A weekend with a Hyundai Tucson

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One of the great things about blogging is the opportunities it brings, not just for me but for the whole family.  I love being invited to events or taken to Africa with Comic Relief, but what I also love is sharing experiences with my family.   We have some blinders, from VIP tickets to WWE to the FA Cup being on our coffee table and half of Fleet coming to see it.

What gets the greatest reaction though is having a car to review.  We had one last year for six weeks and it was fantastic.  We really put it through its paces and felt genuinely sad when it left.    So when I got an email last month asking if I wanted to review a Hyundai Tucson for the weekend I immediately texted Jonnie.   He had all sorts of technical questions about what the engine size was and if it was an automatic yadda yadda.  Stuff I had no clue about but that I knew he would find out about for me, whilst I worked out what this button did <points to random button>

The weekend was duly organised and the car arrived.  My first thought was “wow, what a great colour”.   I know that is a fairly lame first reaction but all our cars have been silver or black, or in my current case: brown.  I like to call it gold, the kids like to call it “turd”.   So to have a bright blue car to play with was very exciting.

Next reaction was that it wasn’t as big as I expected.  I had a Touareg and that was a monster so when I saw the ad on TV for the Tucson I expected it to be a similar size and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t turn out to be a beast.   Which is odd.  As the interior is huge.    Certainly big enough for our family, which was why we were asked if we fancied a play with it.

Sadly it was a weekend where I wasn’t doing huge amounts with the family so I couldn’t really try out all it had to offer.  I did drive to Winchester on the Saturday and found it the easiest car I have ever driven.  Things like Lane Assist mean that it will keep you in the lane, and beep if you wander.   It will also let you know if you are about to crash into the car in front.   Not that I got to test that out, of course.   No no no.

Arriving home after the drive and being on my feet all day I really wasn’t as tired as I would normally be after driving on the M3 for over an hour, and for somebody who does a daily school run of an hour this would be a huge benefit for me.   The ride was super comfy and having so many safety features included would really make me consider this as our next family car because I know I am doing all I can to protect my passengers.

It also has things like ventilated front seats, so you in the summer (when we get one) you can have nicely cooled seats, not just heated ones in the winter.  And talking of summer, who incredible would this sun roof be on a sunny day?  It is the entire roof of the car and rather spectacular, even on a mildly sunny day in October.

My favourite feature though also the one that terrifies me the most is the park assist.  You literally push a button to tell the car you want to parallel park in the next convenient spot, and then it takes over.  I am not joking when I say, it totally takes over.  It changes gear, it spins the wheels, it gets you in the parking spot with you doing nothing.  I put the seat down and lay down whilst it did this, convinced we would crash, but not at all.  It was the best bit of parking I have ever done.

Much to Jonnie’s delight, he has many a photo on his phone of my appalling parking.

That feature alone would be enough to make me part with the £19,000 needed to buy one.