From the 2015 New York International Auto Show, Cars.com's Kelsey Mays takes a look at the 2016 Hyundai Tucson.
Transcript
(engine starting) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That seems to be the mantra right now for styling at Hyundai where all their cars are kinda starting to look the same but it's a good look overall.
We're here at the auto show with the redesigned Tucson, looks a lot like the larger Santa Fe SUV but we'll take you through what makes the Tucson unique. This is the second generation of Hyundai's fluidic sculpture routine. The previous Tucson actually kind of embodied the first generation of it, so you've got big things now like a very bold hexagonal grill which sweeps back into these headlights. A very athletic, kind of aggressive look overall. Check out these roof rails here, they're actually very well integrated into the rood of the vehicle itself and they come back into a standard rear spoiler. Overall you could say that this style is pretty derivative, but it's derivative of a lot of good looking cars so can't find much fault with it. A sweeping dashboard redesign places controls kind of in two tiers here, pretty familiar stuff if you've been in Hyundai vehicles lately. Overall cabin material is very impressive in this very well-equipped car here at the auto show. Lots of soft stuff where your arms and your elbows land, nice low-gloss veneers along the dashboard, and that's not always the case when you're in kind of a compact, entry-level SUV. Lots of storage areas down here along the center console and plenty of premium amenities that are rare in this class, things like an 8-way power passenger seat, ventilated seats, and a panoramic moonroof. Nice to see cabin materials stay consistent in the backseat and a decent amount of room back here actually. The seat sits nice and high off the ground, that's not something it did in the prior generation Tucson and Hyundai says that the seat actually has more of a reclining range in a 60/40 split than it did before. The seats fold all the way down obviously, more cargo room now and a larger opening according to Hyundai. There's about 31 cubic feet of cargo room here behind the rear seats. That's up from less than 26 cubic feet before, still a little bit short in a class with cars like the Toyota RAV4, the Honda CRV, but closer to those than the Tucson used to be. Now for those of you who are hoping that this redesign would bring the turbo 2.0 liter engine from the Tucson's Kia Sportage sibling, I got some bad news. This Tucson only has a couple fuel-efficiency oriented four-cylinder choices but fuel economy does improve EPA combined ratings in the mid to high 20s according to Hyundai. Now how those engines drive and whether the Tucson can improve on its predecessor's spotty crash test ratings, all remains to be seen. So stay tuned to cars.com, we'll have all that information closer to the new Tucson's on sale date, July 2015.
