Our Fleet Test Drive: Hyundai ix35 - 4th report

Date: 22 April 2011   |   Author: Hugh Hunston

Dials

Our two-wheel drive Korean crossover has developed some potentially alarming foibles.

On several occasions, day or night and in no particular driving mode, the instrument display has randomly reverted to ignition 'switch on' status with the battery of warning lights illuminated including an unwelcome 'welcome' graphic. The ghost in the machine also conspired to signal, wrongly, that the useful hill-hold system and traction control functions had failed. This happened on a level road after a weekend sitting on a steep drive. Curiously, the rogue red and yellow warning lights vanished when our Hyundai returned to the gradient.

Fuel economy has dipped from the initial 50mpg to 42mpg before recovering to 45mpg by dint of exploiting the intuitive cruise control on a mainly motorway trip to and from south Wales. Frustratingly, the computer seems incapable of storing accumulated economy figures. The trip highlighted the front-wheel drive ix35 lacks its all-wheel drive counterpart's driving precision and that the steering is a tad woolly on long motorway curves.

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