Help, retirement vehicle

[Cardinal]

I have pretty much decided on a brand new or very low mileage used Tucson for me retirement vehicle in April.
However, I would appreciate feedback from drivers with experience of the various models.
Travell will be a a mix of motorway and A roads 170mile trips and 40 minute plus a road journeys mixed with sub 10 mile town trips. The vast majority will be between Aprl and December.

From reading the forums, my feeling is that a PHEV? Opinions? Any particular trim level? I like the idea of the larger diameter wheels. Unlikely to use heated seats or heated steering wheel, never did in my volvo.

Any advice appreciated

[Greezy56]

In my Op. i would go for the full hybrid not the Phev. Round town i can get loads of electric only power. Punchy 230 bhp on tap when needed. I have the N line S and the car wants for nothing. Full pan ram roof, loads of clever tech. Drives really well ( best ive had actually). Top Gear done an episode of what car was best under £40k and the Tucson in full hybrid guise won.
Ive seen if driving carefully 60, 70, even 80 mpg. Although hit the motorway and you may get 40 at best on a longer trip.

[Indalo]

Any advice appreciated

For your retirement? I think you should treat yourself, especially as winter is almost upon us and there will be occasions when you will be thankful for heated seats & steering wheel, unessential as they may be.

If you are not buying into the BEV market, then PHEV provides pretty economical motoring although it demands regular recharging as there is an awful lot of additional weight to drag around when solely using petrol. For a variety of reasons, I chose to buy the HEV model which offers a good level of gadgets and gizmos in Ultimate trim (even more with the tech pack!) and provides pretty decent fuel economy for a vehicle of those dimensions.

You can forget all the nonsense that some people post on car forums about fuel consumption; huge figures seen on-screen for very brief periods mean nothing. If you want to know what your average fuel consumption is, then that has to take account of your typical driving profile, time of day, weather conditions over the whole four seasons, not to mention how you actually drive! Sorry if that sounds as though I’m trying to teach my granny how to suck eggs! Although I haven’t had my Tucson very long, the fuel economy so far looks very promising. Once I have driven through the very cold months, I shall have a better idea as I have no intention of denying myself heating and ventilation.

What I can say at this moment is that my average, manually calculated economy is better than that from my previous diesel KIA Optima SW which averaged, in round numbers, 44 mpg from new until I replaced it after 6.5 years. I never qualify my actual average consumption by adding silly statements such as, ‘......but on a run, I get...’

Is it the best car I have ever owned? It’s certainly a decent machine but interior and luggage space are tight compared to my previous Optima and a Citroen CX Safari which was a fabulous car in the days when I didn’t pay any attention to the price of petrol.....23 mpg average!

Would I buy it again? I’m not entirely sure but at my age, it will probably be my last car so the question isn’t terribly relevant!

[chrisdobb]

Personally I fail to see the attraction in a Plug-In Hybrid.
Why would you want to commit to the whole, electric charging scene until and unless you absolutely have to?
My understanding is the electric range is, stated to be around 33 miles, assuming you need to get back from where you started that reduces to 16 and that is manufacturers claimed figures, I am yet to find any vehicle that achieves manufacturers figures, ever.
I am now on my third Full HEV 2021 Tucson Ultimate 2022 Kia Sportage and 2023 Tucson Ultimate, I am getting constant high 40s MPG.
To me the whole total inconvenience of electric vehicles is to be avoided for as long as is possible, I can see no attraction in messing about with dirty and wet cables and charging points in the middle of cold dark winter nights just to get 16 miles of electric power, and I say that as someone who is lucky enough to have my own drive and garage, God only knows how other people get on.
To me the whole EV experiment is fatally flawed and I just hope I am old enough to be able to swerve the whole poorly thought out and inefficient system.
Just my opinion of course.

[EJH]

To me the whole EV experiment is fatally flawed and I just hope I am old enough to be able to swerve the whole poorly thought out and inefficient system.
Just my opinion of course.

I can only agree. Even more concerning is the poor EV charging network, supplied by a system unable to provide the power promise for the BEV revolution (?)