Everything You Get On a Fully Loaded 2022 Hyundai Tucson

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The 2022 Hyundai Tucson has finally made its debut and, after a complete redesign, the new compact SUV features its most extensive lineup yet. Not only can the redesigned Hyundai Tucson be had with your choice of fuel-efficient powertrain under the hood, but this year’s model also offers no shortage of spoil-worthy amenities. That’s especially true if you find yourself lusting after a fully loaded 2022 Hyundai Tucson. 

The 2022 Hyundai Tucson is available in several models and trims

When it comes to what’s under the hood, the 2022 Hyundai Tucson offers multiple options. While a 187-hp, 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine is standard on most Hyundai Tucson models, this year’s Tucson can also be had with a 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder hybrid engine. 

The 2022 Tucson is available in several trim levels too. Kicking off this year’s redesigned lineup, however, is the Tucson SE. This particular Hyundai Tucson model comes standard with features like an 8-inch color touchscreen display audio⁠ system with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The 2022 Tucson is also available in SE, SEL, and Limited trim levels.

Spoil yourself with the fully loaded Hyundai Tucson Limited or Hybrid Limited

2022 Hyundai Tucson | Hyundai

If it’s a fully loaded 2022 Hyundai Tucson model that you’re after, look no further than the Limited trim level. It comes brimming with tech-savvy features, including a 10.25-inch touchscreen with navigation, voice recognition, and a surround-view camera. 

The fully loaded Hyundai Tucson also benefits from convenient features such as Remote Smart Park Assist and a Highway Driving Assist semi-automated driving system. And if those features don’t have you sold on a fully-loaded Hyundai Tucson Limited? This year’s model is also available with features like a hands-free smart power liftgate with auto open. 

When it comes to what’s under the hood, if you find yourself dreaming of a new Tucson that also knows how to make the most out of every gallon, get ready to put the 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Limited at the top of your list. Not only does this Hyundai Tucson model come stocked with features but it also delivers an EPA-estimated 37 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway.

What colors does the new Hyundai Tucson come in?

A red 2022 Hyundai Tucson driving
2022 Hyundai Tucson | Hyundai

The 2022 Hyundai Tucson is available in several different eye-catching exterior colors. In fact, this year’s options include colors like amazon grey, shimmering silver, phantom black, Portofino grey, quartz white, calypso red, and intense blue. With so many options to choose from, determining which Tucson exterior color best suits your needs is an easy feat.

How much will the 2022 Hyundai Tucson cost?

The 2022 Tucson starts at $24,950, which makes for a fairly manageable price tag. However, the redesigned Hyundai Tucson does get more expensive if you opt for a more well-equipped trim level. Take, for example, the Hyundai Tucson SEL, which starts at $26,500. And the fully loaded Hyundai Tucson? Opt for a gasoline-powered model, and the Hyundai Tucson Limited will have you spending at least $34,700. 

Is the 2022 Hyundai Tucson a good car?

Yes, the 2022 Hyundai Tucson is a good car. It not only offers a slew of well-equipped trim levels to choose from, but it’s also a new SUV under $35,000. Even better, according to U.S. News & World Report, the redesigned Hyundai Tucson already ranks as the best compact SUV of 2021 and the best SUV with two rows. What’s not to like about that?

RELATED: The Most Reliable 2021 AWD SUVs Recommended by Consumer Reports

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Is Buying Used Tires a Good Way to Save Big on a Major Expense?

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Buying a brand new set of tires can be financially exhausting — especially if you live in an area where you have to switch between types of seasonal tires. It may sometimes be tempting to save money by buying the cheapest tires on the market, or even seeing if you can find a set of tires used, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best idea. For a few reasons, it’s always best to splurge and buy new tires.

Buying used tires is typically cheaper than buying new tires

Used car tires lie | Sean Gallup, Getty Images

In most cases, buying a used set of tires is cheaper than buying new tires — unless you are buying the cheapest, lowest quality tires on the market. Whether you are trying to save money or be a little bit more eco-friendly, used tires can be repurposed in many ways — but being put back onto a vehicle isn’t always the best or safest way to reuse tires. It isn’t technically illegal to sell used tires, and many people do this through a private sale, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to put them on your vehicle. Besides that, used tires may be cheaper initially, but they have a shorter lifespan left than new tires, meaning you’ll be paying to have them replaced again sooner rather than later.

Pre-loved tires may not be the safest options

Used tire
A used tire held by a mechanic | FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI, AFP, Getty Images

Consumer Reports doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to used tires, claiming that regardless of the potential savings, it isn’t the safest option. While we can gauge the age of a tire by treadwear, this isn’t necessarily the only determining factor in how much longer a tire has to offer a safe driving experience.

