It was a easy and apparent ploy, actually. When the sharply styled Hyundai Tucson’s MY25 replace arrived in the course of 2024, diesels had been gone and a brand new turbo hybrid powertrain had lobbed up and down the lineup.
Why? As a result of it’s a system that’s labored so very very properly for Toyota RAV4, habitually the biggest-selling passenger automobile in Oz of late. And that’s exactly what Hyundai needs to ape with its personal midsize SUV contender.
It’s not an actual facsimile: Tucson may be had as a naturally aspirated 2.0L front-driver, a turbo 1.6 in both front- or all-wheel drive, or turbo 1.6 hybrid in FWD and AWD.
Add base, mid-spec Elite and flagship Premium guises, and also you’re spoilt for alternative. And you may have any of the 5 out there powertrains within the Elite trim. With or with out sporty N Line accoutrement. Gotta love alternative.
So which variant did Chasing Vehicles go for? And what are we planning on doing with it?
Month 1: Taking supply of the Tucson
What’s it? The most recent member of the Chasing Vehicles long-termer storage sits smack bang in the course of the Tucson grade hierarchy. Our White Cream completed instance is (exhaustively) known as the Hyundai Tucson Elite N Line 1.6T HEV 2WD…however at the least we all know what we’re moving into from the label on the tin.
What’s a Tucson? It’s Hyundai’s volume-selling midsize SUV, named after the city in Arizona, USA. It’s a operating theme for the South Korean model whose portfolio additionally contains the Santa Fe (New Mexico), the Palisade (California), the Santa Cruz (additionally California) and the Kona (Hawaii).
Google reveals an ‘I-30’ freeway operating via Texas, which is a protracted bow to attract, and Venue is (sadly) the title of an inactive township in regional Arkansas, maybe purely coincidentally…
We had been going to nickname our Tucson ‘Olek’, in homage to the now inactive Chasing Vehicles employees member Olek Novak who’s shuffled off to greener pastures. Till Novak exited stage left, this was his long-termer, however what was his is now ours, with a nickname Ari…a tip of the Stetson to geographical origins as outlined above.
How a lot is it? On the time of acquisition, Ari lobbed into the Chasing Vehicles storage at $52,600 record, or $57,606 on street in NSW.
There are 9 totally different configurations of Elite out there within the Tucson secure relying on powertrain and N-Line fitment, starting from $44,100 (2.0L FWD) to $55,100 (HEV AWD N Line), whereas the vary itself begins from $39,100 at its least expensive to $61,100 for the all-you-can eat Premium HEV AWD N Line).
Choices? Given there are such a lot of off-the-rack variants supplied, additional splurges are restricted to premium ($595) or matte impact ($1000) paintwork and two-tone inside trim ($295) for Premium grade examples with out N Line.
Price a glance is to bundle within the five-year/50,000km servicing pack ($1990) up entrance on the time of buy.
What’s the spec of our automobile? Mid-grade Elite takes the 12.3-inch media, 18-inch wheels and LED exterior mild fitout of the bottom Tucson and provides niceties akin to leather-based appointment, powered driver’s seat, entrance seat heating, a powered tailgate and rain sensing wipers.
Stump for the N Line choice and the driving force’s display graduates from 4.4-inch to 12.3 inches, whereas elsewhere it scores 19-inch wheels, suede-leather appointments, additional physique colour-coding, and projector LED headlights.
The 1.6-litre turbocharged four-pot petrol within the Tucson lineup outputs 172kW and 264Nm. Stumping for the ‘HEV’ hybrid system provides an extra 37kW and one other 264Nm by way of a single electrical motor.
Mixed complete system outputs are 172kW and 367Nm no matter whether or not it’s front- or all-wheel drive, backed by a six-speed automated transmission both means.
How lengthy is it sticking round for? Six months and (hopefully) for 10,000kms.
What are we going to do with it? The same old Aussie household enterprise for an unorthodox Aussie household unit. With three offspring unfold up and down the east coast – Brissie and Gold Coast in Queensland, Bendigo in regional Victoria – there’s virtually 2000 kilometres of scope for fulsome household catch-ups. There’s numerous street tripping due.
Between lengthy freeway stints, it’ll largely be every day city duties. Given Ari is front-driver relatively than the marginally pricier Tucson Elite various, there’s not a lot contextual name for something more durable than delicate soft-roading.
Given Hyundai’s foremost recreation is to tackle Toyota RAV4, we’re pulling strings to line up a 2WD Cruiser to see how the up to date Korean challenger takes on Australia’s greatest promoting passenger automobile on stage pegging.
Preliminary efficiency figures? We’ve but to let Ari rip down the Chasing Vehicles check observe however, consumption sensible, Hyundai claims 5.3L/100km mixed, with a RAV4-challenging 3.6L city determine and a reasonably lazy 6.5L for the open street.
Attention-grabbing, they’re the identical claims be it the as-tested front-driven or (60kg heavier) all-wheel-driven format. Hmm…
