Hyundai has been doing a fantastic job with its performance-enhanced N Line cars and an outright incredible job with the dizzyingly track-capable Ioniq 5 N. Hyundai also has been pushing the more affordable N Line badge as a sporty trim level on many of its vehicles.

Recently, I spent a week with the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid N Line AWD and looked forward to it as the hybrid drivetrain is the most powerful in the Tucson range, and I love a sporty little crossover. However, when I handed the keys back, I felt like the N Line badge had been an opportunity missed. This is how I would love to see Hyundai rectify that and on some of its other N Line models to help cement its push to become a brand well-regarded for its performance models.

Exterior Tweaks: Performance-Lite Looks Without The Substance To Back It Up

Essentially, the Tucson N Line is just a sporty appearance package, which is all well and good and has its place. However, when using N in the name, it’s watering down the performance ideology. Now, I don’t expect the Tucson N Line to be a driver-guided missile, but I do expect it to be fun to kick down a back road.

I do generally enjoy the N Line accouterments, but the package includes a big, heavy panoramic sunroof on top of a vehicle that’s taller than a sedan, coupe, or hatchback. Having that extra weight on top of the car shifting side to side is not ideal for some corner carving when you want the center of gravity to be as low as possible. It’s also extra weight for the drivetrain to lug around, which brings us to the interior.

Interior: A Bit Too Well Featured

The Tucson’s N Line trim adds “sport combination seats” that split the difference between snug buckets and comfortable all-day driving seats extremely well, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, alloy pedals and scuff plates, a black headliner, and red interior accents. There are front and rear USB plugs, dual-climate control, and an auto-dimming rearview mirror are standard and fun interior lighting color choices for ambiance. What may be a good idea in terms of both cost and weight saving is switching to manual adjustment over motorized adjustable seats while keeping those added luxuries, including dual-zone climate control.

That wouldn’t drastically change things, but as N department engineers would tell you, saving weight in a car is all about adding the small things up. Along with the panoramic sunroof and electric-powered seats, losing some of the sound-deadening would start to add up, along with our next suggestion.

Wheels: 19-inch Wheels Are Too Much

This is not unique to Hyundai, but putting 19-inch wheels on a $32,575 SUV is not doing customers a favor, sport trim or not. It’s still in the affordable car bracket, and tires to fit 19-inch wheels are not inexpensive, especially summer tires. The stock 235/55 R19 tire size doesn’t have a lot of options, either, for when the factory tires need replacing. A quick look shows us that the best-rated tires are all over $220 each, and the lowest price I found for the OEM Michelin Primacy AS tires on our tester is $223.97 each. If you want outright performance summer tires, you’ll be paying around $270 per tire. To replace four high-performance tires on a Tucson N Line, that’s over a thousand dollars before tax.

The answer is to use 17-inch wheels, where you can find high-performance tires at around $200 each, or 18-inch wheels, which bridge the gap. Either way, the initial cost is lowered, running costs are lowered, weight is lowered, and 17-inch wheels have lower mass, which should improve the braking, ride, and steering responsiveness over a set of 18s.

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Why Is Unsprung Weight So Important?

Losing weight is always good, but it’s where that weight is lost that is arguably more important.

Of course, the naysayers will talk about the lower sidewall on 19-inch tires and its effect on handling and cornering. However, I’m not looking for the Tucson N Line to be a track car. What that does, though, is bring us to the subject of chassis tuning.

Suspension Tuning: Do Some, Please Hyundai

On the Tucson Hybrid, the Electronically Controlled Suspension is an option for improvement; I would keep that, but stiffening things up just enough and allowing the larger sidewalls to maintain some comfort for everyday driving would work a treat. If there’s some budget left over, some improved brakes would be a good match to improve the excellent overall sense of control afforded by items like the paddle shifters for the automatic ‘box. I know Hyundai’s N engineers could work some magic with springs, dampers, and swaybars without having to do anything drastic with the geometry.

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Drivetrain: Not Everything Is About Power

What doesn’t need changing is the drivetrain; there’s enough power and zip for the 2024 Tucson N Line to be engaging, and the paddle shifters add to that while the all-wheel drive system does its job. The current 226 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque is enough to have fun with without impacting the EPA estimated 37/36/37 mpg city/highway/combined – which would be brilliant for a genuinely fun, sportily trimmed compact crossover.

Verdict: Hyundai Needs To Bridge The Gap Between Comfort And Full N Treatment

There is, obviously, a market for Sporty looking cars that don’t offer much performance-wise over regular trims – looks are important, and there’s a reason people wear sneakers as casual shoes. The aesthetic is important. So I have a suggestion in the way of, say, a SportLux trim that adds some extra flash to the looks and sits higher up the trim levels and off to the side. Something like that would free up N Line models to become a genuinely fun and sporty trim line and put younger demographics on the path to the full-fat N models.

There’s also a big opportunity to embrace hybrids for performance as well as fuel economy. Our money is on Honda doing that with the next Civic Si, but Honda doesn’t spread the Si approach it has taken to the Civic throughout its range.

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As it stands, the 2024 Tucson N Line is maybe ten percent more fun to drive than the regular hybrid versions, which is not a big gain for the cost of replacing tires on 19-inch wheels, and makes it hard to recommend unless the buyer is completely in love with the looks and not bothered about performance.