First of all I am sorry, I didn’t find any Category for the HYUNDAI TERRACAN . So, I added my review in the Hyundai COUPE Category
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The Terracan has one of its best features, its heart in the form of the 2.9-litre common rail direct injection turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine. It met with moderate success at that, having sold about 100, 000 units in the previous calendar year (65, 000 of these outside Korea) after making its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2001 as a replacement for the Galloper (basically a revised Mitsubishi Shogun/Pajero) which had sold 250, 000 units worldwide.
Style & Build :
The looks make it obvious that the Terracan has its origins in Mitsubishi territory The essentially boxy structure which was evident in the earlier Galloper has been given a total work over at Hyundai?s Namyang Research and Development Centre at a cost of over US$240 million. A mix and match of aggressive styling done by the R&D engineers in Korea have managed to create a rather flamboyant and rugged looking SUV. The flatter and thinner front end gives the Terracan an all conquering look while all the lights, whether it be at the front or rear add style and class. The tail lights are especially stylish and draw attention away from the rather flat backside. One noticable thing is the missing spare wheel from the rear hatch . The spare whell is under the body.
The rear-most foldable seats are front facing and have to be accessed from the front. The Terracan is a well built vehicle.
CHASSIS & SUSPENSION :
Hyundai Motor India has gone the body-on-ladder-frame construction for Terracan. Terracan is definitely more suited for off-road excursions even though it might have its limitations on the road. The suspension layout of the Terracan?s has originated from Pajero. Up front is the rugged double wishbone layout and like in the older Pajero, is supported by torsion bar springs as well an anti roll bar along with gas filled shock absorbers. The rear also features a five-link layout with a rigid axle, coil springs, gas filled shock absorbers as well as an anti roll bar. It has ventilated discs up front and solid discs at the rear. The large capacity two-port calliper front brake discs aided by anti-lock brakes combined with electronic brake force distribution (EBD) provide better stability and shortened braking distances. This system also provides the most effective distribution of brake force based on the vehicle?s weight.
ENGINE:
The 2.9-litre oil burner is the largest of Hyundai?s family of three common rail direct injection engines, the smallest of which (1.5-litre) as we all have already seen, experienced and raved about in India on the Accent CRDi. The common rail direct injection near-squareengine with turbocharger and intercooler displaces 2902cc, works on a 19.3:1 compression ratio and is fed through an aluminium head which features four valves per cylinder, and has double overhead camshafts unlike the CRDi engine on the Accent which is sohc. Maximum power of 148bhp is churned out at 3800rpm while maximum torque of 333Nm comes at 2000rpm. The engine has a very high specific output of 51bhp/litre which compares favourably with any of the other diesels including the Mitsubishi Pajero 3.2 which has a specific output of less than 50bhp/litre. The Terracan uses a system called electrical shift transfer (EST) developed by Borg Warner, which allows drivers to change between high ratio four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive at speeds of up to 80kmph. There is also a low ratio mode in four-wheel drive, which generates maximum traction for slow manoeuvring in poor conditions. The car must be stationary to shift between high and low ratio four-wheel drive. These three settings can be chosen through a dial near the handbrake. Instead of having a freewheeling hub, the Terracan uses a centre axle disconnect system (CADS) to switch between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive using the engine?s negative pressure. The CADS system also eliminates noise and vibration from the propeller shaft and gear ring set, as the front wheels and axle would be rotating idly in two-wheel drive mode besides effecting a slight increase in fuel efficiency and power characteristics of the vehicle. When in four-wheel drive, the power is transferred equally between the front and the rear wheels. In two-wheel drive, the power transfers to the rear wheels completely. Limited slip differential on the rear axle also ensures that more power is transferred to the wheel having the most traction.
BRAKING:
It is a high vehicle with a substantial ground clearance of 215mm, So it is but natural that there would be a lot of body roll and with anti-roll bars both front and rear, there is bound to be some rough stuff as they kick into action. Given all that the Terracan handles quite well for an SUV. Ride quality given the 75 profile 15-inch tyres and the way the vehicle is sprung is quite nice and the Terracan just glides over bad road surfaces and the like. Braking is quite superb too given the discs all around and the distances of 50.87m and 32.11m for coming to a stop from 100kmph and 80kmph respectively are comparable to the best.
INTERIORS:
The Terracan offers bucketfuls, and tubfuls of space in whatever form you may require. The leather seats are nice as is the steering wheel. The Terracan disappoints in the look and finish of the interiors which do not convey the feeling of opulence as they should. The fake wood panel finish is not convincing and the instrument cluster is plain and simple. What does add gloss to the interiors is the blue coloured LCD which features a clock, a compass as well as an option to switch
between an altimeter and a barometer.
Safety:
The body on frame construction has been designed to disperse crash energy evenly across the car?s length. Terracan?s single piece bumper unit has a chassis-mounted steel back beam to provide better protection to the vehicle?s structure and its occupants. In addition the specially reinforced front cowls-A-pillar bond helps reduce the risk of cabin deformation in the event of a collision. There are ten mountings attached to the frame, while there are side member reinforcements to make the structure even more secure. To ensure body stiffness, Hyundai has used high-tensile strength steel body mountings, added to centre-cowl bulkhead, front door vertical cross members, a horizontal backbone and rear floorl attice-type members. The Terracan comes with seatbelt pre-tensioners as standard. The instant a collision takes place, the seatbelt pre-tensioner reduces seatbelt slack to hold the occupant in place. The load limiter absorbs any extra energy placed upon the occupant when the pre-tensioners are activated. Driver and front passenger airbags are also standard, and are depowered to reduce the risk of injury.