1 year and 20,000 kms with my Hyundai Tucson GLS diesel AT

Really love driving. The car is so smooth and quiet. Five people can be seated in comfort with good leg space. Minor humps and undulations are not felt much. This is a very good family tourer. I like the high seat position, it lets me sit straight and reduces back pain.

BHPian QuadraticAmoeba recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi all, posting an update after a long time. Life has been busy with work and lots and lots of weekend drives.

20,000 km and one year up! The car has just been a joy to drive.

Thoughts and ramblings after a year of ownership; no particular order to these:

• Really love driving. The car is so smooth and quiet. Five people can be seated in comfort with good leg space. Minor humps and undulations are not felt much. This is a very good family tourer. I like the high seat position, it lets me sit straight and reduces back pain.
• Music system is very good. Note I am far from an audiophile and don't like high volume or loud music. The integration with Apple CarPlay makes it simple to setup playlists and listen to your favourite music. The radio is clear, although I haven't had much chance to listen to my preferred 100.1 MHz FM station.
• The hard stitch in the steering wheel is still annoying, my thumbs have become used to it. Luckily, no grooves in my thumbs yet.
• The sunroof is really a moonroof since it is almost never opened. We do like it - early morning and night drives plus Bangalore weather most of the year. During summer, the cover gets closed really fast by the rear seat passengers.
• The TPMS works and is very useful. One nit pick is that you have to drive for a bit for it to display the pressure. This is not ideal when you want to check things before a long drive. Luckily, I have a portable tyre inflator and I use it to top up the air once in a couple of weeks.
• Fuel tank capacity is good, I get 800+ km on a tankful of diesel. To date, I have filled an estimated 1450 litres of fuel, with an approximate mileage of 14.2 kmpl. This is with about 80% highway and 20% city driving. There was a good amount of ghat section driving, so overall the mileage is pretty decent.
• As time goes on, the car is filled with lots of small stuff - water bottles, sanitizer, cables, tissue paper, spare masks, change, etc. Now there are rattles when I drive on bad roads but I can't be sure that they are due to the items and not the car. Oh well, just focus on the music. Smooth roads have no rattles.
• The horn is too far away from my hands. I have to take a hand off the steering wheel and hit it hard. I wish they put a button on the steering wheel for the horn.
• The powered tailgate is cool and amazing, but I am scared of all the security checks and their tendency to try and slam the boot. I always rush out of the car and make sure the security guy stays away from the boot.
• The pickup is phenomenal. I am a conservative driver and rarely push the car. Even so, on two-lane undivided highways, if you want to overtake - all you do is touch the accelerator and the car races forward. In sport mode, there is pretty much no lag in response time either.
• The brakes work fine, but they are definitely spongy without a defined bite point. If you are coming from a Linea or a Jetta (two other cars I have driven), it feels very different. I am used to it by now.
• Those speed limit beeps are annoying. The best method I have found to deal with the 120 kmph continuous beep is to drive at 100 or so. Peaceful and quiet!
• The boot space is pretty good - I have done airport runs with two check in suitcases, two cabin bags and other small bags. The lack of a loading lip is very useful to load and unload the luggage. The one grouse would be that there are no tethers or hooks for bags - they can move or roll around.
• I have driven a lot in the ghats, at night and in the rain. The headlights are good and the cornering lamps help with the twisty turns in the ghats. Yellow lights would be even better in the fog but these are good enough.

Car updates since my last post:

• Friend and fellow T-BHPian @mohanKV, after driving my car, suggested that I get rid of the cheap OEM Nexen tyres. On his recommendation, I upgraded to Pirelli Scorpion Verde tyres (225/55 R18). It has made such a difference to the car that I would recommend all Tucson owners to go for this. Tyre noise has reduced, small potholes or flyover joints are just sailed through, wet handling is much better and ghat section curves give much more confidence. I am very happy with this purchase and only wished that I had done this earlier. Hyundai, if you are listening - make these as the default tyres please! The steering has become a bit stiffer even in regular mode, which is a good thing.

• Got the third service done at about 19.5k or so. This time, I was too busy to go myself and opted for the pick-up and drop on the same day. As per my service advisor: all four filters were changed, engine oil was changed and there was some scanning done related to checking the fuse update a couple of months earlier. I had asked them to not clean the car (they do a waterless wash) since I have PPF/ceramic coating done. The service went smoothly, replaced parts were in the boot and I was charged nothing! Typical Hyundai efficiency.
• Wheel alignment and balancing at Madhus along with the change in tyres (which were sourced from Madhus itself). We also got the steering angle sensor calibrated.
• A long scratch on the side and a small dent on the bonnet. Thanks to the PPF, these became much smaller than they could have been. Got them fixed at Krithi Car Care and it looks like new now. Also got KCC to bleed the brakes and clean them. Braking is still spongy but it works fine.
• Changed the front windshield wipers (Minda, whatever was available on an outstation trip) and got the windshield clayed. The rear windshield wiper needs to be changed but Hyundai does not have the part in stock.
• DEF top-up (10L) at 15,000km. This is available at Shell outlets also now. Compared to the first 10k km done, I reached a 30% DEF tank level in lesser kilometres driven. I guess this is due to more city driving now that the lockdown has gone away.
• Renewed my insurance. Got a good deal from Tata AIG, so went with that.
• Unable to get a PUC (pollution test certificate). Tried a couple of centres and they said that they are not calibrated for BS6. Anyone in Bangalore (East preferred) who has got this done and can point me to a centre?

Lots of lots of driving over the weekends:

• Trips to Chikmaglur, Kalasa and Kelagur.
• Trips to Davanagere for Benne Dosa.
• Trips to Birur and Chitradurga for food (Preeti Canteen and Sri Lakshmi Tiffin Centre).

That's all for now. Signing off with some pictures:

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.