My first two weeks with my Tucson.
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2022 8:06 pm
A longish read, but hopefully interesting.
Exciting times on Tuesday - picking up my new car. So, drive my old car over to the garage (part exchange), park it up and walk in. Leanne, the sales lady, is with another customer so I wait around till she's finished. I spot my new car - looks nice and shiny in the sunshine. Eventually Leanne finishes up and we get all the paperwork sorted out. I say 'paperwork' but it's all done on a tablet these days. I hand over my old keys and we walk out so I can be given the 'talk' about the features of the new car.
After a 15 minute discussion, of which I remember very little, the sales manager comes out and demonstrates how to move the car forward and backwards using only the key (with me not in). It looks impressive, but I can't think of when I would need it. I must practice it later, just in case.
So, time to drive off, with 12 miles showing on the odo. First stop will be to a petrol station to fill up. We choose Costco as we need some stuff and it's the cheapest one for miles around. Remember, this is the start of the great petrol price war in reverse - it's which garage can charge the most! I must remember to put petrol in and not diesel - and the filler is on the other side from my X3. I join the queue while Norma goes shopping, fill it up and park up.
Shopping over, it's time to go home. I like how the seats can be folded down from the boot. Came in very handy just now.
The drive home illustrates how much I hate the active lane control. I do hope there's a way of turning it off for good [no there isn't, as I found out later]. Fuel consumption seems OK - and I love the camera that comes on in the display when you use an indicator. It means I don't have to turn my head too much to see the blind spot area.
Home - and the car sits there for 2 days. Not that I don't want to drive it, but I actually have nowhere to go. So, I install my dashcam and try and work out some of the controls and settings. I can play music and plays with a USB stick but, horror of horrors, it doesn't sort by filename, but by track title (metadata for those in the know). That's rubbish. Android Auto works though, and I can use that to play music and plays. [Note - I can fix that with my MP3 files and software, but I shouldn't have to].
By the weekend, I've used it quite a bit. Consumption is getting better, but I still haven't had a long journey in it. On Saturday, we went on a 25 mile journey and that was OK. I was still getting used to it. The views when reversing (back and overhead) are very good. I can't see me using the sunroof very much, but who knows. The suspension is a bit wallowy at low speeds, but firms up when going a bit faster. Seems OK and Norma doesn't feel queasy in it (always a good test for a car).
The following weekend was the crunch test - a 130 mile trip down to Coventry, mainly on motorways. This was where I found another issue with the USB stick. Every time the car reminded me of something (a 'bong' for a car overtaking or a chime for a speed camera) the music or play would pause. And there was a lot of them on the motorway. It had to go. I changed over to Android Auto using my phone to see whether that would also do it - and it didn't. Phew. Otherwise, the car would have been rejected (yes, it was that bad). Fuel consumption there and back worked out at 41.5mpg, which I thought was good considering the car was still running in. Seats are comfy enough and the seat ventilation is nice on my legs – can’t feel it on my back though.
The speedo accuracy was also tested (my dashcam has GPS built in and displays the GPS speed). At 32 on the clock, it's 30 on the GPS. At 51 on the clock it's 50 on the GPS. At 71 on the clock, it's 70 on the GPS. I'm very happy about that. Better than my X3 and much better than my wife's RAV4.
However, I still had some niggles - chief was the active lane assistant. I think it's dangerous, so I have to ensure it's turned off each time I drive. I also am fed up with the 6 'bongs' every time I start the car. I wish that could be disabled. [Edit – Just been told that they don’t come on if I put the seat belt on before I start the engine – I will try that next time I am out].
In the meantime, I've joined some forums (including this one) which provided me with some answers to other questions. I can now have the digital speedo displayed, I can see the engine temperature and I am getting familiar with the voice control. I’ve also found all the different fuel consumption figures (which, as I am sure you have noticed, is one of my obsessions).
I have had one instance of the aircon resetting itself to 22 (I wondered why I was getting hot) which also reset the distance since last fill up display. However, since then I've upgraded the firmware to the latest (Feb 22) version, so I'll see if that fixes it. The old firmware was dated July 21 (which was interesting as the car wasn’t built until early Feb 22) and the new one has changed some of the displays, hopefully for the better.
I drove from Buxton back to Rochdale (about 40 miles, mixed traffic, some motorway) and got nearly 60mpg - which was very impressive and much more than I expected.
I've installed the Bluelink software on my phone. That works OK but will insist on telling every time I unlock the car. But doesn't cancel the notification when I relock it. However, it does show me a record of every journey I take and where the car is located - which is nice. I haven't messed with the other things it can do yet.
Another long motorway drive down to Coventry and back today. Fuel consumption is getting better. Overall, I’m up to 41.7 (over 850 miles) and todays drives were around 43-44. I did notice that when I went over 70 (cruise control set to 71), I got a constant faint ‘bong’. It’s yet another setting. So that’s been turned off. The blind spot notification works well, if a bit over enthusiastic (but better that than it tells me too late).
So that’s about if for now. Overall, I am delighted with the car. I even cleaned it (which is not something I normally do myself) as it was looking a bit dusty.
