Hyundai Tucson

The Tucson has been a long standing nameplate for Hyundai in India The first generation of the SUV was launched back in 2004, while the current fourth-generation model made its Indian market launch in mid-2022. The Tucson sits in a relatively niche segment and rivals the likes of the Jeep Compass and Citroen C5 Aircross.

Now, Hyundai has already come out with a mild facelift of this model, which is yet to make its way to our shores. So does the existing Tucson offer enough for you to buy a nearly Rs 40 lakh Hyundai? Or would you be better off considering its rivals?

This might not be the latest design that the Hyundai Tucson sports globally, but it still looks very similar. One thing’s for sure that it looks like nothing else on the road and you won’t mistake it for anything else. 

Up front, the Hyundai Tucson looks aggressive, muscular and in your face, thanks to the large dark chrome grille which looks unique. The grille dominates most of the face and merges seamlessly into the LED DRLs. The LED headlamps are placed low in the bumper, which negates the need for any front fog lamps. 

The design looks purposeful in profile and the positive rake makes it feel like the nose is pointing downwards. It gets a strong crease line and aggressive side contours too. Some satin chrome touches add a bit of contrast along with the 18-inch alloy wheels, which look sporty.

There’s a lot of wow factor in the Tucson’s rear design. The way Hyundai has executed the connected LED tail lights with their detailed teeth-like design, the treatment looks immediately unique and stands out from the rest. The roof mounted spoiler, shark fin antenna and texture on the bumper round off the design.

Hyundai offers the 2025 Tucson with five monotone colour options in India: Amazon Grey, Starry Night, Atlas White, Abyss Black and Fiery Red. The Atlas White and Fiery Red shades are available with a dual tone Abyss Black roof too.

Overall, the Tucson is not just an SUV, but a style statement. It has an unmistakable presence on the road and is really hard to miss. 

Design and Quality 

Compared to the outlandish exterior, the interior of the Hyundai Tucson looks sober and classy. The wrap-around cabin makes you feel like you’re sitting in a cockpit, and while the overall design looks clean, it is only the central console below the infotainment system that looks a little busy with various touch-sensitive controls.

What will impress you the most is the quality and layout of the cabin. There are soft touch materials all-around on the dashboard and doors and subtle touches like the finish of the stalks and the metallic trim on the seat really help the cabin feel upmarket. There are absolutely no issues in terms of fit or finish.

Front Seats

The Hyundai Tucson offers easy ingress and egress. Once inside, you get a clear view of the outside. The front seats feel comfortable for both short and long journeys with good amounts of support all around. You can even adjust the lumbar support on offer, which adds to the comfort, especially for people who have trouble with their backs. There’s enough space for tall passengers to get comfortable as well. The front armrest is wide and big, so you won’t have to elbow fight with your passenger for space.

With tilt and telescopic steering wheel adjustment, and 10-way powered driver seat adjustment, finding a comfortable driving position is easy for everyone. The Tucson even gets a memory function for the driver seat, so you don’t have to worry about finding your ideal position after someone else has been driving the car.

Rear Seats

More than the front seats, you are more likely to spend time in the back seat of the Hyundai Tucson, and it does not disappoint.

In terms of space, there is plenty of leg, knee and headroom on offer - enough to seat a 6ft+ person in comfort. There’s good back and underthigh support as well. Furthermore, you get the ‘Boss’ mode front passenger seat controls with which you can open up more space if there’s nobody sitting in the front. With recline in the rear seat back rest, you can truly sit back and lounge in the Hyundai Tucson. There’s enough room to accommodate three people at the back as well.

For amenities, there’s a central armrest, three adjustable headrests and rear AC vents too. The only thing missing is rear sun blinds, which should’ve been offered considering cars like the Hyundai Creta and Alcazar get it.

Storage and Practicality

The Hyundai Tucson gets pockets in all four doors, enough for 1-litre bottles and some snacks. 

The central console gets a wireless charging pad which can double up as an open storage spot for your keys, wallet or earphone case. Behind it are two cupholders, behind which, you get decent storage underneath the armrest. The glovebox isn’t cooled, but offers acceptable storage space. 

Rear passengers get seat back pockets behind both the seats and two cupholders in the central armrest.

