2022 Hyundai Tucson vs Honda CR-V

What's the difference?

Well packaged and ultra-practical with strong performance, the Hyundai Tucson diesel has a lot going for it. Add excellent safety, solid economy plus a good ownership package, and it’s looking even better. The value equation could be sharper, driving refinement more polished and some may need time to acclimatise to its distinctive design. But the Tucson diesel is a quality mid-size SUV option. 

If you're looking for a light-duty mid-sized SUV that is more city-comfortable than country-capable, then the Honda CR-V VTi L7 might be right for you.

It’s a tidy daily driver – the interior is nicely put-together and roomy enough – and the fact this CR-V has seven seats adds a welcome aspect of flexibility to its people- and load-carrying ability. 

Although the Tucson’s silhouette follows a clearly recognisable mid-size SUV template the design details within it are distinctively different.

A multi-faceted grille blends with sectional, angular headlight clusters either side, and sits above the swoopy curved top of a secondary air-intake underneath. There’s nothing else remotely like it in the segment, or the market more broadly for that matter.

The car’s flanks are segmented by distinct creases running at an angle through the front and rear doors, accentuating the way they’re drawn inwards along their lower edges.

Our Elite grade test car’s 18-inch alloy rims are ‘busy’ in the style of a frenetic Cubist painting, and the geometric theme continues at the back with jagged tail-lights adding visual interest to an otherwise conventional rear end treatment. 

Available colours are on the 'muted' side: 'Titan Grey', 'Deep Sea' (blue), 'Phantom Black', 'Shimmering Silver', 'Amazon Gray', and 'White Cream.'

Inside the look is clean and simple with a two-tier dash top flowing in towards the large, central multimedia screen and ventilation control panel. A pair of chrome ‘rails’ define the upper level, also housing the air vents as they curve around and continue into the front doors. 

The interior palette is predominantly grey with gloss black and brushed metal accents, while the leather-appointed seats are fuss-free with detail metal highlights contributing to an overall relaxed, quality feel.

SUVs, as popular as they are, all seem to occupy a comfortable middle-of-the-road niche, in terms of styling.

Nothing outrageous, nothing offensive. Nothing wrong with that. Just like my nan used to say about her grandkids’ haircuts: Why have a mullet when a short-back-and-sides will get you good looks every time?

The CR-V, as before, is on the right side of satisfactory, with a quietly pleasant interior and exterior.

The black-out grille, hidden door handles, and dual chrome exhaust finishers are all nice exterior touches.

At just over 4.6m long, a little under 1.9m wide, and close to 1.7m high, the Tucson sits squarely inside the mid-size SUV class footprint.

Space efficiency in the front is impressive with the simple dash design and forward-sloping centre stack adding to a feeling of openness. There’s ample headroom for my 183cm frame and storage is plentiful.

There’s a pair of cupholders in the centre console, a tray incorporating a Qi wireless charging pad ahead of the transmission shift buttons, a bin/armrest between the seats, large pockets in the doors with space for bottles, and a decent glove box.

Move to the rear and legroom is impressive. Sitting behind the driver’s seat set for my position I enjoyed heaps of headroom and there’s enough shoulder room to make three adults across the back seat comfortably do-able for up to medium-length journeys.

Inclusion of twin adjustable air vents is a plus, and storage runs to a pair of cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest, deep bottle holders in the doors, and map pockets on the backs of the front seats.

Power and connectivity options include two USB-A sockets in the front (one multimedia, one charging only), plus another two (charge-only) in the rear. There’s a 12-volt outlet in the front console and another in the boot. 

Speaking of which, the critical boot space measurement is a useful 539 litres (VDA) with the rear seat upright, and no less than 1860L with the 60/40 split-folding backrest down.

Remote release handles for the rear seat on either side of the cargo area are a thoughtful addition.

We were able to fit the CarsGuide three-piece suitcase set and a bulky folding pram in with room to spare. Tie down anchors and bag hooks are included and a full-size alloy spare sits under the boot floor. Nice. 

If towing’s on your priority list the Tucson diesel is rated at 1900kg for a braked trailer and 750kg unbraked, plus ‘Trailer Stability Assist’ is standard.

The CR-V is 4635mm long (with a 2660mm wheelbase), 1855mm wide, 1679mm high and it has a listed kerb weight of 1642kg. 

It’s quite a roomy interior, for a medium SUV, and it’s also a tidy space, adequately equipped with storage places and user-friendly functionalities, including dual-zone climate control.

Upfront, the dash looks decent enough though the 7.0-inch touchscreen is too small I reckon, and the centre console was redesigned through the last round of major changes, two years ago.

