The
Hyundai Tucson is a compact SUV designed to compete with the
Toyota RAV4 and
Honda CR-V and for the most part it succeeds. The Tucson comes standard with a comprehensive list of active and passive safety features, including six airbags and electronic stability control. It's aggressively priced and it comes with Hyundai's five-year/60,000-mile warranty.
We found the Tucson to be comfortable around town and on the highway, with light steering, adequate power from the available V6 engine, and a smooth four-speed automatic. The interior is nice, it doesn't look cheap, and the controls are easy to operate with big knobs. It's easy to get in and out of the front and back seats, the rear seatbacks flip down easily, and there's a decent amount of cargo space available.
We actually preferred the ride and handling of the four-wheel-drive models, even on dry pavement. On wet pavement, the 4WD models don't spin their front tires the way the front-drive models do when accelerating from a stop. In the snow, they benefit from an all-wheel drive system that directs power to the rear wheels as road conditions change. A switch allows the drive r to lock in a 50/50 torque split when creeping through drifting snow. Though not intended to be a highly capable off-road vehicle, the Tucson can certainly manage rocky, dirt two-tracks and other light off-highway duties.