Hyundai works over Tucson

Hyundai has upgraded its mini all-wheel drive, the Tucson V6 in the search of better fuel economy.

Aimed at the likes of Honda’s CRV and the Nissan X-trail, the Tucson has performed well in the local marketplace but is powered by a six-cyliner engine – two more than the staus quo. With the spotlight of fuel costs, the company has moved to temper the compact SUV’s thirst.

The main change is a higher final drive ratio. The numerically lower 4.042:1 final drive (diff) ratio – down from 4.407:1 -- effectively lowers engine revs at any set road speed.

Hyundai says this, along with software changes programmed to induce earlier lockup (from 50kph) on the Tucson’s automatic gearbox’s torque converter, improves the Tucson V6’s ADR 81/01 fuel economy rating from 11.0 to 10.9lt/100km.

Though this scant 0.1lt/100km improvement doesn’t seem worth the while, tellingly, Hyundai says the changes make it easier for most drivers to achieve figures closer to those published.

When CarPoint tested the Tucson back in October 2004, we wrote: “Picky types would say four-speed auto could do with an extra cog… There's no big gaps around town or on the open road, however economy is not a high point at 12-13lt/100km.”

As part of the update, the Tucson V6 also picks up features from with the recently-launched Tucson City 2WD variant – new fabrics, soft-touch dash and door trim elements, higher quality roof headlining, a retractable security blind covering the cargo area and other amenity upgrades.

The audio system is also improved says Hyundai and exterior elements such as alloy wheels have come in for review.

The upgraded Tucson V6 AWD starts at $30,990 with the Elite and Elite S models priced at $33,990 and $34,490 respectively.