Hyundai's Tucson named BBC Top Gear's Best Family Car

Hyundai Motor Co. said on Friday that its Tucson SUV has been selected as the "best family car" by the British motoring TV show Top Gear.

In the recently aired Top Gear program, the Tucson topped the finalists Citroen E-Berlingo and Skoda Octavia among 50 family cars for sale in Britain.

"It's a very good car, and it's further evidence that Hyundai is smashing it at the moment, making proper hot hatches, interesting electric cars, and worthy family cars. They’re on a roll," said Top Gear host Chris Harris.

Top Gear had described Hyundai cars as "cheap" 18 years ago in 2004, when it compared Hyundai vehicles to a wheeled refrigerator, but its attitude changed dramatically this year.

Top Gear magazine recently picked Hyundai's concept hydrogen hybrid car N Vision 74 as the year's most popular vehicle and Kia Corp. as the manufacturer of the year, respectively.

Top Gear's YouTube channel also dubbed the car market of the 2020s as the era of Hyundai in the carmaker's rolling lab RN22e and N Vision 74 test drive video in September.

The video attracted 3.8 million views in three months, making it the year's most-viewed video on the Top Gear channel.

At last year's Top Gear Awards, Hyundai was acclaimed as the manufacturer of the year and its i20N was named car of the year.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com