Hyundai Tucsons Traverse Africa to showcase reliability

An expedition of six Hyundai Tucson sport utility vehicles has successfully completed a 6200km-long crossing of the African continent from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in a demonstration of the Hyundai reliability and solid performance under highly demanding climatic and road conditions.

“Tucson Coast-to-Coast” was organized by Entreposto VH, Hyundai’s distributor for Portugal, for the benefit of Tucson customers and automotive journalists.

Starting in the Cape Cross, Namibia’s port city on the Atlantic coast, the 22-day-long adventure took the team through the spectacular deserts and mountains of Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and Swaziland before finally reaching Maputo on Mozambique’s Indian Ocean coast, their final destination.

All vehicles were stock Tucsons equipped with a 4×4 drivetrain and a driver-selectable 4WD lock to provide a continuous 50/50 torque split between front and rear wheels which came in handy as some 4,000km of the journey was over gravel.

“The cars performed extremely well with just two tire punctures, three air filter changes and one air conditioning filter replacement”,  said Pedro Castelo, PR Manager for Entreposto.

The overall fuel consumption was measured at 9.3 liters per 100km, a respectable figure considering the vehicles were operating for 15 of the 22 days with the air conditioning set at full blast and maximum cargo loads of 300kg. Temperatures ranged from a low of 13 degrees to a high of 45 degrees centigrade.

“This is yet another illustration of the quality, durability and reliability built into every new Hyundai product”,  said Steve Kelleher, President and CEO of Hyundai Auto Canada. “With its innovative flexibility, abundant safety features and classy styling, the award-winning Hyundai Tucson is a class-leading, value-packed compact SUV that meshes with the active lifestyles of Canadian consumers.”