Exciting times on Tuesday - picking up my new car. So, drive my old car over to the garage (part exchange), park it up and walk in. Leanne, the sales lady, is with another customer so I wait around till she's finished. I spot my new car - looks nice and shiny in the sunshine. Eventually Leanne finishes up and we get all the paperwork sorted out. I say 'paperwork' but it's all done on a tablet these days. I hand over my old keys and we walk out so I can be given the 'talk' about the features of the new car.
After a 15 minute discussion, of which I remember very little, the sales manager comes out and demonstrates how to move the car forward and backwards using only the key (with me not in). It looks impressive, but I can't think of when I would need it. I must practice it later, just in case.
So, time to drive off, with 12 miles showing on the odo. First stop will be to a petrol station to fill up. We choose Costco as we need some stuff and it's the cheapest one for miles around. Remember, this is the start of the great petrol price war in reverse - it's which garage can charge the most! I must remember to put petrol in and not diesel - and the filler is on the other side from my X3. I join the queue while Norma goes shopping, fill it up and park up.
Shopping over, it's time to go home. I like how the seats can be folded down from the boot. Came in very handy just now.
The drive home illustrates how much I hate the active lane control. I do hope there's a way of turning it off for good [no there isn't, as I found out later]. Fuel consumption seems OK - and I love the camera that comes on in the display when you use an indicator. It means I don't have to turn my head too much to see the blind spot area.
Home - and the car sits there for 2 days. Not that I don't want to drive it, but I actually have nowhere to go. So, I install my dashcam and try and work out some of the controls and settings. I can play music and plays with a USB stick but, horror of horrors, it doesn't sort by filename, but by track title (metadata for those in the know). That's rubbish. Android Auto works though, and I can use that to play music and plays. [Note - I can fix that with my MP3 files and software, but I shouldn't have to].
By the weekend, I've used it quite a bit. Consumption is getting better, but I still haven't had a long journey in it. On Saturday, we went on a 25 mile journey and that was OK. I was still getting used to it. The views when reversing (back and overhead) are very good. I can't see me using the sunroof very much, but who knows. The suspension is a bit wallowy at low speeds, but firms up when going a bit faster. Seems OK and Norma doesn't feel queasy in it (always a good test for a car).
The following weekend was the crunch test - a 130 mile trip down to Coventry, mainly on motorways. This was where I found another issue with the USB stick. Every time the car reminded me of something (a 'bong' for a car overtaking or a chime for a speed camera) the music or play would pause. And there was a lot of them on the motorway. It had to go. I changed over to Android Auto using my phone to see whether that would also do it - and it didn't. Phew. Otherwise, the car would have been rejected (yes, it was that bad). Fuel consumption there and back worked out at 41.5mpg, which I thought was good considering the car was still running in. Seats are comfy enough and the seat ventilation is nice on my legs – can’t feel it on my back though.
The speedo accuracy was also tested (my dashcam has GPS built in and displays the GPS speed). At 32 on the clock, it's 30 on the GPS. At 51 on the clock it's 50 on the GPS. At 71 on the clock, it's 70 on the GPS. I'm very happy about that. Better than my X3 and much better than my wife's RAV4.
However, I still had some niggles - chief was the active lane assistant. I think it's dangerous, so I have to ensure it's turned off each time I drive. I also am fed up with the 6 'bongs' every time I start the car. I wish that could be disabled. [Edit – Just been told that they don’t come on if I put the seat belt on before I start the engine – I will try that next time I am out].
In the meantime, I've joined some forums (including this one) which provided me with some answers to other questions. I can now have the digital speedo displayed, I can see the engine temperature and I am getting familiar with the voice control. I’ve also found all the different fuel consumption figures (which, as I am sure you have noticed, is one of my obsessions).
I have had one instance of the aircon resetting itself to 22 (I wondered why I was getting hot) which also reset the distance since last fill up display. However, since then I've upgraded the firmware to the latest (Feb 22) version, so I'll see if that fixes it. The old firmware was dated July 21 (which was interesting as the car wasn’t built until early Feb 22) and the new one has changed some of the displays, hopefully for the better.
I drove from Buxton back to Rochdale (about 40 miles, mixed traffic, some motorway) and got nearly 60mpg - which was very impressive and much more than I expected.
I've installed the Bluelink software on my phone. That works OK but will insist on telling every time I unlock the car. But doesn't cancel the notification when I relock it. However, it does show me a record of every journey I take and where the car is located - which is nice. I haven't messed with the other things it can do yet.
Another long motorway drive down to Coventry and back today. Fuel consumption is getting better. Overall, I’m up to 41.7 (over 850 miles) and todays drives were around 43-44. I did notice that when I went over 70 (cruise control set to 71), I got a constant faint ‘bong’. It’s yet another setting. So that’s been turned off. The blind spot notification works well, if a bit over enthusiastic (but better that than it tells me too late).
So that’s about if for now. Overall, I am delighted with the car. I even cleaned it (which is not something I normally do myself) as it was looking a bit dusty.