Hot off its Frankfurt debut, the 2011 Hyundai Tucson has been spotted in the U.S. wearing heavy camouflage but still recognizable as the much-needed update to Hyundai's smallest crossover.
An alert reader caught this well-covered Tucson hanging out at a local southern California car show, though Hyundai did make an effort to hide the car, parking it at the far end of the parking lot away from the show. While the Korean automaker was careful to stuff a number of things under the camo to throw us off, the exposed grille, headlights, tail lights and sharp window line give it away as the next-generation Tucson that we just saw in Germany.
In fact, the only real differences we can see through the camo are in the lower front fascia. Dead center, the three-slat grille is now body colored instead of black and the fog lights have drastically changed shape. Where the European model at Frankfurt sported large, angular cutouts around round fog lights, this model appears to use more rectangular-shaped lights mounted flush with the fascia. They've also been moved out to the corners of the fascia away from the grille where the European model had them much closer to the center.
Sun worshipers will be happy to know that the panoramic sunroof remains, but unfortunately, that's all we know about the interior. Hyundai had the entire inside of the car covered up with a sheet, so we don't know exactly what it will look like yet. More than likely, though, it will be quite similar to the European-spec Tucson's.
It's not known how close this particular vehicle is to the production-spec U.S. model, so more changes could be in store. We'll likely find out for sure in just a few months, as the 2011 Hyundai Tucson is expected to make its U.S. debut in Los Angeles in December.