It does not ride as flat as my Jetta on highways at 100+ km/h speeds and there is always a bit of twitchiness at high speeds. It is not very bad but this is not a car where you can drive at 100 km/h and switch lanes in and out quickly. Drive sedately and don't get into racing matches with idiots on the road and you will be fine. I can take sweeping corners on highways in my Jetta at 100+ easily but I am not getting the confidence to do the same in Tucson. So, all in all, this is a comfortable family SUV. Better than any other Hyundais I have driven (I owned one of the worst Hyundais ever designed from a handling point of view, the 1st gen Verna).

ADAS

The only useful feature is the blind spot detection and the camera on the console. It is very helpful and works in most cases although it did miss a few errant bikers from time to time.

Lane keeps assistance is useless on Indian roads as one has to constantly keep changing lanes and drive not fully in lane sometimes. I had to turn it off as the steering kept correcting me and spooked me.

The rear cross-drive alert came in handy a couple of times when reversing the vehicle in tight places and when coming out of our house.

Overall I would say you will find some of them useful but not all and some features are definitely not suited for Indian roads. So You are better off turning those which intrude with driving off.

Parking and turning radius

This is where I had the most trouble initially with the car. One has to plan all basement parking properly as the turning radius is quite large. 3 point turns are the norm in a large number of places where the Jetta could manoeuvre in and out easily. Jetta and Tucson have almost the same length but the longer wheelbase of Tucson is the reason I guess.

This is where the 360 degree comes in handy. I have no idea how I would manoeuvre this car without that. The camera is very good and the guidelines and warnings it gives are life savers especially protecting from pillars.

Mileage

Getting around 10 in the city in chaotic B'lore traffic if I drive in eco mode. Got around 16 on the highway run.

Engine and transmission

I generally drive quite sedately and found the engine transmission combination to be perfect. The diesel engine is not noisy (similar to Jetta). You can hardly hear in the cabin. The power is adequate and the transmission shifts are not felt at all. The transmission seems to be in the right gear most of the time. There is a bit of turbo lag which you will feel when especially in eco mode. On the whole, they are very good if you are a sedate driver and do not go hunting for power and speed all the time.

Odds and Ends

• You have to turn on auto hold every time you start the vehicle but it works very well
• Same with drive mode as it does not remember the last selected drive mode.
• The air conditioner is very good (tested in sweltering western Tamil Nadu) but the diffuser mode is not good for hot conditions. Have tried it a few times and found it inadequate.
• The sound system is just adequate even though it has the name BOSE on it. No one who listened to music in the car went WOW.
• I wish it has wireless Android Auto, wired does the job but just the point that I cannot have the phone connected while I am in the backseat is a pain (I know first-world problems )
• The console misses the average speed indicator. Had it in Jetta and found it useful for highway runs.
• Have tried limited voice commands like 'close sunroof' and 'set temperature' etc which works but the voice command takes the infotainment screen out of Android Auto mode and there is no steering shortcut to get back. Once finds having to press a button on the infotainment which means you have to take your eyes of the road which is dangerous in India.
• There is no indication in the cluster on which gear you are in (unless you are in manual mode). My Jetta shows the gear one is in even when driving in D and I have found it useful.

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