Looking for compact, hybrid, easy breezy, lemon squeezy? The 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is answering your call.
I found this year’s Tucson Hybrid, solidly in the subcompact category, nice and easy to drive. You really can park it anywhere, even in that last spot near the courthouse just minutes before you need to be in the judge’s chambers …. Because, ya know, you are a public defender doing good for the community.
Edmunds.com calls it “one of our favorite small crossovers.”
U.S. News and World Report ranks it Number 1 in the Hybrid SUV category.
It’s a great little car IMHO. But my advice remains the same: please test drive it first to make sure you like it. I am vehemently opposed to buying a car online, sight unseen, and having it delivered well after your banking account has been drained. This is not a pizza; if you don’t like your Hawaiian with anchovy, the worst thing that may happen is, well, food poisoning. But if you don’t like the car you just purchased, just think about the opposite-sex partner you almost married in your early 20s because your church thought that would be a good idea.
There is some decent power to this Mighty Mouse Tucson hybrid. 231 horses. 271 pound-feet of torque. And it’s a turbo. It’s rare you get that kind of power for such a small car, much less for a hybrid. On top of an average mpg of 35, this is clearly one to put on your shopping list.
Plus, All-Wheel Drive is standard.
There does seem to be more interior room in this year’s Tucson than in previous generations, so getting your family and friends (or ‘Framily’, as we LGBTQIA++ call ourselves) in and out should be relatively easy. I say easy because, well, I am not exactly a petite, nor very ladylike.
Those of you who really do know how to eat properly (kale, quinoa, baby spinach, protein bars) should be fine. Other like me (loaded tacos, bacon burgers, Funyuns, Dr. Pepper), can drive the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid to visit our primary care providers. Or, as these professionals were called in the 20th Century: doctors.
I tested the top-of-the-line Limited trim, which started at a pre-Trump-tariff price of about $43K US. That’s kinda steep for a very small car, the kind of car usually bought by single people without trust funds who need to travel back-and-forth to a job every day, a job that, during the pandemic was called ‘essential’ (read: low wage).
But the entry-level Blue trim should be fine for most people who just need a car with a little flair and a bit of economy. There is also a Plug-In Hybrid model, but you will need to plug that in on occasion. Make sure you have a designated spot for that (read: garage).
So now that the Vatican has buried a Pope and Trump couldn’t stay awake for the service, he has decided this is a good time to arrest a 4-year-old boy with cancer and send him to Honduras with his mother and sister. He just happens to be an American citizen entitled to Medicaid and Due Process. Yep: One-way ticket. In handcuffs. No need to continue life-saving treatments here in Louisiana.
In light of this, it seems shallow to talk about cars and prices and tariffs, but that is the point of this review. In short, I see prices going up. A lot. Even for used vehicles, especially ones in decent conditions.
Please continue to be vigilant. Keep your eyes open.
Traveling to and from the United States of America right now is, well….. Proceed with caution, please.
Two German teens were “detained and deported” from Hawaii, all because they did not have a hotel reservation. All they wanted to do was see the world before they started college, plus they had all their paperwork in order, along with the proper travel visas, just not a solid hotel reservation. So the next stop was a detention center and green prison jumpsuits. And not a pineapple Mai Tai on Waikiki.
Gawd, how did we get here? I thought the internet was supposed to make everyone smarter.
Not more compliant.
