Hyundai Tiburon coupe 2007 review

The ageing Hyundai Tiburon has just had a predictable nip-and-tuck facelift.

It's been around since 2001, when the Korean carmaker introduced the sports coupe to Australia, and it has profited from the loss of Toyota's Celica and MR2 and the Honda Prelude.

The facelifted Tiburon V6 -- Tiburon means shark in Spanish -- comes with a new-look bonnet, blistered quad headlights, a new bumper and a wider, lower grille housing two foglight pods.

Explore the 2007 Hyundai Tiburon range

• Hyundai Tiburon 2007 review: snapshot
• Hyundai Tiburon coupe 2007 review
• Hyundai Tiburon V6 2007 review
• Hyundai Tiburon 2007 review

It also has a high-rise rear wing with integrated LED tail-lights, chromed dual exhausts, extended side crease, refined badging and fresh 17-inch alloys.

Importantly, the upgraded car adds stability control and front/side thorax airbags as standard.

Inside, the car has fully automatic climate control airconditioning, with an air-quality monitor that turns the system to recycle if it detects excessive pollution or pollen in the cabin.

The audio system is iPod/MP3-compatible and new instruments with blue ambient lighting replace the orange from the original car.

But the starting price is up by $2000, an unusual move for the value-driven brand, from $34,990 for the six-speed manual.

A limited-edition TS with vivid blue medium metallic paint, sunroof, black leather trim, TS badging and special carpet mats tops the range at $37,590.

The major mechanical revisions are in the front suspension, with new damping settings and new lower front-control arms and bushes. The car feels sharper off, turns into corners better and has picked up a nice weighting to the steering feel.

Some minor kickback over broken surfaces under load is within the range of acceptability, and the overall ride quality is good, with higher-end noise, vibration and harshness control.

The seats are reasonably comfortable and supportive, but the lack of a reach adjustment on the steering wheel is disappointing.

Given the minor changes, it is likely the Tiburon will be replaced within three years, but Hyundai Australia is giving nothing away.

"There are products under development, but we haven't been told much about them," Hyundai Australia product planning manager Ben Hershman says.

"I would only be guessing what they may be, but I imagine one could be a sporty model that would be at least a few years away, given we haven't seen or heard anything."

In the interim, the Tiburon has to fight on with the same architecture and lightweight 2.7-litre V6 engine it was launched with.

Hyundai says it has no plans to replace the 123kW/245Nm DOHC unit with the newer and more powerful 3.3-litre engine from the Sonata.

Coupled to a close-gate six-speed manual box or a four-speed automatic, the engine needs to be kept well up in the rev range -- above 3000 revs -- but works well in a narrow band.