Feb 02, 2007 10:25 PM
15966 Views
(Updated Dec 15, 2009 06:43 PM)
Updated: 14-Dec-2009
My Tucson continues to be delivering a steady 10+ KMPL at an average. It has run 39800 Kms and still feels good. The long drives are a pleasure while the dense city traffic can be a bloody pain(literally on your left leg knee cap!) handling the clutch. Annual maintenance has been just about changing the oil and wheel balancing which is pretty reasonable. The beige interior seats tends to get soiled and needs a good cleaning. It is still grabs attention as there are not many vehicles on the road.
First update:
It has been 5 months since I bought my new Tucson in Bangalore. Initially, I was disappointed about the ride quality when going over rough roads in B'lore. Driving an Optra 1.6 - my earlier car - the same road used to be a much smoother ride without much shakes and bumps.
However, the impression changed as I took the car on to highway and drove the car in Western ghats where there was no road and what ever road called NH-17 was nothing but a strip of mud and boulders at several locations. Came to respect the power delivery when driven on 4 wheel drive option. It was a fun filled beach holiday during the last Christmas. We drove the car on the beach where there were several cars that were stuck in the sand.
The best part of the fun is fuel consumption. For a full tank of 60L - Tucson is consistently giving me 10+ Kmpl! with AC ON as I dont like the noise, smoke and dust entering my car. On highway, I could get mileage of 15 KMPL. Ofcourse one needs to drive the car at sensible speeds to extract a good mileage.
The service from Trident -Hyundai, B'lore is OK. I am still getting the free services. Should see how much it is going to cost after the free service period is over.
How much I paid? - total onroad price came to INR 1854270/-.
Do I recomend buying this SUV? - well certainly yes - if you pursue to be above average and want something exclusive and still on your way to have the$ to buy X-trail's and Montero's. If not, you can happily settle for top end model of Scorpio.
Updated - 01-Mar-2007:
Today I had an oppurtunity to take my Tuc on a short highway drive to Tumkur. I had couple of more oppurtunity to experience the robustness of this SUV.
TuCs handling is parexeclence! I was driving at about 110 Kms and reaching a Santro driving in front of me. I saw the Santro car taking sudden left and in a second I saw the reason for it. There was a plastic cone used for warning "work in progress" on roads was placed carelessly on the road side.
My reaction was fast enough to avoid the cone. Tucson executed the turn without much drama and it was a superb confidence inspiring handling! I felt really elated!
On my return trip - the road was literally empty at 12 noon. I took the car to 150 KMPH. The ride was silky smooth without any shakes or much noise coming into the cabin and I had not even floored the accelerator!
I am very happy with the performance of this SUV.
My only grouse is that it does not have a much desireable climate control:-(
Update - 30-Apl-2007(Excellent material quality)
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Yesterday, While approaching a traffic junction at the outter ring road near Magadi main road, there was Tata Safari standing on the centre lane, intend on going staight I guess. I was to take right and there was no vehicle onstructing the path. After Tucson pass till the rear door - I heard a thud sound. And saw that stupid idiot of a driver in the Tatasafari came to right to overtake the Lorry in front of him and his plastic bumper had scrapped my bumper adjacent to the rear door. After due observation I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was not much damage. Backhome, I took a dry cloth and rubbed the scrapped area. voila. the surface just got clean and there was no trace of any scratch! This indicates that the car does have good quality material which does not crumble on small unwanted encounters such as this.
Mileage seems to be consistent at 10+ KMPL with AC in B'lore city driving condition.
(To be updated)
