Hybrid SEL Convenience or Limited?

Yes, there's a lot of extra tech in the limited (especially the 360 degree camera views and parking assist features).

We went with the SEL convenience as the limited was a big step in price for some features we felt we didn't need. We actually wanted the cloth seats (had the leather ones in our 2016 sonata and they were kind of hard in that car). The only thing I actually miss is the heated steering wheel. It was nice for arthritic hands even in SC. The cooled seats were nice in our Sonata, but you really don't need that feature with cloth seats. The leather ones got hot in the summer. The 8" center console display is plenty large enough in the SEL and has volume and channel selector wheels, if that's important to you, also wireless connection to phone. On the rear heated seats, that would depend on your passengers, but Hyundai only heats the seat bottom on the rear seats, and only the outboard 2 seats, so it was never that important to us even though we had it on our Sonata. The SEL and Blue both have the front heated seats.

None of the trims have power folding on the mirrors, that I'm aware of.

Color choices are the same regardless of trim. as far as I know. The 2 colors you mentioned are available for the SEL.

Configure a car here and you can compare the 3 trims:

I'm a new member here, I bought the limited. To those above who bought the SEL Convenience and think they should have gone limited, I'm not so sure. I believe the SEL-C is the best option, specifically the hybrid SEL-C ("C" meaning convenience).

It mostly comes down to leather vs. cloth seats... here in the states, if you want leather and hybrid, you're forced up to Limited (at least for now, in Jan-Mar of 22.) Here is my pros/cons line items, as a Limited owner. I actually have a deposit on an SEL-C right now as well. With the current madness of the market, it seemed reasonable to sell/replace our two cars. I'm still torn on replacement 2 as another Tucson... because... isn't that weird? Two of the same car? Anyway... on to the list:

1. The smart park is a novelty... as stated above, it's going to be a rare (if ever) occasion to use it.
2. The 10.25" screen/nav is nice, but at the cost of a volume/tuning "roller" and other actual buttons for comfort functions. Also, the larger screen is only intelligently utilized on Nav... everything else is goofy, it's just a big screen for size sake.
3. I keep a microfiber cloth behind my seat to wipe the instrument panel and center console every time I get it, the big ultra-shine face is a dust magnet. For that matter, the hybrid Blue is actually becoming appealing to me in part for it's less-attractive, but hooded instrument panel.
4. The 360 cam is nice, and a significant reason for the limited, for me. The most valuable use is in parking, including the garage.
5. The 360 cam feature is tied to the side/rear window in the cluster with turn-signaling. Some reviewers suggest THIS is a novelty, but I disagree. It's great.
6. I turned off the smart hatch open trick after walking behind my car, which barely fits in the garage, and then having a panicked battle to keep the hatch from damaging itself and the garage door. This feature won't last through many future generations I'm sure. There are too many times where it'll be triggered accidentally.

I had a Rogue Platinum before this, and I gotta' offer some criticisms comparing the two:

1. Nissan's pro-pilot assist works great. None of these systems are perfect, but my Nissan was 4 years old. I'm surprised that it worked a lot better than the new Tucson is (at least for me).
2. The Nissan radio had a touch button that toggled between "live and replay". When you hit replay, there was a FF and RW touch button. If you held that touch for a full second, it snapped to the moment you started the car... on ANY of the 18 presets. OR I could go song-by-song, forward or back.
3. The radio ALSO constantly buffered each preset, so that as I changed channels, every new channel came on at the very beginning of whatever song is currently playing... like magic. I definitely thought that would be common in high-tech cars, 4 years later.
4. Conversely, my Tucson will advance back one song at a time, for only a couple songs per channel, and the "starts at the beginning of songs" trick is history. I'm gonna' miss that.
5. Not important, but a funny touch, with the Rogue 360 cam, you could set the represented car color as any colors that were offered, so of course the drone-shot looked like my actual car.

Lastly... and most importantly... MILEAGE.

