Is The New Hyundai Tucson XRT Really Off-Road Ready?

This is the new Hyundai Tucson XRT. It is the off-road trim of the Hyundai Tucson. And in this video, we're going to find out, is it more than just an appearance package? We're going to put it on the rollers to the TFL slip test, give it on the lifts CO's engineered, and take it into Andre's pit to run through the trenches course. All right, this is the TFL slip test. Now in this test, we get various wheels stuck on purpose in these rollers to see how the all-wheel drive system reacts to get us unstuck. And the first test is the front wheel slip test. So both front wheels, the primary drive wheels in this Tucson are stuck in the rollers and the rear end is going to have to engage to get us unstuck. We're neutral, nice and settled. Into drive. I'm going off the brake, out of the accelerator. All right, so really no slipping to report whatsoever, which is good news. It tells me that the rear axle was engaged from the get-go, which is important if you're driving in snow or slippery conditions. Now we're going to try it one more time, but I've got this little center lock button located here on the instrument cluster, which is going to try to split the torque more evenly 50-50 front to back. Let's see if that has any difference. It's great. Yeah, no problem whatsoever. So about the same both times. Perfect result on the front wheel slip test. All right, let's take a look underneath the Tucson and see how this vehicle is engineered. Now being the XRT, we do have a different front fascia with an unpainted black plastic, which is great for tackling some more gnarly terrain as you don't want to scratch up any nice bright work. It is a little flimsy though, and there really isn't much of a skid plate. Now we do have this plastic cover, but I'm not sure that's going to protect you against much in the event of a collision with a rock. There is a little access panel as well for the oil drain. Suspension is a fairly basic strut style in the front. There you can see the lower control arm and the front mounted disc brakes. And of course the Michelin Primacy tires in a 19 inch configuration. It certainly isn't much of an off-road tire. And I wish that on the XRT you could get at least like a rugged terrain tire, maybe a trail terrain, something in that territory, if not a full all terrain. Now it is a unibody style construction, so not body on frame here. Fairly exposed exhaust, I have to say. It does appear to be one of the more lower hanging parts of the vehicle. And there you can see the prop shaft making its way toward the rear here. The fuel tank is going to be located over here on the driver's side, once again, unshielded. More kind of aero trim here to help kind of deflect the air around some of the components, but none of this is true underbody protection. And then out back here, we have our independent rear suspension with our rear differential there and our single port exhaust all the way through. Look, there's not a lot of off-road tech underneath here. We don't have recovery points front or back that could be used on the trail. We don't have any underbody protection. So I think the XRT should at least get a true skid plate for like the oil pan, ideally the radiator as well, maybe something for fuel tanks because this felty foam and exposed plastic is just not doing it for me. Now for the diagonal slip test. So in this test, the left front and the right rear are stuck in the rollers. Other two are on the ground. And the all-wheel drive system's going to have to distribute torque left to right to get us unstuck, very common in the snow, very common off-road and in the mud, that kind of thing. All right, normal mode, no sensor lock. Off the brake, onto the accelerator. Okay, all right, okay, interesting. So we got some initial wheel spin. Then the computer kind of thought about the situation a little slow, but responded in the appropriate manner. Started clamping down on the brakes of the wheels that were spinning. And then we got unstuck. We'll try it one more time with the sensor diff. Sensor diff, diff, it's not really true diff, it's power takeoff, but the sensor lock engaged. All right, settled in neutral. Off of the brake, onto the accelerator. Okay, so same kind of thing. So quite a bit of initial slip, but really not a big performance difference between the sensor lock on and off. Now this particular Hyundai Tucson XRT stickers at a hair over $37,000, I find this to be quite well-equipped at that price. So some things we have in this vehicle include all the safety systems. So we've got adaptive cruise control, lane centering, blind spot monitoring, but we also have a lot of instant noodles features like this 10.25 inch touchscreen display. I find it to be pretty good. Couple of annoyances, it doesn't have a volume knob. Instead you got these little touch sensitive buttons here. You can of course use a steering wheel, which is great. We also have touch sensitive buttons for a lot of the other functionality, including the climate control and this piano black. From my experience with our long-term Santa Cruz gets scratched up very easily and starts to look very budget. We also have wired Apple CarPlay in this vehicle. No wireless weirdly, if you get the large screen. And then below that, we're gonna find our wireless charger there with USB-A ports looking a little dated. I do like the physical drive selector for park reversal neutral drive on the eight-speed transmission. Here we have our all-wheel drive controls, including lock for the center all-wheel drive system, as well as a drive mode selector with normal, sport, smart, and snow. Heated seats there. And then a nice size center arm rest. And then of course, we have a digital instrument cluster as well, which has some configurations that you can cycle through. So it's a nice interior. Could use less piano black. Could use a few more physical knobs, but it's quite well equipped in here. Now for the three-wheeled slip test. So a much harder test than what we've seen before. Both rear wheels are stuck. The left front is stuck. Only the right front is on the ground. Let's see if we get the torque transfer we need to get us unstuck. Onto the accelerator. Come on, come on. Okay, well, we did it. It takes a second for the Hyundai system to respond, is what I'm finding. We did