I’ve done two long drives in the SUV and have completed over 2700 km on the odo, since taking delivery in Feb 2023.
BHPian goldsun recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Just sharing my experience with my new Tucson Signature AWD Diesel. I have been using Renault Captur earlier, and I am still keeping that. Having taken delivery on late Feb 2023, I had driven about 2749 km to date, which includes two long drives: a) Chennai to Kovilpatti – about 1200 kms up and down – for the most part, my son was driving; and b) Chennai to Thane via Bangalore – about 1350 km with me at the wheel for the entire stretch (with an overnight halt near Hubli) with my wife as a passenger.
As many of you had already covered the good and bad about Tucson, I am focusing on a few specific things here.
Delivery Experience
I started following Tucson in late 2021 and started liking it more and more as I see the review of the international models of it and was eagerly waiting for its launch in India. I didn’t look at any other cars at all and have made up my mind to go in for Tucson when it is launched in India. So, I booked for Black Tucson Signature AWD when the booking opened in July 2022, hoping that I will get my hands on Tucson sometime around October but for whatever reason, could only get delivery in Feb 2023. Maybe the delay is due to my choice of colour, which was black. Of course, the dealer in between checked with me if I am OK with the white colour, but it was a strict no from my side.
The dealer delivered the car with floor mats (free) and also promised to provide a Car Care Kit along with a Vacuum cleaner, but haven’t got it to date.
Driving Experience
- Collision Avoidance: I find this a more helpful feature. Of course, I had experienced it doing its job on multiple occasions: a few times while backing up and on a few occasions while in the slow-moving city traffic (in Pune). Have experienced the warning on numerous occasions. To me, except on one occasion, when I thought I am in control to avoid a collision, the car applied the brakes. But, realized that its judgement was better than mine on that occasion. On the point of someone hitting from behind in such situations, it would have happened anyways if the ADAS had not applied brakes, i.e. I would have hit the car in front than someone dashing on me from behind. So, according to me, this only will make me a better driver.
- On the Lane Keep Assist: I loved it the most. Here again, this feature will certainly make me a better driver, as it resists allowing me to switch lanes without me using the turn indicators.
- BlueLink Maps: Though Hyundai claims that its navigation system is far better than Google’s I find it lagging so much. It didn’t even recognize a few stretches of roads in Hiranandani Meadows in Thane. Its re-routing logic is also not up to my liking. The ETA calculated by Bluelink is grossly incorrect, whereas Google Maps is near accurate.
- Android Auto: It is a bit of an inconvenience that I have to use a cable connection to use it. More so, it doesn’t work with many data cables and I figured out that you need to buy a cable that suits USB 2.0. Would like to hear from others on this. Also, when you connect through cable, you don’t have a proper place to keep the mobile, as if you keep it in its wireless charging spot, the phone overheats in my case after a few hours, Android notified me that it had closed all running applications due to overheating. Then I kept the phone in the cup holder and then the heating issue is gone. Not sure, if there is an option to turn off wireless charging so that the phone can be kept on the charging pad while connected to a USB cable. Need to explore the settings.
- I find BlueLink on the mobile is useful, especially for remote locking. My Captur will lock itself as I park the car and go away from the car. But, Tucson is not doing that automatically and one has to explicitly lock it (Maybe there are some settings, which I am yet to explore). This is where I find bluelink useful, as it notifies me that the car is not locked so that I can lock it remotely.
Others
When we took off to Kovilpatti after a few days of delivery, noticed that the instrument cluster was alerting about some faults and found that the rear right tyre pressure was too low – at around 12. To my surprise, all other tyres were showing about 46 ps while the recommended tyre pressure is 35. Maybe the dealer while delivering the car had over-inflated. Back on the warning of low pressure, we took a chance of just inflating the tyre in trouble (and also deflated the other tyres to 35 ps) at the next petrol pump and monitoring the pressure on the instrument cluster continuously. While it was all fine for about 200 kms, it suddenly was flat. Except for the weird road noise, we could not feel the car drifting or any other symptom.
Immediately we stopped the car at a safe place and changed the tyre with the spare wheel. The spare wheel just looks like a motorcycle tyre. Fortunately, we could find a puncture shop within about 2 kms.
My son was of the view that the suspension seems to be softer than Captur, which I could not feel. But later I could see that when you hit on even small bumps, I could hear the loud noise of the suspension fully going down and hitting its limit. Whereas, I had never experienced this in Captur before.
As I drive more and more, started liking and getting used to the various warning tones and without looking at the cluster, I would know what the warning is for. Good that Hyundai used a different tone for different actions/warnings.
My wife observed that the A/c is not up to the mark for the passengers in the back row. Unlike many other cars, there is no way to control the fan speed for the back seat passengers. Not sure, if there is some setting/option somewhere that I am yet to know.
Just about the Mumbai Trip, I work in Thane and used to do at least a couple of road trips to Chennai every year. While driving to Chennai, we stop over at Chitradurga (Hotel Ojas by Ideal Yatri Niwas) and on the return, we stop over at Varur (Hotel the Cult), a place near Hubli.
Keyword: 2023 Hyundai Tucson ownership: Delivery, driving & overall experience