Unsafe, Unreliable, and Unresolved – My Hyundai Tucson Experience
I’ve had a very poor experience with my Hyundai Tucson since purchasing it in May 2025, and I would strongly caution others considering a diesel model for normal day-to-day driving.
Since September 2025, the vehicle has had three major failures, including:
Turbo failure
Engine replacement
Limp mode on a motorway while attempting to follow Hyundai’s instructions to regenerate the exhaust filter
In addition to these major issues, the car displays the “Keep driving to regenerate exhaust filter” warning weekly....and lately every few days
To clear this warning, I am regularly forced to:
Drive 80–100 km unnecessarily
Spend money on fuel
Add wear and tear to the vehicle
Burn diesel purely to clear a fault
This is not only inconvenient — it is wasteful, costly, and environmentally questionable, as I am effectively being told to drive long distances for no purpose other than to clear the system.
What is most frustrating is:
The car has been in for repair three separate times
It has been off the road for approximately 8 weeks in total
Hyundai applied multiple fixes, including a full engine replacement and software updates
I was specifically told in February that a software update would reduce the frequency of these warnings
Despite this, the problem continues exactly as before.
Hyundai’s position is that:
There are “no technical faults”
The warning is “normal”
The issue is due to driving style
However, this is simply not accurate in my case:
The warning has appeared even after long motorway journeys (150–200 km at 120 km/h)
A courtesy Hyundai Tucson I drove for nearly 3 weeks under the same conditions did not have this issue at all
This clearly shows that the behaviour of my vehicle is not normal.
To add to this, I have also experienced:
Poor cabin heating compared to the courtesy vehicle
Excessive road noise due to what appears to be a door seal issue
Another key point is that I did not realise Hyundai operates in such a fragmented way by country. I believed I was buying into a global brand, but when raising these issues — including what I consider to be run-around responses, broken promises, and conflicting information from Hyundai Ireland — Hyundai Europe has shown no willingness to step in or assist.
Overall, this car has been:
Unreliable
Expensive to manage
Stressful to own
Not fit for normal mixed driving use
Hyundai’s final response has been to suggest that the vehicle may not be suitable for my needs, which is extremely disappointing for a family SUV that should handle standard town and motorway driving without issue.
I have previously owned vehicles from Kia without any issues like this and, based on this experience, I will be returning to that brand in the future.
I am now forced to pursue an independent engineering assessment to resolve this.
I expected far better from a global brand.