Hyundai Tucson review – a great family car

Verdict – is the Hyundai Tucson a good car?

Hyundai has completely transformed its image in recent years, and the Tucson is the epitome of that, becoming one of the best mid-size SUVs. Its daring exterior design has been left mostly untouched following a facelift in 2024, but the interior has been completely overhauled for a more uniform and minimalist look, bringing it closer to Hyundai’s Ioniq electric models. Hyundai has also retained the same excellent materials and build quality as before, and the Tucson is a spacious and comfortable family SUV.

Hyundai Tucson models, specs and alternatives

While Hyundai may have been criticised a few decades ago for its cars' bland styling and lack of individuality, the same can’t be said for the latest Hyundai Tucson. Whether you love it or hate it, the Tucson SUV is quite striking to look at, and a mid-life refresh in 2024 has taken nothing away from this out-there design. Instead, Hyundai has hoped to double down on the Tucson’s success by further challenging rivals like the Nissan Qashqai, Ford Kuga, Peugeot 3008 and Skoda Karoq.

As well as some subtle tweaks to the Tucson’s exterior, including a new grille and slightly reshaped headlights, it sees a swathe of upgrades to its interior which now has an altogether more minimalist design, featuring a large panoramic screen housing the infotainment and driver’s displays. It’s a look that’s more in line with the Kona and Ioniq 5 models, creating more synergy in the brand’s line-up.

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The Tucson already impressed us before the facelift, winning our coveted Car of the Year award in 2022, and managed to retain its title of Best Family Car in 2023. Hyundai is a brand on form right now, with the new Ioniq 5 electric hatchback and i20 N hot hatchback both having won awards in recent years too.

The Tucson is a practical and spacious car, too – choose one with an automatic gearbox and you'll find buttons instead of a gear lever, freeing up space for large cupholders and storage cubbies. A general increase in size over the previous generation also served up room for a bigger boot, measuring up to 620 litres in volume for the regular petrol version. This shrinks to 577 litres in the mild-hybrid petrol but even this is bigger than a number of rivals.

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Hyundai ditched diesel for this generation of the Tucson, leaving a line-up centred around its 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine, which can also be had with hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology for added efficiency. That means the Tucson line-up offers lots of choice for buyers – those wanting a more affordable way into Tucson ownership can go for the petrol model, while the hybrids offer cheaper running costs, and the plug-in even allows for some driving on electricity alone for longer periods.

We’ve always liked the way the Tucson drives because it feels surprisingly agile for a car of its type through the corners, but this doesn’t come at the expense of comfort. Even though it can sometimes be the case, the extra weight of the batteries in the plug-in hybrid model hasn’t had a noticeable impact on the driving experience, either.