Good Lord I hope my current mileage is only because I'm still in the break-in period with my new car. I'm averaging 22.5mpg with mostly highway driving. My Rogue was FWD, so that's significant, but I was averaging 31-33mpg on the highway. I can afford a higher cost through gas, but even just the time stopping and filling up is a bit annoying. See above, where I said I'm strongly considering the hybrid version of this same car (stepped down to SEL-C). If I knew what I know now... a month ago, I'd have a hybrid Limited... or the hybrid SEL-C, and be looking at something completely different for our second car. The nagging feeling that I should have gone that route is partly fueling another Tucson, ironically enough.

To my list above, if you think, "Hey if you thought the Nissan was so great why aren't you getting another one?"

I don't trust the long-term quality of Nissan in general. The original owner warranty of Hyundai was/is a big factor for me. I also considered a CR-V, but IMO it's actually shocking how much cooler these Tucson's are than anything else in the price-range, inside and out. The direct competition to the car I actually bought was a Honda Passport, but it felt slow, even with the V6... it felt like a dog driving it, and the inside "luxury" was downright laughable compared to the Tucson interior.

Gofastgo said:

I'm starting to wonder just who's doing the engineering at Hyundai? I took the SEL with convenience and premier pkgs. which cost $4200.00 above SEL sticker and didn't receive a bunch of options I would like to have.

Click to expand...

Dude, IMO you hit the sweet spot. At this point I'm beyond OCD for the Tucson features/trim breakdown. If you didn't get the hybrid, an SEL with option 2 package (convenience) and option 3 (premium) is THE way to go. For sake of ease anyone can simply say an SEL Premium, because you can't get option 3 without option 2.

Here's what you don't have, over the limited; a pano-sunroof, and the 360 cam system (which automatically includes the blind-spot turn-signals in cluster, and front/drone-shot parking view.

That's it... that's the only "real" features you don't have, and you'd have to pay ANOTHER $3K(+) to have them in a Limited. IMO not worth it, and I BOUGHT the Limited. If I knew a month ago, what I know now, I'd have an SEL Convenience w/ Premium package... AKA an SEL with option package 2 and 3... AKA your same car. This also allows you to get gray leather inside, which is another thing I'd have loved, but didn't insist on with my Limited. No biggie, but I love the 2-tone.

What do you NOT have that you wish you could pay ANOTHER $3K to have? Trust me, the $3K is worth more than what you're missing. The other features people talk about, the crash-avoidance, smart-park, etc. are actually goofy novelties, yes... even the crash avoidance. My car turns down the radio and warns me when I'm turning in 1 of 2 lanes that are BOTH turning... "yes Tucson, I'm not turning INTO the car next to us, we are ALL turning"... and even the frontal crash avoidance is heavy handed.

You got the best car in this model, unless you wanted a hybrid AND leather, in which case you ONLY can go Limited... so then you're paying another $4500 to have almost what you have now, add hybrid, add pano, add 360.

The best trim points for this car IMO are:
Hybrid Blue
SEL Convenience + Premium (SEL w/ op package 2 and 3)
Hybrid SEL w/ Convenience (there IS NO "plus premium" for the SEL hybrid)
Hybrid Limited (IMO it's crazy to not pay the extra $1200 over the standard Limited, and honestly, I resent my salespersons at multiple dealerships for not knowing what they were talking about when I asked about this very thing... When asked, one "know it all type" gave me a breakdown of why not the hybrid based on how long it would take to recoup the $1200... meanwhile, if you drive them, you'll realize it isn't even about mileage as much as performance.)

So... IMO... you did good. You got one of the specific "best values" for a 2022 Tucson.

EDIT TO ADD: Also... you have a stick instead of these stupid push-buttons. If you ever drive one of these and have to 3-point turn (or more, i.e. every time you park), or put your car back in gear from neutral, exiting a car-wash... this button system comes crashing in your face as pretty dumb. Parallel parking just got a whole lot weirder... and no, the "smart park" doesn't parallel park... it only crawls your car forward or back, which again, is a goofy novelty with little real-world use.