“Don’t buy used tires: you don’t know where they have been or how they’ve been used. The tire could have been driven overloaded, underinflated, or to excessively high speed. Any one or a combination of these factors could lead to internal damage not visible from the outside. In short, the used tire could be unsafe.”

Consumer Reports News

Used cars are sold with used tires — what difference does it make?

Chances are, if you are buying a used car, the tires on that car aren’t brand new — though that isn’t always the case. This leads to the question — why are some used tires OK, and some aren’t? There isn’t a 100% guarantee that used tires will be unsafe, but there isn’t a 100% chance that they will be. For this reason, it is usually recommended that you buy new tires even when purchasing a new car, though most people aren’t interested in such an expense unless it is clearly necessary. The reason behind avoiding new tires is simple: you can’t determine how much wear the tires have had during their life on the road just by a quick glance.

Isn’t that the point of gauging treadwear? Yes. Treadwear is the easiest and most measurable way to gauge a tire’s life, but it isn’t the only critical component of the tire that you need to worry about. Tires that have been sitting for a while can experience dry rot, and tires that have been driven in harsh conditions, underinflated, overinflated, or at high speeds for long periods of time can cause nonvisible internal damage to the tire.

Buying used tires isn’t always unsafe, but there is no way to truly tell how safe a used set of tires will actually be. Besides being potentially unsafe, used tires have less of a lifespan left than buying new tires, so while it may save you a bit of money initially, you will find yourself having to replace your tires more frequently.

RELATED: What Do All of the Confusing Numbers of a Tire Size Mean?

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Rivian Announces a Funding Round of $2.5 Billion, Mostly From Amazon and Ford

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Although Elon Musk’s Tesla continues to dominate the electric car market, the automaker’s promised Cybertruck seems to be getting further and further away. Production delays pushing the release to 2022 (and possibly beyond) mean there’s space in the market for an electric truck. But the list of serious competitors is short: The Nikola Badger has been pushed to late 2022 at the earliest, and the Ford Lighting is part of an established brand, leaving only Rivian as a player in the electric truck market looking for new investments.

Recent $2.5 billion investment in Rivian

Rivian | Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Rivian has received major investments over the past few years, representing significant interest from big players in the financial market. Investments have totaled over $2.5 billion each of the last three years, and Rivian recently announced it completed another round of funding in 2021. With a total of over $10 billion invested in its offerings, the company is quickly on its way to challenging the electric truck space. Two notable investors in the most recent round have been Amazon and Ford.

The two companies have a particular interest in Rivian’s technology, with Ford investing in electric vehicles and Amazon searching for ways to optimize package delivery. Interestingly, both Ford and Amazon were some of Rivian’s initial investors in 2019. Amazon was the first investor listed in February 2019, contributing $700 million to a funding round for the fledgling EV manufacturer. Two months later, Ford invested $500 million with promises to collaborate on future projects.

Ford and Amazon aren’t new investors

At the end of 2019, Rivian closed another round of funding totaling $1.3 billion. T. Rowe Price Associates led the investment, but Amazon and Ford were part of it as well. T. Rowe Price Associates (which has also invested in GM) would go on to invest $2.5 billion in both 2020 and 2021, leading to the July 2021 funding round. Last month, Rivian received another $2.5 billion. Ford and Amazon were leading contributors.

Technically, Ford and Rivian are competitors in the electric truck market. But buyers looking for something novel and exciting will likely shy away from the established brand and check out the new company. On the other hand, the Ford brand has over a century of reliable history. Consumers who planned to purchase a Ford pickup anyway might be tempted to try one of the Lightning models. It seems likely the Ford/Rivian partnership will be profitable for both sides.

Why Rivian might be just what Amazon needs

On the other hand, Amazon hasn’t taken any steps to enter the electric truck market — yet. Its partnership with Rivian revolved around developing an electric delivery van using the EV maker’s skateboard platform. As Amazon’s e-commerce reach expands, millions of customers will order products for the first time. For both economic and climate reasons, the massive company is always looking to optimize its fleet of delivery vans. Going full electric with its delivery trucks would save money and emissions, and Amazon believes Rivian has the technology to make that happen.

When Amazon’s Jeff Bezos flew to the edge of space in July, he reached the launch pad in a 2021 Rivian R1S SUV. The Rivian partnership isn’t a minor investment where Amazon is looking to return 5%. Bezos is signaling that the companies are in it for the long haul together. Rivian’s investors so far have been a list of massive, successful companies. Whether Rivian will join them in that pantheon is hard to forecast, but this new deal will put the spotlight on them.

