The Hyundai Tucson is a great value!

This review is for the 2005 Hyundai Tucson GLS V6 4WD. My options were the 4WD, moonroof, and upgraded stereo.
I’ve been wanting an SUV, but nothing big that guzzles gas. The only small SUVs previously were the likes of the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CRV. Unfortunately, both are only offered with 4 cylinders and feel woefully underpowered. I liked the size, but didn’t want to give up the horsepower. The Hyundai Tucson is an excellent compromise. The Hyundai is offered with an inexpensive V6 that has more power and torque than the 4 cylinder competitors.

After driving nothing but Hondas and Acuras for the past twenty some years, I am accustomed to quality. A year ago, I would have never imagined myself buying a Hyundai, but their initial quality ratings now rank them near the top with Honda and Toyota. Plus, the Hyundai is such a great bargain with the standard features. The drive train consists offers 4 wheel disc antilock brakes, traction control, electronic brake distribution, 16” alloy wheels, shiftronic transmission, and twin chrome exhausts. Other standard features include side and roof airbags, mp3 stereo, fold flat passenger and rear seats, heated mirrors and wiper rests, remote/keyless entry, cargo mat and net, etc. Add to this the incredible 10 yr/100,000 mile drive train warranty, and no other vehicle comes close to this value for the price. In fact, I am a person who prefers cloth seats over leather, and Honda doesn’t offer ANY of it’s vehicles with a simple combination of V6, cloth seats, and a moonroof. If you want a Honda V6 with a moonroof, you must also get the luxo boat version with leather interior and inflated price. That same holds true for all Honda car and SUV lines. It’s a serious hole in Honda marketing.

I was a bit concerned at first whether the Tucson would be too small or underpowered, but am happy to report that I am not disappointed. It is very roomy inside, both front and rear seats, and the power is adequate. My previous car had 240 hp (a 2003 Honda Accord V6), so I wouldn’t mind a few extra horsepower in the Tucson, but for the money and category of vehicle, I am not disappointed. The Tucson appears small on the outside, but is quite roomy inside. At 6’ 2” tall, and with family members even taller, interior space was a big concern, and again, I’m not disappointed.

Overall, the Tucson rides and handles very smoothly. Acceleration is brisk and the brakes are excellent. Body integrity is very good with a very tight and quiet interior, even at highway speeds. After being accustomed to driving Hondas and Acuras, this Hyundai is at least as quiet and solid as any I’ve driven.

I have read complaints online regarding the Tucson’s fuel mileage, but I haven’t had a problem. My V6 4WD Tucson is rated by the EPA at 19/24. The lowest mileage I’ve recorded is 18.5 mpg during the first few tank fulls. The best has been 23.5 mpg, which I have acheived on multiple occasions. I average between 21 and 22 mpg, and so fall very close to the EPA rating. That is using 87 octane fuel and typically driving about 75% highway miles. The warm weather seems to greatly improve fuel efficiency. I’ve tried different octanes of fuel and notice no difference in fuel efficiency or power. With 5,600 miles on the odometer, it appears the fuel efficiency and the horsepower are continuously improving.

Some things I don’t like... The tiny console and tray under the center armrest. The tray is too short to hold a checkbook, and to shallow to hold a wallet. An extra 1/2 inch in both dimensions would have greatly improved the utility here. Also the sun glass holder in the headliner is too shallow to hold sun glasses. I would also like a few electronic niceties such as homelink, rear view mirror with outdoor temp and compass, and a trip computer. The Tucsons in other countries (non US) are surprisingly offered with the trip computer. Another oddity is the fan control switch which controls the fan speed, but not the on/off. The fan on/off is located on the vent control switch! The vent control switch should be a set and forget type of switch, but to adjust the heat and a/c, one must dork with multiple knobs. Again, the foreign (non US) Tucsons (or at least the Canadian), have different, and what I consider to be correct control knobs, with the fan on/off and speed controlled by the same switch.

Another problem is the center shifter console. It is too close to the driver's right leg and takes up too much valuable driver space. Two friends that sat in my Tucson noticed the same problem.

The color selection is lacking, as Hyundai hasn’t offered any vibrant sporty colors. Basically, you can have any color you want, as long as it’s silver or black. The colors I do like such as the red or gold are very scarce. The green is a minty color reminiscent of my father’s Buicks.

The initial Hyundai web site experience was a bit disappointing with their pathetic Tucson website. Other countries have great Tucson websites with photo galleries and such, but the US website is seriously lacking. A big no no considering the demographic of folks who will be shopping for and buying this vehicle. Another problem was simply trying to locate the color combination I wanted with AWD. The Hyundai website has no way to search for a vehicle, but only for finding dealers within specific zip codes. Most of the dealers have pathetic web sites which are not kept up to date with inventory. A call to corporate Hyundai yielded no better results as they have no idea what dealers have what stock. Amazing that a car manufacturer has no clue where it’s unsold cars are! A Hyundai corporate vehicle search tool would relieve the dealerships of the overhead expense of maintaining their own convoluted attempts at online inventory. The benefit to buyers would be the ability to easily find the car they want. I knew exactly what I wanted and was willing to travel across country to get it. I finally got lucky by finding my Hyundai at a dealer in Ohio, even though I live in Texas. This was after weeks of searching and phone calls.

The dealership experience was excellent with no high pressure sales pitches. I am accustomed to the Honda/Acura dealerships which have become quite prissy and over priced. For instance, a spoiler for my 2003 Accord was $400. A spoiler for the Tucson is $170. I got the Hyundai out the door for about $22,500 including all fees except taxes. This was about $1,000 under sticker even though Hyundai isn’t offering many incentives.

Overall, I highly recommend this vehicle. A basic V6 can be had for less than $20,000 if the dealer is flexible. Simply no other vehicle offers such quality, utility, and standard features for the money.