Hyundai Tucson review

The interior may lack the wow factor of the exterior, but you’ll be thankful. Else the climate controls would be hidden somewhere within the air vents and the steering wheel would be some sort of hendecagon. 

Hyundai’s not been slacking though and what you see is, apparently, inspired by waterfalls. Jolly nice it is too, a 10in screen sitting flush with a gloss black dashboard and a nice mix of physical and touchscreen controls. 

Are there buttons for the aircon?

Sadly the climate controls aren’t buttons (booo) but they are fixed and not hidden distractingly within a sub-menu (hurrah).

That screen’s connected into the ether in ways our brain isn’t yet ready to comprehend: among its dizzying array of features is that any remaining satnav instructions will link to your phone, should you have to park a mile away from your destination and find your way on foot.

On the flipside – in terms of actual usefulness – is the ambient noise feature. Not in the mood for music or a podcast? You’ve a choice of a roaring fire, a bustling jungle, feet crunching through fresh snow or a busy café. Not included is the sound of quiet children.

Are the instrument dials digital too?

The dials have been replaced by a rectangular 10in display (with digitally recreated dials, of course) and have lots of neat customisation tricks as well as Hyundai/Kia’s nifty blind spot system, which we’re big fans of. 

Cameras underneath the wing mirrors flick on when you use the indicators to give you a glimpse up the side of the car where you might not be able to see to ensure the coast is clear before you commit to the move. It’s surprisingly useful, though useless in wet weather. 

What about the rest of the car?

There’s a decent amount of space inside the Hyundai – cubby holes aplenty, ready to swallow all of your various devices, while the Tucson is longer and wider than ever, with the rear passengers having gained 26mm of extra legroom over the previous car in the process.

In fact, those in the back have really been thought about deeply. The rear seats split 40/20/40, allowing more options for opening up bootspace – which varies between around 600 and 1,800 litres depending on which you’ve folded – while there are heated seats front and rear, three-zone climate control and a ‘sleep mode’ to easily separate front and rear audio when it’s nap time for whoever is sitting in the back. There’s tonnes of room back there, in fact, and plentiful USB ports – this decade’s most valuable in-car currency.