Is the Hyundai Tuscon a good car to buy?

I have never owned a Hyundai, but from the reviews and the experience of friends who have had different models of Hyundai, I would stay well clear. I don’t trust anything Korean. They have had many reliability problems in the past, and the build quality and interior materials are cheap and nasty. They will probably improve over time like Japanese cars did in the 70s, but in my mind they are yet to prove themselves.

If you do decide to buy it, get it checked over by a qualified mechanic first, and be very careful.

My experience with Hyundai has been mostly opposite but admittedly mixed.

The older Hyundais were crap, but they turned around nicely to where they are now about on-par with Nissan. They are not quite Toyota or Honda but they are now a decent carmaker.

As for the 2007 Tuscon specifically, what I’ve seen of it seems to be fairly unremarkable except for value; it’s low-priced for what you get. In other words, it’s about the same as the competition except for the smaller price-tag and I have seen some praises for it’s reliability.

As always though, be careful buying “pre-owned”. Get it checked out first ;)

@jerv A family member recently bought a Hyundai Getz brand new, and I am told that it is not good quality. One of my uncles makes a point of test driving every new Korean car when it comes out (Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato are the recent ones) to see if they are worth buying, and he says they are still poor quality.

@FireMadeFlesh Much of my experience and that of people I personally know is with Accents and Elantras so I am going mostly on that. I can’t speak much about their other models.
Then again, I have yet to be impressed with any SUV of any size, make, or model… unless you want to count my old 4WD Civic Wagon. (The Subaru Forester is considered an SUV and the old Civic “Wagovan” is basically the same as a Forester in my book.)

@jerv I haven’t really looked into any 4WD, because I can’t stand the concept of a huge hulk of a car in the city, especially in an age when we are supposed to be more environmentally conscious than our ancestors. I appreciate low, balanced cars that are small enough to handle easily in the city environment, so when a Range Rover or similar is blocking my vision I get quite frustrated. I was impressed with the Honda MDX when dad had a look at one a while back though. For something the size of the Tuscon, I would go for a Mitsubishi Challenger or a Ford Escape. In town, a Mazda CX-7 would probably be quite good too, although I am less certain of its off-road capabilities.

@FireMadeFlesh For those of us who have ever went mud-bogging as part of their daily commute (I used to live on a poorly maintained dirt road) I can attest to the fact that ‘87 Corollas, ‘89 Golfs, and 4th-gen Civics have acceptable off-roading ability.
I personally prefer small cars myself, and my current ‘85 Corolla turns sharp enough in a parking lot that I sometimes worry about hitting my own rear bumper. As for my old Civic wagon, it had more room (both passenger and cargo) than many SUVs yet was low enough that an Escape could block my view despite the two having comparable ground clearance.