Throughout the cabin everyone has access to enough phone-charging spots – there are four USB points in total, with two of those and a wireless charging pad upfront – and enough cup holders (10) and storage places scattered about the interior to keep even the fussiest of road-trippers among us happy. 

There’s even a 12V outlet upfront.

Seats are reasonably comfortable all-round, except for the third row which is a bit of a punishment for anyone but young children or the most diminutive of your mates. 

The driver’s seat has eight-way power adjustment and two-position memory; the front passenger seat has four-way power adjustment.

The 60:40 second-row seats are roomy enough; I sat behind my driving position and had a comfortable amount of head, leg and knee room.

In terms of child restraint points, the second row has three top tether and two ISOFIX points. There is a fold-down arm-rest with two cup holders, and there are two USB points and air-vent controls in the back of the centre console.

Third-row passengers also have air vents in their little kingdom.

While I’m talking about the third row it’s worth mentioning here that the rear doors open to 90-degrees, which is handy for getting in and out of the second or third rows, or loading and unloading gear/kids/groceries into either of those spaces.

Official cargo capacity is 150 litres with all three rows in use; 472 litres with the third row down; and 1486 litres with the second and third rows down and loaded up to the roof.

The full-size spare alloy wheel is under the rear floor cover.

The two-tiered cargo floor at the rear that can be folded flat is a nice touch, giving you some flexibility to separate loads (maybe wet beach towels in the bottom and dry gear on the shelf above), or just lay it flush to be a uniformly flat load space.

At time of writing, the VTi L7 has a national driveway price of $43,490. This seven-seater has a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and is the second-from-top spec in the current CR-V line-up, along with a five-seat AWD variant in the same trim level.

This CR-V variant has an extensive features list and newer additions to that include a seven-inch touchscreen multimedia unit (with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Garmin sat nav), a hands-free power tailgate, wireless phone charging (on VTi L7 and VTi LX AWD grades), and dual zone climate control.

It also gets LED headlights, LED fog lights, privacy glass, a panoramic sunroof, and roof rails, in keeping with its sporty presence.

All CR-V trim levels have driver-assist tech under the umbrella of Honda Sensing and includes such safety wizardry as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, forward collision warning, lane departure warning and more.

It rides on 18-inch alloy wheels shod with Toyo Proxes R45 tyres (235/60 R18).

Exterior paint colours include Platinum White pearlescent, Lunar Silver metallic, Brilliant Sporty Blue metallic, Modern Steel metallic, Crystal Black pearlescent, Ignite Red metallic, and Cosmic Blue metallic (on our test vehicle). Metallic or pearlescent paint do not incur an additional charge.

Tucson diesel models are powered by a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, common-rail direct-injection turbo engine. The all-alloy (D4HD) design is part of Hyundai’s ‘Smartstream’ engine family, producing 137kW at 4000rpm, and 416Nm from 2000-2750rpm. 

An eight-speed (traditional torque-converter) automatic transmission feeds power to Hyundai’s ‘HTRAC’ on-demand all-wheel drive system, a multi-mode set-up built around an electronic, variable torque-split clutch (using inputs like vehicle speed and road conditions) to manage distribution of drive between the front and rear axles.

The VTi L7 has the CR-V line-up’s 1.5-litre four-cylinder VTEC turbocharged petrol engine – producing 140kW at 5600rpm and 240Nm at 2000-5000rpm – and is paired to a CVT transmission able to be worked via steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

This match-up is a quietly sufficient, if unexciting, combination. 

Note: this CR-V variant is front-wheel drive; it is not an all-wheel drive vehicle.

Hyundai’s official fuel economy figure for the Tucson diesel, on the ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban cycle, is 6.3L/100km, the 2.0-litre four emitting 163g/km of C02 in the process.

Over a mix of city, suburban, and freeway driving we saw a real-world (at the bowser) average of 8.0L/100km, which is pretty handy for a car of this size and weight (1680kg).

You’ll need 54 litres of diesel to fill the tank, which translates to a range of 857km using Hyundai’s official economy number, and 675km based on our ‘as tested’ figure.

Official fuel consumption is listed as 7.3L/100km (combined). 

Actual fuel consumption on test was 8.9L/100km. 

The CR-V has a 57-litre fuel tank so, with going by that as-tested fuel-consumption figure, you can reasonably expect a driving range of approximately 590km from a full tank, but that’s factoring in a safe-distance buffer of 50km.

Maximum power of 137kW in a roughly 1.7-tonne SUV may not seem like a tarmac-tearing equation, but it’s the Tucson diesel’s hefty torque output that puts life into this machine.

