Hyundai Tiburon?

I have a 2001 Tib with 120,000 mikes and it looks & runs great. Good on gas & fun to drive. Never had any major probs, yet?

I bought a brand new 2005 Tib SE. The car looked hot and had some good points but also some BIG negatives.

Pros-sporty look, excellent sound system, solid interior, decent fuel mileage.

On the flip side, it was my 4th manual transmission and within 1000 miles of owning the car I began to hear a bad grinding sound on rare occassion when I shifted. Took it to the dealership, confident that it would be handled by their 100k mile warranty. First time the dealer denied hearing a problem. The second time I brought it in they identified it and told me it was my fault, I was popping the clutch and hot rodding too much (untrue because I NEVER drove the engine like that). They told me it was my problem and that it would be expensive to fix.

I took it to a second dealership who agreed that it was very premature wear but told me that they couldn't do anything as the other dealership claimed I was popping the clutch. I contacted customer service in California. They opened an investigation and told me that an engineer was sent from CA and inspected my car, determining it to be in working order. Funny thing is, the day the engineer looked at my car I was not even in town and the car wasn't at the dealership. Customer service swore that the engineer looked at the car and refused to reopen the case.

I traded the car because I knew the transmission was only getting worse and I was NOT going to pay $2000 for a new car to have a new transmission. Before trading, I did find out two things: 1. There were major issues with the 6 speed trannies in the 03 model year. They claim it was fixed for 04 but the issues I had were identical to the 03 issues. 2. There is (or was) a class action lawsuit against Hyundai for this transmission issue.

I don't have a Tiburon, but I sat in one at the lot and it is a beauty! I have an Elantra, and have owned an Accent, and I would highly recommend Hyundais. The Accent had 102K miles when I sold it to my brother, and it has 130K on it now and still runs great. Never had any problems with either.

I have an '04 Tib and have been very happy with it. It drives like a charm and starts easily in our Canuck winters. I could write a long, long list of good things that I like about it, but will just tell you about the minor probs that I have and have adjusted to. The wrap-around front seats...there's a big hump you have to maneuver over to get into the seat. And when trying to do rear shoulder-checks on either side, you can't see much. You have to really position the side mirrors properly. I don't consider the back seats as usable for passengers. I normally keep them folded down for cargo, unless I'm trying to impress someone. Lastly, this summer my passenger side window stopped working. I had a little trouble getting it fixed, but it was covered under warranty.

Overall, though, I'm really happy with it.

Many people mistake it for an exotic.

People in parking lots love to slam my car with their doors