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MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AT SOME POINT IN OUR EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OUR DNA WAS CORRUPTED AND AS A RACE WE DECIDED THAT SUVS WERE A BETTER PROPOSITION FOR PERSONAL TRANSPORT THAN SMALL HATCHES OR WAGONS. WE TAKE A DRIVE IN HYUNDAI’S GOOD, BUT SLIGHTLY UNINSPIRING TUCSON ACTIV.
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t must have been a quirk of evolution, because, if you apply logic, there could be no reason why we would swap smaller, more efficient cars with ones that are heavier, offer no more space internally, and have a higher centre of gravity and frontal profile, giving less aerodynamic efficiency and dynamic stability, but that seems to be what has happened. Sure there’s still plenty of small hatches sold, but compact wagons have all but disappeared in favour of the almost ubiquitous Sport Utility Vehicle or SUV, and every car maker on the planet has clamoured to offer them to car buyers. The irony is most SUVs aren’t very sporty
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nor do they offer much extra utility over a hatch or wagon. Just sayin’! You might have guessed that this writer is not a huge SUV fan, and you are right. Give me a lithe, low profile, wagon, sedan or hatch any day of the week, they handle better, they stop better and they use less of the planet’s resources in getting places. But what would we know? So it was that we climbed aboard the latest version of Hyundai’s Tucson Activ, the test car being a front drive version of the model. There is also an all-wheel drive version and a range of trim and engine options across the range. The Active is powered by a normally aspirated 2.0litre four-cylinder twin cam
petrol engine which does a reasonable job of pushing the Tucson along, although the more powerful turbo 1.6 litre petrol engine available in the AWD Tucsons would be a better fit in many ways. The non turbo 2.0-litre delivers 122kW of power and 205 Nm of torque which is sufficient, but not overly abundant, and at times it does struggle. Maximum torque is made well up the rev range at 4000rpm, so don’t expect a hard lugging donk that pushes you back in the seat on take off. It has to be revved, and when you pile the luggage and passengers in it does need to be rowed along to deliver reasonable performance. It’s mated to a traditional torque