Hyundai Tucson

The thirteen centimetres are the most expensive thing to get wrong on this model. America, Korea and Australia get the long car — 4630 mm long on a 2755 mm wheelbase. Europe gets the short one, 4500 on 2680, built in the Czech Republic. The profile is different rather than merely longer: the panel around the rear wheel, the rear doors, the roof, the sills, the tailgate glass and the rear quarter glass all have a different geometry. Even the front wings and liners take different fixings depending on which plant built the car.

On the 2018 to 2020 facelift the body is the same length worldwide and the panels do interchange. There the difference is under the bonnet. America gets naturally aspirated petrol only — 2.0 GDI with 164 hp and 2.4 GDI with 181, both on a conventional six-speed torque-converter automatic. No turbo engine was sold in the US in that period at all.

Europe in the same years is a different car. The volume petrol is the 1.6 T-GDI with 177 hp, on a manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch. Plus the full diesel range, 1.6 and 2.0 CRDi, the larger one with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. None of that has ever reached an American auction.

The engine tells you the generation before the year does. A 2.0 or 2.4 naturally aspirated means the older car with interchangeable panels. A 2.5 means the current long-wheelbase one. A 1.6 means turbo or hybrid. That is a more reliable signal than the photograph, because the two generations look alike from the front.

Four-wheel drive is an option, not a fitting. In Europe the Tucson is almost always all-wheel drive; in America it is paid for, and a large share of the cars are front-drive. Check the individual lot. In exchange, American mid-range trims come with the driver-assistance pack, heated front seats and blind-spot monitoring as standard, where the European base often has manual air conditioning.