At Least its Brown- A Review of the 2020 Hyundai Tuscon

"AkursedX" (akursedx) 05/28/2020 at 10:24 • Filed to: Hyundai Tuscon, Hyundai Tuscon Review, Car Review, #brown

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We got my wife her new daily today, a 2020 Hyundai Tuscon Ultimate. Her lease was up on her 2017 Highlander and she wanted something smaller. She sat in a Tuscon at the local auto show and really liked it. With Hyundai offering its 0%/84 month financing, $1000 First-Responder rebate as well as the other $2300 off the sticker, we ended up with the same payment as our lease.

Obviously a compact SUV isn’t the most exciting purchase, but I figured I write up some quick thoughts on it anyways.

First off, the Hyundai Sage Brown color is beautiful. Normally my wife likes blue cars, but I wasn’t able to find one locally. I took her to see a brown Tuscon and she was like ’Yeah, I want that color’. With the subtle chrome bits that the ‘Ultimate’ trim offers against the brown results in a rather luxurious look that comes at an affordable price.

It comes with an n/a 2.4l 4 cylinder with 181hp/175tq. It’s nothing special, but I totally prefer larger displacement n/a 4-cylinders over the tiny displacement turbo engines that are also common in this segment. The broader and more linear torque curve of the n/a makes for a nice, smooth drive. But, it definitely runs out of breath above 5k rpms. Do I wish is was a 2.4 turbo? Yes. But I like it better than the 1.6l turbo. Fuel economy is rated at a so-so 21 city 26 highway.

The suspension and ride are what you expect, compliant and smooth even over shitty NY roads. The damper tuning is a bit weird on it though. It has incredibly soft compression with much stiffer rebound. I did some slaloming in it and it has huge amounts of initial dive, but then transitioning back, it becomes a little more predictable. But it is certainly not a performance-tuned vehicle by any means. A Mazda CX-5 would drive circles around it. The steering and brakes are incredibly overboosted and rather numb which is pretty standard in this segment.

Being the ’Ultimate’ trim, this Tuscon is loaded with features. The panoramic sunroof is great (My wife wanted this feature more than anything else). The leather seats are some of the more comfortable and supportive seats that I have sat in this segment. They are heated in the front and back (along with the steering wheel) and the fronts also come with ball-chiller vented seats. I’m 6'3" 250lbs and I fit comfortably in any seating location so I’d say that for a family of 4 that this vehicle is easily big enough.

All the HVAC controls are in their own spot on the dash with easy to use button-controls while the infotainment system has a decent sized touchscreen. The infinity sound system provides excellent sound and the Apple Carplay and Android Auto make the smartphone integration a breeze. It even has a wireless Qi charger storage area if your phone has that ability.

As for the safety stuff, it has the adaptive cruise, advance collision warning, blindspot indications and whatnot. Sensitivity level adjustment was simply to figure out and it was easy to keep them working while not being too intrusive. The backup camera has a 360* view so you not only see behind you, but also each side.

One interesting thing is that you can remote-start the car via your phone. But you have to download the ‘My Hyundai’ app. It also monitors the location of the car, and its status. But it feels to me like I’m being watched and monitored all the time, which I’m sure is the case, but whatever.

My wife drives her cars for as long as possible, so having Hyundai’s 5yr/60k bumper to bumper and 10yr/100k powertrain warranty is nice. Plus they have free service for 3yrs/36k so I will at least get a few free oil changes too.

The only thing that kind of bothers me is that there are no memory-seats. The Tuscon used to have memory-seats in previous years. Why would you get rid of that? The Kia Sportage which shares a good chunk of its underpinnings with has memory seats. Oh well.

So anyways, while I made the title of this review sound less than inspiring, the Hyundai Tuscon Ultimate packs quite a bit into a ~34k sticker price. Its certainly not class-leading in any area, but is a solid, good looking all-arounder that is available in one of the best-looking browns I have ever seen. If you are shopping the compact SUV segment, the Tuscon is something that you shouldn’t overlook.

The author, who goes by Joe in real life, is an avid automotive enthusiast with a particular passion for Mazda rotaries. You can find him at many Western New York SCCA and surrounding area events autocrossing his RX-8. He can be reached at AkursedX@gmail.com (If you are an automotive company and want to give me free stuff to write about, let me know!) More of what I’ve written can be found here: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:31

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Notchback88 > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:33

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It’s a nice looking crossover, I generally like Hyundai’s color choices (That Veloster N blue, nnnhhhhgggggghhh. Almost bought one.)

But that mpg, is that normal for the segment? That’s roughly what I get in my 19 Mustang GT when I’m not hammerdicking around. (It’s rated 15 /24 but I usually see 19 in town and 26 on highways at about 5 over.)

Overall a pretty good review, love the detail. Maybe I should write my own on the GT.