Peak pulling power of 416Nm is available from 2000-2750rpm and this five-seater gets up and goes. You can expect 0-100km/h acceleration in the high 9.0sec bracket and mid-range punch makes the Tucson diesel an effortless proposition around the city and suburbs. Eight ratios in the auto means freeway cruising is relaxed, too. 

The downside of diesel is invariably engine noise, and although the Tucson’s 2.0-litre unit rarely lets you forget it’s there it’s not a massive deal.

While the auto is smooth and geared nicely, I’m not a fan of the electronic ‘shift-by-wire’ selector buttons on the console.

Yes, it saves space, and yes, Ferrari does it, but there’s something about the ability to simply move or flick a more conventional shifter that makes parking or three-point turning maneuvers smoother and less intense than pushing individual buttons.

The suspension set-up is strut front, multi-link rear, and unlike the majority of Hyundais released here in recent years this car’s tune is ‘global’ rather than one developed in local conditions.

On smooth surfaces the ride is supple enough, but typically patchy suburban roads make their presence felt. That said, the car feels stable and under control in corners, although the steering feels overly light, and road feel is okay only.   .

We stuck to the bitumen for this test, but those keen on light off-highway work will have Hyundai’s ‘Multi-terrain’ system at their disposal, with ‘Snow’, ‘Mud’, and ‘Sand’ settings offered.

All around vision is good, the seats remain comfortable and supportive over longer distances, and the brakes (305mm vented discs front / 300mm solid discs rear) are nice and progressive.

The big multimedia screen looks sleek and presents well in terms of navigation, although I’d be in favour of physical dials for major controls like audio volume. But you may feel differently.

Not too bad, really – without ever being anywhere near exceptional or even exciting.

The driver’s seat is eight-way power adjustable, as mentioned earlier, and the steering column is tilt and telescopic adjustable so it’s easy enough to approximate your preferred driving position.

And steering has a balanced feel about it, if a tad too light, but that sensation does fit with the general medium-sized SUV feel of the CR-V, which will likely spend most of its time as a suburban or inner-city chariot. It has a listed minimum turning radius of 5.5m.

It’s a mid-size SUV so it’s a nimble enough around town and the CR-V’s 1.5-litre turbo engine and CVT make for a predictable, if lacklustre, pairing and throttle response is not too sharp.

However, if you do get the urge, you can play around with the steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters in an attempt to inject some more life into this 140kW/240Nm SUV.

The CR-V has a solid on-road stance and ride and handling are adequate, with a reliable general feel, but the suspension is on the wrong side of firm, and this Honda tends to become skippy at speed through rougher sections and it thumps through even shallow potholes.

Rolling rubber is Toyo Proxes R45 (235/60 R18) and the CR-V has a full-sized alloy spare wheel is under the floor in the rear cargo space. 

There is plenty of driver-assist tech onboard and its LaneWatch system (which, when you use the left indicator, shows you the camera view back along the vehicle’s left-hand side) actually comes in handy, especially if you spend any time in a city where you’ll need to watch out for cyclists and other road users.

Otherwise, there is sufficient all-round visibility. The reversing camera view, depicted on the multimedia screen, while not big enough, is clear enough that you shouldn’t have any strife if you keep a close eye on that as you reverse.

The CR-V has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2017.

It has six airbags (front, side and full-length curtains for all three rows), as well as a raft of driver-assist and passive safety tech including those items mentioned in the ‘features’ section near the top of this page as well as hill start assist, driver attention monitor, trailer stability assist, and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

Hyundai covers the Tucson with a five year/unlimited km warranty, and the ‘iCare’ program includes a ‘Lifetime Service Plan’, as well as 12 months 24/7 roadside assist and an annual sat nav map update (the latter two renewed free-of-charge each year, up to 10 years, if the car is serviced at an authorised Hyundai dealer).

Maintenance is scheduled every 12-months/15,000km (whichever comes first) and there’s also a pre-paid option which means you can lock in prices and/or fold service costs into your finance package.

The first service is free (recommended at one month/1500km), and Hyundai Australia’s website allows owners to price maintenance costs out to 34 years/510,000km.

Over a slightly shorter timeframe a service for the Tucson diesel will currently set you back $375 for each of the first five years, which is in the middle ground for the segment. 

The CR-V is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and five years of premium roadside assistance is available.

Service appointments are recommended at 12 month/10,000km intervals or when the engine oil monitor light illuminates, whichever comes first.

The CR-V 2WD has an average cost per service over five years of $312, with a total capped cost over that same period of $3120. Owners are advised of extra costs beyond that total (for example, $45 for a cabin / dust & pollen filter).