Screams For The Turbo Engine Option

It’s remarkable to think just six years and one generation separates this striking fourth-generation Hyundai Tucson and the frumpy second-generation model known here as the ix35.

- David Bonnici

HYUNDAI TUCSON

The intervening years saw the third generation Tucson offer up a more chiselled exterior that made people look twice at Hyundai’s medium SUV offering and helped cement the brand’s top-three status in Australia.

The 2021 model has recast the aesthetic completely and is the first Hyundai to exhibit the brand’s Sensuous Sportiness design language that brings more angles than an origami swan, including bold character lines such as a distinctive Z-shape on the back door.

The front end is even more look-at-me, sporting a cascading parametric grille with imbedded daytime running lights and turn signals and a full-length LED tail-light signature.

Inside, the Tucson has a crisp new interior and plenty of standard kit including an active safety suite that, Hyundai says, is the most comprehensive in the mainstream medium-SUV segment.

A pity the engines feel a generation behind. Australian-spec cars will run a mix of revised four-cylinder petrol and diesel ‘SmartStream’ powertrains, with the European-built hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions unlikely to get here.

The petrol engines include a 115kW/192Nm 2.0-litre naturally aspirated front-driver with a six-speed auto that’s available now. This will be joined by a couple of all-wheel-drive powertrains including a 132kW/265Nm 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol with a seven-speed dual-clutch auto and a 137kW/416Nm 2.0-litre turbo-diesel with the eight-speed auto.