By David Morley
October
3, 2014
Over-priced and over-looked when
launched this two-door coupe makes better buying these days.
Make Hyundai
Family Tiburon
Series GK MY07
Year 2010
Badge
Description V6
Doors 2
Have you
noticed that what was once a thriving market sector, the compact two-door
coupe, has just about disappeared lately (with the exception of the Toyota
86/Subaru BRZ twins)?
Everything
from the Toyota Celica to the Honda Prelude and, more recently, the Nissan
200SX, has bitten the showroom dust and hot-hatches have taken over the job of
providing cheap thrills for a variety of owners, many of them younger or
first-time new-car buyers.
One of
the very last coupes to the party was Hyundai's Tiburon in V6 form.
Actually,
it was launched back in 2002 in both four-cylinder and V6 formats, but by 2004,
the four-cylinder version had been given the flick as performance became more and
more important.
Which
left us with the V6 version, the pick of which are now the later versions from
the post-2007 facelift and later.
Arriving
at a time when the Hyundai brand was still building its credibility, the
Tiburon is a much better thing that any Hyundai that had gone before it and,
even in isolation, was a decent drive.
It was
identifiably front-wheel-drive, but let's be honest, nobody ever bought one as
a track-day car anyway.
And as a
road-car, it was more than just acceptable.
That was
largely down to suspension settings that gave enough grip but retained a decent
ride, and that smooth, flexible V6.
Okay, so
peak power was 123kW which doesn't sound a lot, but it was reasonably torquey
and rather entertaining.
That is,
of course, if you bothered to buy your Tiburon with the six-speed manual
transmission which made the most of that engine.
Unfortunately,
many coupe buyers wanted convenience above all else and went for the four-speed
automatic which was an old-fashioned unit that just didn't suit the car.
These
days, the Tiburon can look a bit nose-heavy, and while it's not an unattractive
car, neither is it especially distinctive.
The
interior is a little bit obviously South Korean, too, although it's certainly
better than many of the cars that went before it from the same manufacturer.
But
what's a Tiburon with a few years on its record like?
Well, not
only were these better cars, they're also much more likely to have something
left to offer in terms of longevity.
And, in
fact, thanks to Hyundai's fabulous five-year factory warranty, a really late
version (the Tiburon was discontinued in 2010) might still have some of that
factory cover remaining.
That
catch is that Hyundai (or any manufacturer for that matter) is only apt to
honour such a warranty if the car has been serviced and maintained correctly.
So that's
the first check.
Make sure
the service handbook is up to date but don't be too put off by a car that
hasn't been serviced at a Hyundai dealership.
Provided
the workshop involved was qualified to do this sort of work, then there
shouldn't be a problem down the track.
While
we're on the subject of servicing it's worth pointing out Hyundai just
announced a new capped price servicing scheme that covers all of its cars every
sold in Australia - so you can work out how much the Tiburon should cost you to
maintain, as long as nothing goes wrong.
If you
are looking at an automatic version, be sure to check that the gearbox shifts
smoothly and selects gears promptly from Park and without any nasty clunking
noises.
In some
cars, these symptoms can mean a trashed gearbox, but in the Tiburon's case,
it's often as simple as a low transmission fluid level.
That
said, transmissions shouldn't run out of fluid, so as well as a top-up, you
also need to find the leak that's allowing the fluid to escape.
The other
thing to check is that the correct grade of fluid is fitted as the wrong stuff
can also cause headaches.
Like a
lot of cars that are engineered to feel light on their feet, the Tiburon could
be pretty sensitive to changes in wheels alignment settings.
Over
time, even a properly aligned car can become misaligned due to wear and tear
and bashing the wheels into kerbs even at parking speeds.
See if
the car tracks straight and true when you loosen your grip on the steering
wheel.
If it
wants to turn left or right, suspect the wheel alignment as the culprit. It's
an easy fix, though for a specialist tyre-fitting workshop.
Inside
the car, make sure all the electric gadgets work and pay particular attention
to the optional electric sunroof.
We've
heard of the motors in these seizing, leaving the sunroof unable to be opened
or, potentially more disastrously, stuck open.
A recall
for a potentially faulty brake-line on earlier Tiburons did not apply to the
post-2007 models we're talking about here.
One of
the main reasons the Tiburon V6 is now around for small change is that Hyundai
got its pricing ambitions and abilities all mixed up when the model first hit
the market in 2002.
While the
four-cylinder model was a sizeable $38,380, the V6 in base-model form was a
staggering $42,880, a figure that was slashed inside the first 12 months by
almost six-thousand dollars.
That did
nothing for resale values (or the mood of anybody who got in early and paid
full price) and, in fact, in just another short year, the price was down to
less than $34,000 and the car's reputation was shot as a smart buy.
But
that's great news now as it means the Hyundai coupe is great value and a real
alternative to a more mundane set of wheels for the same money.
Our rating: 3 stars
Nuts and bolts
Engine: 2.7-litre V6
Transmissions: 6-man/4-auto
Fuel
economy (combined): 10.3
litres per 100km
Likes
- Great value now thanks to price-slashing when it was new.
- Drives better than any South-Korean car before it.
- Reliability seems good.
- Probably hasn't been thrashed on a race-track.
Dislikes
- Not the prettiest coupe ever made.
- Interior a bit plasticky.
- No real street cred.
- Automatic version is blancmange.
Competitors
Toyota
Celica – Last of
the Celicas was a pretty hard-core device. Frantic engine and stiff suspension
made it great on a track, but frustrating day-to-day. Beware hard-driven
examples. 3 stars
Honda
Prelude – Prelude
was once Honda's rolling test-bed for new tech. For all that, last model was
reasonably conventional but still a classy package. Getting old now. 3.5 stars
Nissan
200SX – The sportiest
choice in this segment. Turbo engine, rear-wheel-drive; it all added up to a
proper performance coupe. Huge performance but check for crash damage. 4 stars
Read more
at:http://www.drive.com.au/used-car-reviews/hyundai-tiburon-v6-used-car-review-20141002-10p2ju.html
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