Hyundai Tucson Active X 2018 Review

For the 2019 model year, the Hyundai Tucson range has been updated to include a turbo-diesel engine with eight-speed automatic transmission and a new safety pack that makes advanced safety features available on lower price Hyundai Tucson Go and Active X variants.

I have to admit that I went into this review with a preconceived notion of what I was going to be driving. Having never been behind the wheel of a Hyundai Tucson, my idea of what I was going to get was blurred by driving older and smaller Hyundais of previous generations.

I was expecting power and torque delivered high in the rev range with a fussy eight-speed gearbox continually hunting for the right gear. I was expecting a cramped cabin with second-rate fit and finish. And I was expecting low-tech and a similarly low specification level.

What I got was something completely different – and a pleasant surprise.

The Hyundai Tucson, especially with the new SmartSense safety pack, is a thoroughly modern, well put together, comfortable vehicle that I could quite easily live with.

Coming out of a Triton ute, I picked up the Tucson from the carsales office and my first experience with an inner-city speed bump had me impressed.

Hyundai says that it has tuned the new 2019 Tucson’s suspension in Australia specifically for local driving conditions.

The development, we’re told, was a joint effort by the Hyundai Australia Chassis Development and Product Planning teams, with an engineer from damper supplier ZF SACHS.

During the development program the tuning team says they evaluated 14 front and 35 rear damper builds, over thousands of kilometres on a variety of surfaces, from country roads to freeways and corrugated dirt roads.

I usually take these claims with a few grains of salt, as I did on this occasion when I was told of the suspension development. But the results speak for themselves. This SUV has a remarkably good suspension setup and forms the basis of my liking of the vehicle.

The suspension handled everything we did remarkably well. From the freeways to the secondary roads, to some very patchy rural roads, the Tucson proved comfortable and smooth.

Handling was good too. The steering is pretty precise, although just a tad heavy, it points well and doesn’t wallow through corners. It really feels well planted on the road and solid.

Over the week I had it, I used it for my daily commute of 100km round-trip, a weekend trip of some 300km and general running around with partner and grandkid. Fitting of child seats is a breeze with three easily-accessed mounting points across the rear seat.

There’s plenty of room in the back too for luggage, prams and all the stuff necessary for a day trip or even a weekend away.

The Tucson on test was powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that puts out 136kW at 4000rpm but more importantly, its makes an impressive 400Nm between 1750-2750rpm which is fairly low in the rev range. This means that you don’t need to flog the engine to get it up to cruising speed, and it will maintain that speed at low revs.

It’s a quiet motor that one of my fairly knowledgeable passengers asking me if it was a petrol or diesel. Drive is through an active on-demand four-wheel drive system with 50:50 front and rear lock mode.

The new eight-speed automatic (previously six-speed) works well with the diesel. It changes smoothly and doesn’t hunt for gears on hills.

The low-down grunt should mean it will lend itself to a bit of light towing as well. The maximum recommended towing weight is 1600kg with a ball weight of 140kg so it’ll happily pull a jetski, small boat or campervan.

Over the period of the test, admittedly with a lot of freeway work, we returned an economy figure of 6.7L/100km which is damn good for a mid-size SUV.
Inside, the Tucson is a nice place to be. It now gets leather seats which don’t have electric adjustment in this spec, but they are cosy and with the steering column adjustable for reach and tilt it’s easy to get comfortable.

The Active X is quite up there with tech as well with Hyundai recently announcing a new software update that enables the compatibility of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay across a range of models including the Tucson.

One thing that did bother me was the high-mount brake light at night. It reflects in the rear window as well as off the rear wiper and the sills and presents a real distraction for the driver. It’s a small gripe, I’m sure that if I owned one, I’d have to do something about it.

The view from the driver’s seat is pretty good although I wasn’t wrapped in the wing mirrors which don’t give enough view due to their semi-elliptical shape. I did, however, appreciate the switchable blind-spot warning which comes as part of the SmartSense safety pack.

The SmartSense pack also includes the radar cruise control with stop-go feature which is a beauty. Once I got used to it, I found I could use it in peak-hour traffic and didn’t have to use the accelerator or brake at all – very impressive. There’s also switchable lane-departure warning, AEB in the form of Hyundai’s Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, auto dipping lights and more.

It’s a great package and for $2200 I reckon it’s well worth it, if not just for the radar cruise control.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Tucson Active X. It is a roomy, comfortable and quite powerful SUV. I got a bit of sticker shock when I saw that it came in over $40K with the SmartSense pack, but after a week living with, I think it’s probably worth it given the generous unlimited kilometre five-year warranty and capped-price servicing.

2018 Hyundai Tucson Active X pricing and specifications:
Price: $39,150 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 136kW/400Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.4/100km (ADR Combined), 6.7L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 168g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP (2015)