Charging Options

The Hyundai Tucson offers ample charging options for a family of five. There are two USB type-A ports at the front, along with a 12V socket and wireless phone charger. The rear occupants get two type-C charging ports.

Features 

The Hyundai Tucson’s features list is good. 

Both the 10.25-inch digital displays have excellent resolution. The main touchscreen is easy to use with clear graphics for different menus. Response time is good and it works lag free. The only miss is that it doesn’t get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, which should be offered at this price.

As for the driver’s display, it gets crisp graphics and various drive-mode dependent themes. It relays information in an easy-to-consume manner, and switching information via the screen mounted buttons doesn’t require any getting used to. It also gets the blind view monitor, which relays the camera feed of the side where you indicate. Comes in pretty handy while making a maneuver on those tight and chaotic turn signals.

The 8-speaker Bose sound system offers a premium experience with punchy bass and crispness at higher volumes. Features like ventilated seats and dual zone climate control work as they should, but I wish Hyundai offered physical controls for these features. They don’t have any haptic feedback and you have to take your eyes off the road to operate them, which isn’t convenient at all.

All the safety features, save for autonomous driving assistance features (ADAS) are offered as standard in the 2025 Hyundai Tucson. 

The ADAS kit is a level-2 system, which gets features like forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind spot collision avoidance assist, rear cross-traffic collision assist, lane-keep assist, driver attention warning and high beam assist. 

In my experience, these features work rather well given the road conditions in India. The collision avoidance system, though, can seem hyper-reactive at times, so you have to be mindful of that especially in crowded areas. The Hyundai Tucson also has a 5-star Euro NCAP and Bharat NCAP crash test safety rating.

Hyundai claims a boot space of 500-litres with the Tucson. It will easily accommodate weekends’ worth of luggage for a family, including a large, medium and small suitcase. 

Loading and unloading is easy too as the boot lip is not too high. The seats also fold (60:40 split) with a pull of a lever to open a flat floor, so larger items can also slide in easily. 

The 2025 Hyundai Tucson is powered by 2-litre, naturally aspirated, petrol and diesel engines. There is no manual on offer. The diesel engine also offers an optional all-wheel drivetrain.

2-litre NA petrol

The petrol engine of the Hyundai Tucson is best suited to relaxed driving styles. It offers a refined experience with acceptable performance.

City Performance

The petrol engine of the Hyundai Tucson feels easy to drive in the city. Its acceleration is smooth and linear, and overall performance is enough for all city runabouts and overtakes. The 6-speed automatic transmission keeps you in the right gear and offers a jerk-free experience in the city.

You can expect a fuel efficiency of around 7-9kmpl in the city.

Highway Performance

While the petrol Tucson is happy to cruise at triple digit speeds, it lacks the performance you would need for quick overtakes. It builds up speed slowly beyond 80kmph, and if there is a full load in the car, that acceleration tapers down even further.

You will have to push the engine hard and plan your overtakes on the highway. Here, the 6-speed AT can feel a bit lazy to downshift at times when you ask for a quick overtake while cruising. But you can put the car into Sport mode to help keep the transmission on its toes for quicker shifts and holding onto higher RPMs for quick overtakes. There are no paddle shifters, but you can control gears manually using the gear lever itself.

On the highway, the Tucson petrol will give you an efficiency of around 10-12kmpl.

2-litre diesel

The diesel engine is our pick for the Tucson as it manages to offer, not just better performance, but also efficiency. The refinement levels are acceptable for a diesel engine. All-wheel drivetrain option is available with this engine only.

City Performance

There are no issues with driving the Tucson diesel in the city. The car picks up speeds from really low RPMs with ease, feels smooth in bumper to bumper traffic and has more than enough fizz for an overtake.The 8-speed gearbox always manages to find the right gear for most situations and makes the drive in the city smooth.

You can expect a good fuel efficiency of around 13-15kmpl in the city.

Highway Performance

The diesel Tucson is perfect for covering long distances with ease. With more power and significantly more torque than the petrol engine, the diesel Tucson is more fun to drive. 

The performance packs a punchy mid-range, which means reaching triple digit speeds, or making an overtake, irrespective of your speed, is super easy. The 8-speed automatic transmission is also quick to both upshift and downshift. It has a tall eighth gear, which allows the SUV to cruise calmly once you’ve reached the speed you want to stick to. 