RELATED:  2021 Rivian R1T vs. 2021 Ford F-150: Who’s Got the Biggest Truck?

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Want a Dash Cam? Get the Thinkware F70

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Dash cams are an excellent device to have in your car, serving as cold-hard proof of the craziest accidents. And while some dash cams can serve as driving assistants, they can also be rather expensive. The Thinkware F70 is everything a dash cam should be without being too complex or expensive. How do I know? I just took one on a 1,000-mile road trip.

Thinkware F70 Quality Day and Night | Taylor Martin

The facts and features of the Thinkware F70 Dash Cam

The Thinkware F70 can be bought for $90 on their website (though it was on sale for $50 when I purchased it). That’s certainly a hefty chunk of change, but you get what you pay for. For starters, it’s small enough to tuck behind your rearview mirror, out of the driver’s way. But this cylindrical camera is packed with some great features.

The dash cam records a continuous stream of one-minute clips. That way you don’t end up with one large file, you end up with 100 small ones. But the Thinkware F70 features an Impact Detection mode. If you get in an accident, the camera will beep, indicating that it recognizes the accident. Rather than having to sift through 100s of clips, the F70 automatically records 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after the beep and stores it in a separate folder.

Speaking of folders, let’s talk about the tech: the F70 comes with an 8GB micro SD card, which was enough to record my nonstop 13-hour road trip from Florida to Maryland. However, the file size isn’t small, but rather the dash cam will only save up to one hour of clips (or 60 clips). That means the F70 can record continuous footage without ever running out of space since it automatically deletes old clips.

The files are bigger because the video quality is higher, recording at a constant 1080p. And you have the option of recording sound, so which can be turned off by holding the record button for a couple of seconds. But that’s not even scratching the surface of what your Thinkware F70 can do.

If you wire the camera to constantly be on (which might drain the life of your battery faster), the F70 has motion sensor technology. That means that, in a parking lot, it only records when it detects motion, which can stop thieves from messing with your car. Personally, I have mine set to turn off with the car, as if someone is going to steal my automobile, there’s no way I can get the camera back.

A couple of quirks and complaints

Thinkware F70 Dash Cam
Thinkware F70 Dash cam | Taylor Martin

Don’t get me wrong, I love this little thing, but I do have a few complaints. One minor issue is the green light indicating whether the camera is on and recording is incredibly dim. At night you can see it, but during the day it’s hard to tell. The best way to make sure the dash cam is on is by holding the record button to make sure it can enable/disable sound recording. That’s a hassle and requires you to take a hand off the wheel, a problem that’d be solved with a better bulb.

Then there’s the impact detection. It’s a brilliant feature no doubt, but it’s also a bit sensitive. Going over bumps and train tracks a bit too can set it off. Another minor issue, but one you should be aware of. I was incredibly confused the first time my camera beeped while driving, worried that it’d shut off. So if you hear the beep and didn’t get into a crash, it’s just the impact detection system thinking you did.

How to install the dash cam (and how I installed it)

OBD2 Outlet and Fuse Box
OBD2 Outlet (Top) and Fuse Box with Thinkware F70 Wires Jammed Into Fuses (Bottom) | Sebastian Gollnow via Getty Images/Taylor Martin

You have a handful of options when installing the dash cam in your car. You can purchase it with a 12v cigarette lighter to plug into the car, as well as an OBD2 connector. Both of these are fine choices if you don’t mind looking at cables or use the outlets for much. I’d recommend hard-wiring the cable if you’re looking for a clean installation.

You can take this into a dealer and they’ll hardwire it for you, feeding the wire through your trim and around the airbags, but the process is fairly simple: First, you should disconnect your battery if you have any side cushion airbags. That way you can feed the wire through and tuck it behind the A-pillar.

After you’ve done that, fiddle with your fuse box and connect each of the cables to certain types of power. There’s constant power (the red cable) and switched power (the yellow cable). Constant means it’s always powered, such as the anti-theft system, whereas switched if for when the car is on, such as the radio.

There are adapters you buy and cables you have to crimp so that the fuse is secure and the wire just goes through it. I, however, am a simple man. And rather than doing any complex cable work, I simply wrapped the wire around one end of the fuse and shoved it in there. It’s janky, and it’s not recommended, but it works just fine. Saves you a lot of money, and keeps the wiring clean.

How you install it is up to you, but if you want that extra peace of mind, having a dash cam in your car is worth the investment. And of all the options out there, the F70 has proven to be road-trip-worthy.

RELATED: Are Dash Cams Illegal in Your State? Here’s What You Need to Know

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