Video: 2010 Hyundai Tucson

It's December, which means the forecast at high this coming Thursday for our Chicago offices is 13 degrees, which is why we're in Malibu, California checking out the redesigned Hyundai Tucson. When Hyundai first brought the Tucson year for the 2005 model year, it really set new standards for safety and value in a segment that included cars like the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CRV. This new Tucson has been redesigned for 2010. Still not the largest car in its segment, but it manages to combine competitive interior quality with impressive fuel efficiency and Hyundai's continuing pension for value. So if you don't need all that room, it's maybe worth checking out. Last year's Tucson had a four-cylinder and an optional V6. This year, there's only a four cylinder available, but it actually makes more horsepower than the outgoing V6 did and it matches to a new six speed automatic transmission. There's not a ton of power, especially when you're going up steep hills, but I think overall most drivers are gonna find it adequate, certainly on par with the CRV and the four cylinder RAV4. Hyundai calls the new Tucson's styling fluidic sculpture. It certainly is sleeker than the outgoing Tucson. You pay for that a little bit in terms of interior size. Certainly not as much room here to kind of spill out with my legs. The roof line feels a little bit lower than some of those other cars in this segment. Nice, high seating position though and interior quality, pretty competitive for this segment. Most of these surfaces are hard to the touch, but they don't look like that. They look pretty good. The buttons also feel and operate with a pretty good quality as well. I'm sending it back right now. I'm 5'11 and I have decent head room and good leg room actually. The seat doesn't adjust forward and backwards or recline though, a lot of other SUV's do that. The seat feels like it sits too low to the ground. I don't have enough thigh support. Pulled all the seats down and maximum cargo volume is under 60 cubic feet. The CRV and the RAV4 each have around 70. So certainly not the roomiest package, but the four cylinder is supposed to get 31 miles per gallon highway according to the EPA ratings with front-wheel drive and this car starts under $19,000 and it's pretty reasonably equipped for that. Two things we definitely like. Kind of like the sun and California in December. <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog, kickingtires.net.