If driven sensibly, the Hyundai Tucson will give you a fuel efficiency of around 17-18kmpl on the highway. The efficiency will be slightly less with the all-wheel drivetrain.

Ride Quality

The Hyundai Tucson’s suspension has been set up to offer a comfort ride, rather than offer a sporty and dynamic SUV. At low speeds, small- to medium-sized bumps are taken really well and the movement inside is minimal. 

It's only over hard-edged potholes where the suspension tends to run out of travel, and bottom out sometimes, but the impact is still well-padded. At highway high speeds, the car feels planted and gives you confidence to carry speeds. If I had to nitpick, I would want the car to settle back more quickly after going over an undulation at higher speeds, as that tends to cause vertical movement for the rear passengers. Otherwise, the ride quality is hard to find fault.

Handling

The handling of the Hyundai Tucson might not match its striking exterior, but that’s from an enthusiast point of view. From a regular family or chauffeur driven SUV perspective, the Tucson feels tight, safe and predictable around corners. 

It isn’t as poised as a Jeep Compass, and the steering rack feels a little slow off-centre, but offers decent feedback around corners. A point to note is that the petrol Tucson is slightly easier to drive in the city with its lighter steering weight compared to the diesel. Being lighter of the two, the petrol Tucson also feels more willing to change direction. 

But if you find yourself in a tricky low-grip situation, or in general drive around areas with a lot of muck or snow that corresponds to lower grip, the optional all-wheel drive system of the diesel will offer more control with its grip and traction.a

The 2025 Hyundai Tucson is available in two variants: Platinum and Signature. While both the petrol and diesel engines are available with both the variants, the all-wheel drivetrain is only available with the top-spec Signature trim.

Tucson Platinum

• Looks exactly like the top trim with full LED lighting setup, 18-inch alloys and chrome inserts.

• Cabin gets dual tone black and grey interior theme with leatherette upholstery, and leatherette inserts around the steering wheel, transmission knob and door and central armrest.

• Packs all the functional features and few feel-good features like voice-enabled panoramic sunroof, dual zone climate control, 10-way powered driver’s seat, auto headlights, outside mirrors, and inside rear view mirror, and keyless entry with push button start/stop.

• Features dual 10.25-inch digital screens for the infotainment and driver’s display with connected car technology. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are wired and there’s also an 8-speaker BOSE sound system.

• Save for ADAS, all safety features like 6 airbags, ABS with EBD, electronic stability control (ESC), rain sensing wipers, ISOFIX mounts, and hill-start assist are offered as standard fitments. It also gets blind spot monitor and 360-degree camera.

Tucson Signature

• No visual exterior or interior differences.

• Multi-terrain modes (snow, mud, sand) are exclusive to the all-wheel drive diesel variant.

• Top additions include front heated and ventilated seats, 8-way powered front passenger seat, powered tailgate, and memory function for the driver.

• Main addition is Level-2 ADAS features, including lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking.

CarDekho Recommends:

• The base variant might miss out on a few feel-good features, but still packs everything you would need. If all you wanted was a premium mid-size SUV around Rs 30 lakh, then you can opt for the Platinum variant.

• Signature offers more features and creature comforts, but the main reason to pick it would be for the all-wheel drive diesel drivetrain.

If you want a car to upgrade from a compact SUV, want it to be more swanky, premium, safe and comfortable, then the Hyundai Tucson is a good option. India might not have the latest version of the Tucson, but the existing model is still a very good family SUV with no real compromise. Only if it was more fun to drive, then the Tucson would be a car that you wouldn’t just want to be chauffeured in but also enjoy a lot more driving yourself.

Other Cars To Consider Instead Of Hyundai Tucson

Jeep Compass

Reasons to consider

• Feels and looks more rugged

• Handles better

• Has a much lower starting price point

Reasons to ignore

• Diesel engine isn’t as refined or powerful

• No petrol option

• Rear seat space is limited

Citroen C5 Aircross

Reasons to consider

• Better ride comfort

Reasons to ignore

• Much more expensive

• Misses must-haves like ventilated front seats and a 360-degree camera

• No petrol engine or 4x4 option