get a little bit of torque transfer to the point where the vehicle actually slid to the side a little bit and caught one of the side of the rear rollers, I believe. We still got off, but definitely took some thinking from the all-wheel drive system. Let's try it one more time, but the center locked up. All right, here we go. Back in onto the rollers. Got that nice linear response from that torque converter automatic, which is great. Center is locked. Right front has to engage once again. Come on. Okay. Well, we actually heard that right front starting to spin on the pavement. So we got a lot of traction control movement that time. I was a little bit heavier on the throttle as well, but still, you know, pretty conservative and we were able to pull ourselves off. So yeah, it does work. It's just, you gotta give it time to think. Stepping into the rear of the Tucson, very good size rear seat. My driving position is six feet tall. Got good headroom, got plenty of leg room, really a spacious rear seat. And we also have dual air vents back here for your furry friends and a center fold-down armrest, which holds houses, excuse me, a couple of cup holders. It's a really good rear seat. Yeah, nice and comfortable. Small hump in the floor, which is a bit of an inconvenience for center passengers, but nice and roomy regardless. All right. Now for the hardest test for these front wheel drive base crossovers, only one rear on the ground. In this case, the right rear. All three other ones are stuck. Okay. On the rollers. Into neutral, we're going right to the all wheel drive lock function. Let's see what this Hyundai's got. Come on, Hyundai. A little bit of torque transfer. Feeling it moving around a little back there. Oh, there you go. So with this Hyundai, I find you have to be a little bit more aggressive in the throttle. And what it feels like is a two stage setup where upon normal to light throttle, it kind of sort of moves torque around, not a ton. And then it feels like it gets stuck. Like the torque converter starts to bind up. And then if you push through that binding feeling, what you're really pushing through is actually that brake disc clamping down on that wheel that's stopped. That's where you get that big torque transfer. And if you apply enough throttle, get enough torque to that wheel, you can drive down off the roller. So we did it, you know. Now it wasn't as quick or as responsive as something like a Forester Wilderness. Not as good as like a Bronco Sport Badlands. Those are in a step above this in terms of slip test results. But we still were able to get off. So, you know, pretty good. Pop in the trunk of the Tucson. We're gonna find 38.7 cubic feet worth of space behind the second row. A super functional trunk. It's a nice flat load area here as well. And then let's see if we can fold the seats from the rear end. Ah, we can. Pull down a little switch, fold them nice and flat up against the fronts there. Yeah, really usable trunk. And as we lift up on the cargo floor there, you're gonna find our Space Saver spare tire. Not a full-size spare, which is a little bit of a miss, but it's better than nothing. Hyundai Tucson heading down into the Onyx Off-Road Andres Pit course. These are various holes cut into the ground at offset intervals to test how the four-wheel drive system works in a real-world application. Cause we're gonna start lifting tires. Onyx Off-Road, as ever, our go-to off-road navigation software integrates with Apple CarPlay. Super easy to use. Okay, so first up, we're gonna run this course with the center lock unlocked, like you would drive it every day. Got about eight inches of ground clearance of retuned suspension for the XRT model, but not a lot of ground clearance, especially with these side steps, which are supposed to look like rock rails, but I don't know if I'd trust it to put the weight of the vehicle on. First trench. Okay, we're picking up right front, left rear. Nice, consistent, slow throttle application was enough to get us through that. Next one's gonna be left front, right rear. Okay, that one was less extreme, but pretty good. Now we're gonna lose all momentum on the third one. Start to build in the throttle application. Come on, Hyundai. Harder and harder throttle, there we go. Gotta keep it smooth, though, cause we don't have the clearance to go bashing through here. Okay, there we go. Little scrape there on the driver's side as we're on the hardest trench. This car's working hard. There we go, almost up. We gotta get to the top. Okay, now I got full throttle. Torque converter's working. Front wheel's climbing. Oh, yes. Ooh, there we go. Very good. Okay, so we were working pretty hard. Definitely kicking up some dust there. I got wheels spinning, but we made it to the top. Took a lot of throttle application. Gonna lock up the center. Button pushed, mode engaged. Here we go. See if we notice a difference. Okay, pretty good result on that first little trench. Second one, picking up the left front and the right rear. Nice little tire lift there. Feels about the same, maybe a little bit more confidence-inspiring with that center locked. It's not as impressive as, let's say, that Passport Trailsport I just tested. That has a much more aggressive torque transfer. I hear the ABS pump. It is working hard today, folks. Okay, once again, this is where that dual clutch would struggle with that gentle torque delivery, but the torque converter doesn't, and off we went. Took a little bit less throttle application. It was never at full throttle that time, but still working pretty hard. Now look, guys, I think the Tucson's a great car. It's very roomy. It's got a lot of great tech in it. I think it looks great on the outside. It's got a really nice design, but it's not much of an off-roader in its current trim. 19-inch wheels, big wheel, fairly small tire, street tire, really no underbody protection. A pretty good all-wheel drive system. It does have the all-wheel drive system, but not really enough clearance, so it's a good car. It does a lot of things really well. I just wish the XRT had a little bit more in terms of suspension height as well as underbody protection and tires to make it a better all-rounder. Guys, let me know what you think in the comments section below. This has been Tommy behind the camera, and we'll see you in the next video.