2025 Tucson Hybrid non-expert consumer early review

I've driven about 1400 miles in my first month of owning a 2025 Tucson Hybrid Blue. I want to help out others who are car shopping.

Context: West USA

Comparisons: Previous VW Alltrack (owned 7 years), Family member's RAV4 hybrid

Pros:

  • Interior layout of controls and infotainment is great. I'm glad I waited for the 2025 over settling on a 2024.
  • Infotainment is responsive and Carplay works flawlessly
  • Steering wheel buttons are everything I could hope for: intuitive driving assists on left, volume wheel, call hangup, Siri, and mute on right.
  • Radar cruise and lane following assist (LFA/LKA) work very well on non curvy roads.
  • Acceleration is very smooth and is quick enough on highways and lane changes. I was worried coming from a VW 1.8L turbo.
  • Beeps and ding reminders are not annoying (seat belt, blind spot, keep hands on steering wheel, etc)
  • MPG is good and improving with time. I get 33-37 mpg on most city and highway trips.
  • Diff lock button helped me get up a difficult forest road
  • Remote start/bluelink app works well
  • UPDATE: I'm enjoying the Auto / Smart Regen system. if you hold the right-paddle, you'll see an "AUTO" icon on your dash. The car will auto-brake (by increasing regen) based on the speed of cars ahead of you. It operates almost like a half-smart-cruise control. You control the acceleration and the car controls the braking.

Pros of Tucson compared to Rav4 hybrid:

  • Infotainment and Carplay on Tucson is much more responsive. The wireless carplay on the Rav4 sometimes doesn't connect and is very slow to load.
  • The Tucson is much MUCH quieter: both road noise and wind noise.
  • Customizable regen braking
  • Bluelink myhyundai subscription for phone app is included in purchase and works much better than Toyota app
  • The Tucson's "map" button on the console goes straight to the active Carplay or Android auto navigation app you're using. The rav4 requires mutiple clicks.

Cons of Tucson vs Rav4:

  • Worse gas mileage
  • Likely worse offroading, but haven't seriously compared this
  • Slightly worse underbody protection, just based on visual comparison of exposed parts.
  • Worse resale

Cons of Tucson:

  • No spare tire. I plan to install one based on forum guides, but all of the solutions are janky at best.
  • Understaffed, overbooked Hyundai dealerships in metropolitan area. I'm worried if I have a serious warranty issue, I'll be stuck without a car for weeks or months. Especially since it seems no one gives out loaners anymore.
  • Wireless charging pad on center console is perfectly positioned, but overheats the phone if also using Carplay. This is apparently a known issue on most cars but is unfortunate that the engineers haven't bothered to get it right. fyi wireless charging can be disabled easily in the menu options.
  • Personal issue: My 12v battery may be problematic. It has already died once and likely was leading to interior lights failing in my first week. After a super easy reset, it's been working fine, but now I'm always carrying my manual key.
  • New key FOB design is bad. It's bulky and the manual key is a seperate piece rather than integrated into the FOB.
  • Not a fan of the new gear shift stick. It’s less intuitive but i guess I’ll get used to it.

Blue trim vs limited trim:

  • No IR eye tracker!
  • Cloth seats are cooler, though less luxurious
  • Poly plastic steering wheel is fine but I'd prefer the leatherette
  • Couldn't care less about HUD or blind spot camera
  • Moderately-bummed about lack of autodimming mirror and parking sensors
  • Mildly-bummed about lack of heated steering wheel and vented seats
  • Radar cruise and LFA work well but I wonder if highway driving assist (HDA) would be any better on curvy highways. Blue trim does not have HDA.