CalzoneGolem > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:40

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Ov erall a handsome looking vehicle but those wheels make my eyes twitch.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:45

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Takin’ it down to Brown Town

ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy > Notchback88 05/28/2020 at 10:45

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That MPG rating seems low for the segment. Our 2019 Forester is rated 26/33.

Actual experience shows ~35mpg when cruising at 60mph and ~32mpg when cruising at 75mph.

Tripper > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:50

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As you suggested, most of us car nerds don’t  get all that excited about a new CUV. However I saw the pic and thought, “Lex!?”. Very nice looking people mover ya got there!

412GTI > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:53

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Congrats to her getting the car she liked and wanted! That’s a lot of equipment and the brown looks great! Gotta love all the new car incentives going on currently - it’s a great time to buy! 

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 10:54

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Time for a manual swap I guess....

AkursedX > Notchback88 05/28/2020 at 11:12

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I did a quick look and the mileage is on the lower end. It’s not too surprising because the engine architecture is aged and it only has a 6spd auto (Which I greatly preferred over various CVT options). I will be interested to track what real-life mileage turns out to be.

And yeah, its obviously something that most enthusiast people don’t really care about, which is why I figured I could put review together from a different viewpoint than what most reviewers would come from.

AkursedX > CalzoneGolem 05/28/2020 at 11:16

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IMO, I like the wheels, but I’m hoping to get a set of wheels from the sport or older limited trim for winter tires as I’d like to keep it OEM looking.

CalzoneGolem > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 11:27

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I’m not sure how I feel about those either, but they are more pleasing to my eyes than the others.

mazda616 > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 11:42

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That’s a good looking small SUV. I love the color and the wheels.

Under_Score > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 12:17

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If deals were better (off MSRP), I might’ve seriously considered a blue Tucson Ultimate. The guy who hired me drives an Ultimate, and that thing is nice inside! Also, the 360 camera is so clear it doesn’t look real.

AkursedX > Under_Score 05/28/2020 at 12:29

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According to trucar, I got a little better than average deal.  The car stickered for 34500 and between 1k first responder rebate and what the dealer took off ended up being a little over 3k off.  (31200 I think?).  Not a super-cheap deal but not terrible either.  

Under_Score > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 14:10

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Also, AWD is almost impossible to get. Of 130 Ultimates within 100 miles of me (on cars.com at least), 4 have AWD. 4.

AkursedX > Under_Score 05/28/2020 at 14:19

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Wow!  Thats crazy to me.  But I live in one of the snowiest cities in America, Buffalo, NY and its incredibly rare to find fwd models of anything if there is an awd option available.  I looked at a large dealer chains inventory and there are only 730 fwd suv’s versus over 2500 awd suv’s. 67 awd Tuscons and 0 fwd. 190 awd Escapes and 15 fwd.  185 awd rogues and 0 fwd.

Jb boin > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 21:19

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KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > AkursedX 05/28/2020 at 21:39

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I read about it- I nteresting that they don’t offer the 1.6T with this. Hyundai puts that engine in every single vehicle.

AkursedX > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 05/29/2020 at 00:29

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It used to be offered with the 1.6 turbo.  I read something in a JD Power article I think that they dropped it because of complaints about the DSG transmission that the 1.6 is usually connected to but I didn’t bother to research it any further.

TheRealBicycleBuck > AkursedX 05/29/2020 at 09:23

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Seems appropriate....

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > AkursedX 05/29/2020 at 12:49

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Very nice, sounds like you got an amazing deal too. With how nice their cars are now and that amazing warranty it’s pretty hard to pass up if you intent to keep your cars a while (assuming you have a local dealer that is pleasant enough to deal with). Now for my next trick I will try talking my wife out of only wanting to drive Subarus :) 

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > AkursedX 05/29/2020 at 15:24

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We have the 1.6t and 7spd DCT (2nd generation version of the trans ) in our Kona Limited AWD, and it’s a pretty good driveline package. I know the DCTs had s ome early issues with programming and clutch actuators, but the one in ours has been perfectly solid for the 40K miles that are on it now... not a single hicup. Maybe the extra weight of the larger Tucson is a problem for the transmission? Or maybe they just figured that the Tuscon was too much a bread-and-butter profit machine for them to risk anyone avoiding buying it bec au se of transmission history... I mean the Kona has been a good seller for them too (and as the owner of one, I understand why), but maybe they figured it’s a new platform and model and the stigma of the issues with the 1st generation DCT in the Tucson wouldn’t impact it as much... who knows? In the Kona the 1.6t makes ~ 175HP and ~190ft/lb, so it’s al most exactly the same output as the 2.4 n/a engine. The Kona’s EPA numbers are 26/29 for the AWD model, which is only 1mpg off the n/a 2.0 AWD model... We typically see 33-35 in our mostly rural secondary driving, and if we get a favorable trip destination we can get low 40's for ~100+ mile st ints. I guess the Tucson is quite a bit taller and just about 600lbs heavier... so the economy difference is plausible.