Nice, But Could Be Better
I was going to buy a Kia Sportage for a few reasons: while a sister to the Tucson, it actually gets a bit better gas mileage (probably due to aerodynamics); I like some exterior visuals more in the Sportage; it's definitely more cost effective; and you can get RPSA 2 (that does parallel parking) as an option that is not available on the Tucson. But with the 2025 redesign, I liked the interior of the Tucson much more, so I decided to spend the extra money.
I must say that Hyundai did a lot a things right, and so many things almost right that could have made it my perfect vehicle (things like turning on the vent fans immediately after you turn on the car before waiting for things to heat up a bit, an auto air recirculator that closes the external vents when using the window washer but still lets a crazy amount of smelly air in, not having a button to retract the side mirrors - something available in Europe but not the U.S., etc.). And, surprisingly, I get horrible highway gas mileage (nowhere near the stated 35 MPG average), likely because their gasoline engine, while reasonably powerful, is a real gas guzzler (which is surprising, because the Nissan Rogue, as an example, only has a smaller 3 cylinder engine that gets as good gas mileage on the highway with decent power and no hybridization to help out). Even their phone app, which is nicely featured, has some quirks that make it less than useful (I'll discount the fact that the way things are organized isn't fully intuitive - that's probably just me - but when I try to do things like use remote surround view, it often fails even in metro areas like Denver and Seattle, and it can literally take hours to get phone notification that I left my car unlocked).
But the worse part about this vehicle is its reliability. Twice the whole car shut down while driving (leaving no diagnostic codes but not a lot of fun when driving on the freeway). Interior trim pieces are already warping despite always being parked in the garage (as examples, on the lower dash and also the trim around the head up display - with the same thing happening to my daughter's Tucson, who I talked into buying after I purchased mine). After only 800 miles the top coat on the lower back of both white leather front seats has failed (a possible design defect because my replacement seats did the same thing, as did my daughter's Tucson), While driving, the dash will convert to Korean for no reason (despite the setup saying it's still in English - you have to change the language to, say, Spanish, then back to English to fix it - but I understand even their premier Genesis models sometimes do the same thing, so it appears to be a common software platform bug). And there are several other smaller things I won't bother to detail here.
Service is lacking both locally and on a corporate level. I pre-ordered my Tucson when it was first available, but when it arrived there were strikes going on, so it was unloaded and put at the back end of their storage site. More and more cars came into port and were parked in front of mine. When things did open up, I waited weeks while all the later arrivals parked in front of mine were cleared out (with the same configurations being shipped to dealerships in several states that hadn't even ordered them). When I called Hyundai to try to get something figured out, they refused to talk with me because I hadn't yet actually taken possession of the vehicle (how ironic is that?). I ended up canceling the order and buying a different one that was randomly shipped to a nearby dealer instead. And when Hyundai moved Lane Change Assist was taken off the settings menu so it couldn't be separately disabled, they didn't even let the dealers know (two dealers in the area, like myself, though it was eliminated as a feature), and when I called the Hyundai support line to ask about it, they had no clue either (I later found, quite by accident, that it is still part of the Highway Driving Assist, just not a separate menu item anymore). Again, I could list other examples, but hopefully these convey my point.
Our local dealership isn't much better. When things like the car shutting down happen, to get it on record, I have to take it into the dealership for a scheduled visit. It should only require seconds to read the diagnostic port and see that no codes are present, but it literally takes over five hours with me waiting to have that done (despite having made an appointment at a specific time). Similarly, oil changes take several hours despite scheduled appointment times, and the service technicians in many cases seem to know less about how the car works than I do. That said, I started taking the vehicle to a dealer two cities away, and they are much better, but there are still inexcusable issues (like the headlights came adjusted clearly too low, but Hyundai doesn't offer an alignment grid or any other quantitative way to adjust the headlights, so I have to let the dealer try, drive it at night, then take it back to try again until we got it right).
So my feelings about my Tucson are decidedly mixed. It is a pleasant vehicle to drive, and at least around the city gets good gas mileage. It's comfortable and its interior layout is one of the best in its class. Performance is more than acceptable and the driving assistance features, while not the best on the market, are definitely helpful. But reliability is not there, and support is among the worst of any car brand I've ever bought. As a consequence, I'm not sure I'll buy another Hyundai (or Kia) in the future.
Verified Owner
