It's the little things now. The Hyundai and I bedded in months ago, since when Hyundai Tucsons have become a regular sight (best colour: Ara Blue).
It’s also been easily long enough for me to tally up the idiosyncrasies. Number one has been the sat-nav, issues with which have become more noticeable since I’ve been using it to guide me from my (new) doorstep rather than having it pilot me to farflung places I won’t ever get to know.
With said doorstep now in south London, my typical journey has changed from 15mph on the M25 to 5mph through Lambeth. And where before the nav proved generally effective in getting me from A to B, heavier traffic can cause it problems – chiefly with the diversions it comes up with to bypass congestion.
Being a bit wet behind the ears, I’ve followed Hyundai’s arrows down some of these London rabbit holes, only to find myself on another similarly busy and, of course, now less direct route. To make matters worse, the nav can be quite optimistic with its ETAs, so I often end the final few miles in a cold sweat. It’s enough of an issue that I’ve chosen to use Google Maps on my phone instead of Hyundai’s system on recent journeys – especially those with an airport at the end of them.
Although the clunkiness of the built-in nav can be irritating, it’s worth noting that Hyundai is hardly alone in the formulation of wonky ‘time-saving’ routes. It’s mostly due to an overriding and in-built preference for main roads over the kind of side-alley shortcuts that any half-decent cabbie would use.
Otherwise, the Tucson has taken to city life rather well. It only took a few days of driving various hatchbacks, each sporting either a small boot or the annoyance of a conspicuous load lip, for me to miss the old girl. Like I said, it’s the little things.
Luc Lacey
HYUNDAI TUCSON 1.7 CRDI SE NAV
Price £23,145 Price as tested £23,765 Economy 41.8mpg Faults None Expenses None Last seen 7.9.16
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Comments as bad as SatNav
Note that this is essentially the same satnav as in the Landrover and Jaguar... the complete list is on navigation. com website
And what a load of rubbish some of these comments are:
Scotty5 - Satnavs very much allow the user to concentrate more on the roads and less on the road signs. Most built in santav put the turn by turn directions right in front of your eyes, between the rev clock and the speedo. Try reading a map driving through London! Doh!
A sobering thought...
Joking aside, a lorry driver was given a 10 year jail sentence yesterday for killing a mother and her three children - he was looking at his mobile phone rather than the road in front of him. My question is what's the difference between looking at a message on a mobile phone or looking at Google Maps on a mobile phone (as people have suggested above) or for that matter a touchscreen built-in SatNav?
Don't even dare suggest this technology doesn't detract from our responsibility as drivers because it does. And we're all guilty of it.
Have a safe journey.
Hardly worth the author