Today, we’re at Daly’s Hyundai. We’re going to take this for a drive. This is a Hyundai Tucson N Line. Daniel from Daly’s has kindly lent us a car.
So we’re going to go for a quick drive, see how it goes, and then have a look at the features around the car.
We’re going to take a drive in the Tucson. This particular model is the hybrid, the self-charging hybrid, 215 PS. There’s also a petrol variant, a 160 PS, and the plug-in hybrid, which is a 252 PS. So some nice powerful engines there.
What we’re going to do is take a look at one of the most popular models. There are different spec levels: the Advanced Premium N Line, N Line S, and the Ultimate.
Today, we’re in the N Line. The beauty of this one is it has very nice specs, looks the part, but also it’s just below £40,000, which means it’s in the lower tax bracket.
This makes quite a difference to the payments, whether you’re taxing the car yourself or the tax is part of your lease. Lease payments will go up with the N Line S because it’s a dearer car, but also because of the higher tax bracket.
The Tucson has actually been the top-selling car in Northern Ireland for three years running. We’re waiting to hear whether they’re going to get a fourth year. Certainly, we have done very well with the car, mainly in the hybrid and the plug-in hybrid.
So we thought, because the car is doing very well sales-wise, although we’ve been in the car multiple times, we would do a quick feature on it just to show you some of the features.
Inside, there’s a nice modern cabin with a big screen. All your information is right in front of you. There’s a comfortable central armrest and very comfortable seating position.
Everything looks very well finished, with plenty of toys. The N Line is well specced, so you’re not going to miss anything in here.
What we’re going to do is take it for a drive. Let me see. Just got the gear stick up here. It automatically went down to here, but I realised I was in the wrong place. We have found that sales of the petrol-only variant haven’t been overly great for us.
The reason being is you can actually get into this hybrid model on the lease for very little more. I think it’s maybe about £10 a month more to go for a hybrid. So you’re going up to 215 horsepower from 160 in the petrol. It’s a much better driving car and will be more economical.
If you drive this right, you should get over 40 to the gallon.
The self-charging hybrid has been popular, maybe more so for personal contract hire (PCPs), just more personal drivers rather than business. If you are a business customer, there’s a plug-in hybrid, which is a brilliant option at 8% BIK.
It works very well as a company car. These are great family cars. Being a smaller SUV, they’re well-suited if you have kids. There’s plenty of room in the back, and being that bit higher up, especially if you have kids in car seats, definitely helps.
So, driving, we are just coming out of the garage, and we’re going to head up the motorway just for a bit of a spin to see how it goes. First off, initial thoughts: very smooth, very smooth to drive.
With the self-charging hybrid, it’ll flick between the petrol engine and the batteries. From memory, there are 55 brake horsepower from the batteries and 60 horsepower from the petrol engine. That combines to give you 215 and works together to improve economy as well.
We’re just heading onto the motorway here. I’ll check, by the way, about acceleration just to see how it goes. This is a bit more powerful than the petrol variant. Certainly, it’s good.
There’s a good bit of lift in the car. Definitely, there are departure warnings and things. There was a slight beep because I didn’t get in as quickly as I should have.
We’re heading up to about 70 miles an hour. It does feel comfortable. We’ve got some road noise, but nothing overly bad. The car feels good and sturdy and definitely comfortable.
Here we have it, the Tucson N Line hybrid, self-charging hybrid. As you can see, the N Line has nice sporty specs with a lot of black styling, the grille splitter, N Line badges, black roof rails, and black mirrors with more badging around here.
It’s a smart-looking car with a nice set of two-tone wheels. The car looks fabulous in white. It’s a really nice-looking car with privacy glass and all the black bits of trim.
The N Line S would be the next step up. It looks very similar, but the N Line S does have a panoramic roof, so the roof looks glass, giving it a bit more of a black look.
I must say, I really like this in white. This is going to be more of a family-type car or if someone just wants an SUV.
Space-wise in the back, it’s pretty well spaced out if you need car seats. We also have blinds, which are handy to keep the sun out of the little one’s eyes. Just to demonstrate some space, the seat is sitting there with me in it in front.
There’s plenty of legroom. Space-wise, it’s pretty good, so I can’t complain.
We’ll have a look at the boot. Just at the back here, you can see there’s more black styling. We’ve got the twin exhausts, and the lights are quite nice on it as well. As you can see, it’s a hybrid with an electronic tailgate. Boot space is pretty good. I was just double-checking. You have another layer to the boot, so if you need a bit more, you can drop this down. It just gives you a bit more space if you need to put something in the back.
Usually, people will keep it out here just to give a flat load space, but the boot size is pretty good. There’s actually more space in the boot than it looks.
The side profile is quite a sporty, sloped profile, so there’s quite a good space in there given the shape of the car. All in all, it’s a smart-looking car. If you’re looking for a business vehicle, the plug-in hybrid is probably the one you’ll want to look at.
Styling and mileage will be exactly the same as the petrol variant. It really just depends on what suits you best, whether it’s a personal car or a business car. We can advise you on the pros and cons of each one.
So we’ll jump back in and head back to the dealership.
Now, just having a look at the interior of the Tucson, it has a nice big screen, a double screen that wraps around nicely, providing good visibility. What I do like as well is that we have the heating controls on turning knobs and buttons.
There are still some buttons on the car, which I prefer. Some cars have too much on the screen. There are plenty of buttons to work with, as well as the touchscreen, with USB and USB-C points down there. We have wireless charging.
I quite like the central armrest; it’s well-placed for me. There’s quite a bit of storage, which is handy to throw all your rubbish or whatever you might have. We also have more storage on this side, as well as your glove box.
The car is nicely finished with a leathery material around the thighs, all wrapping around you. The seats are nice as well. They are more like a micro sort of fabric, which is quite nice. It’s a cold day, so when you jump in, it’s a nice warm seat. It has heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Everything’s nice and comfortable.
I’d say it’s just a nice car to sit in. But we’ll head back to the dealership and go for another drive.
As we can see, the car has a reverse camera, which is handy for parking. To recap on the car, this is available in several spec levels: the Advanced Premium N Line, N Line S, and the Ultimate.
The N Line is the sweet spot for pricing and specs. You get a lot of kit for your money. The car looks brilliant. It’s sub £40,000, which is in a lower tax bracket.
Engine-wise, these will cater to both personal and business customers. For business, you’ve got the plug-in hybrid, which is going to be a lower BIK and will work very well as a company car. If it’s a personal driver, you’re probably going to edge more towards the self-charging hybrid, which is the one we’ve just driven.
I must say, driving this car, there’s plenty of power—really all the power you need in a car like this. If you did want just a normal petrol engine, you can go for that. It’s a 1.6, 160 horsepower, available in manual and auto.
But to be honest, with a lease, if it’s a lease, it’s not that much more to go for the hybrid. There’s a stronger residual value, and it is a better driving car. You have more power and better economy, so this is probably the one to go for.
I think the N Line is definitely the best all-rounder. But if you want more specs, you can go for the N Line S or the Ultimate. Equally, you can drop down if you want to save a bit of money. We can do these on personal contract hire, business contract hire, PCP, HP, finance lease, outright purchase—whatever way you want to do it.
We can arrange the finance; there’s no issue with that. Maintenance would include full maintenance packages. There’s a five-year warranty with the car, so you don’t need any extended warranties or anything like that.
If you’re in the market for a midsize SUV, this is definitely worth a look. If you want any quotes, get in touch today. We’ll chat through specs, how you want to finance it, and we’ll run some figures for you.