Hyundai Tiburon 2004 Review

Hyundai is well known for offering a lot at a low price, and the Tiburon is no exception: sports car-like handling, power and ride with a tag half of some of its rivals.

The Tiburon replaced Hyundai's aged RD Coupe and its Ferrari-like styling is a major drawcard. Despite the car being on sale for more than two years many admirers were surprised to learn it was made by the Korean company and many didn't know what it was or what it had in it.

At $31,990 for the six-speed manual the Tiburon – Spanish for shark – is one of the cheapest sports cars in the market today, coming in second only to the Daihatsu Copen.

The next model to even come close is the Smart roadster at $37,990. While the Tiburon cannot compete with the Smart's go-kart handling, it definitely wins in the power and interior space departments.

The Tiburon comes with a 2.7-litre V6 that delivers 127kW of power at 6000rpm and 245Nm at 4000rpm.

The manual does the 0-100km/h sprint in a not-so-shabby 8.2 seconds and hits a top speed of 220km/h.

Despite these figures, fuel economy is good – the manual using under eight litres per 100km on the highway and about 12L/100km in the city.

And the V6 sounds the part too, care of the twin exhausts making their presence known from under the rear bumper.

The six-speed manual box features close ratios and is smooth under hand.

When pushed the Tiburon turns in well and is nicely balanced. Only slight understeer was felt but was easy to control and reinforces the reason behind the exclusion of stability or traction control buttons – it doesn't need it.

Steering feel is a bit remote and the slippery leather steering wheel is a bit off-putting. But it only takes 2.6 turns lock to lock and has a reasonably small 10.8m turning circle.

Ride comfort is unusually acceptable for a sports coupe and noise intrusion is minimal, very minimal, with only a small amount of wind over the wing mirrors audible.

Brakes come in the form of ventilated discs on the front and solid discs on the rear. ABS and electronic brake-force distribution complete the package.

Inside, the Tiburon is stylish and well-equipped but with none of the glitz and fanfare of higher-priced sports cars.

It shows that Hyundai concentrated more on the car's driving dynamics rather than filling it with unnecessary wood panelling, steering wheel controls and leather interior.

It is a simple layout and there are no fancy extras but all buttons are easy to reach and leave the driver (and passenger) less cramped.

The Tiburon has driver and front-passenger airbags, cruise control, airconditioning, power mirrors and windows, sunglass holder, remote central locking, front fog lights and 17-inch alloy wheels and of course the electric tilt/slide sunroof.

There are plenty of gauges with three quirky readouts prominent on top of the in-dash MP3/CD player: an instant Newton-metre figure, voltage meter and litres/100km readout.

Like most coupes, rear-seat accommodation is for the little ones only. The sharp-sloping rear windscreen leaves little in the way of headroom for the average-sized adult while the legroom is best used on short trips only.

Front-seat space is more enjoyable, although larger types can feel their hair touching the roof.

The front seats are comfortable thanks to deep side bolstering and cushion contouring. The driver's seat also has lumber support.

The back occupants are treated with a small compartment to hold knick-knacks.

While nothing has changed on the Tiburon it still represents a good package for your bucks and with the free sunroof, just got a lot more appealing.