Solid perfornance and exciting style in an entry-level sport coupe.
Hyundai has made a name for itself as a manufacturer willing to do what it takes to aggressively carve out a dominant place for itself in the world wide auto market. When it introduced the Tiburon a few years ago, it sent a message to the other manufacurers that the upstart company would not be satsified with cranking out simple econoboxes. No, with the Tiburon, Hyundai announced that it was playing for keeps.
Since introduction, Hyundai has continued to improve the Tiburon. Style wise, the original was innovative, but not necessarily inspired. Subsequent improvements have resulted in a car with a pleasing aggressive stance, and the performance to back it up.
That said, the entry level Tiburon is mostly show, with very little go. Its 2.0L inline 4 manages to generate only a paltry 138 HP. If style alone is your thing, the Tiburon GS is your dream car. If you want a bit of performance punch to back up the look, spend a few thousand more and upgrade to an SE or GT model to get the 172 HP 2.7L V6.
172 horsepower is still not enough to win too many stoplight challenges, but it is enough to lend a much more sporty edge to the Tiburon. A sport suspension on the SE model also brings low-profile tires and much better handling.
The best thing about the Tiburon? Its price. Across the board, the Tiburon is a very reasonable priced vehicle for the quality and value the company delivers. The top-of-the-line SE with a 6 speed manual transmission starts at only $22,620. It's hard to get better bang for the buck from any other new sport coupe.
