This past week I had the opportunity to drive around the Hyundai Tucson. It was a great car and I definitely enjoyed my time with it. The Hyundai Tucson is a 5 passenger small SUV and packs plenty of features.

The center console features a touch screen for the radio, phone, and other settings. These features were easy to navigate and the sound was great. The phone came through clear and I could easily understand the person on the other end. I would recommend upgrading to the technology package to include navigation and get a larger screen.

The front seats featured soft leather and I absolutely loved the heated seats. They definitely got hot on the high setting so it is nice that there is a low level as well when the seats just need a little bit of warmth. The cup holders were also at a natural position to enjoy my coffee while I drove into work (don’t laugh, I’ve been in cars where I had to reach around awkwardly to use the cup holder)

I loved the controls on the steering wheel. The three buttons on the left side use different tactile keys so it is easy to know which button you are on without looking (Volume rocks up and down, station preset changer is round and the mode button has a raised bar). The steering wheel also contains buttons for the phone and cruise control.

The back seats also feature soft leather and their own vents. I didn’t try out the seats but they looked comfy and that they had plenty of room.

Even though it is a small SUV, the trunk space doesn’t disappoint. I could definitely do a lot of shopping with all this space! The roll-back trunk cover is great for hiding these purchases (like when I spend a few hours out shopping on a Saturday afternoon and don’t necessarily want to show off how much I bought).

I don’t know why, but I have always liked the look of blinkers on the side mirrors. They are also helpful for figuring out if that car a couple lanes over is also thinking of moving into the lane between you. Sometimes the angles aren’t great for seeing the normal blinkers so this is a great safety feature.

The Hyundai Tucson was also a very smooth and quite ride. On my commute, I can tell where I am just by the sound of the pavement. Sometimes I have to finish up my phone conversation before hitting the “loud part of pavement” because it can be hard to understand the other person once I get there. At one point, I was on the phone with a friend and she asked if I was driving (when we normally have our conversations – all over Bluetooth) because the background noise was so quiet.

One of my favorite features was the push button start and ability to unlock the doors while the key remained in my purse. I could lock/unlock the car just by pressing the button on the handle and it knew that it was me because the key was close by. Things tend to disappear in my purse so this was handy so that I didn’t have to go digging through the purse to find the key.

Over all, this was a great car and it comes at a nice price tag. Head to your local dealer to learn more. What types of features would you like in your next car?

Thanks to Hyundai for the opportunity to drive around this Tucson for a week. All opinions are my own.