Although the Tiburon wasn’t really mine by choice, it was an great hand-me-down car. My mother wanted something flashy, a sports car (yeah yeah… not exactly a sports car). Realized quickly that she didn’t enjoy driving a 5 speed so it spent most of it’s life in the garage until the Tiburon met me. I drove it around 400-500 miles a week as I had school about 45 miles away. This car was perfect for the highway aside from the 23.5mpg I’d average. Then again I was rarely ever doing the speed limit.
Performance:
It gets the job done. It’s most definitely not a performance car, but you can certainly feel the torque in second gear around 3500rpms to 5500ish. It feels very solid on the road even over 100mph, however I would not recommend trying to go around corners at this speed as under steer seems to be pretty prevalent when cornering sharply.
Build Quality:
Haven’t had any major problems with the car other than having to replace the AC and the Clutch around 60,000 miles. The timing belt snapped around 65,000 miles. The interior plastic pieces are peeling and showing major wear, even though it has all been cleaned regularly (maybe it’s the cleaner I’ve used in the past). As long as you take care of the Tib, it’ll take care of you.
Appearance:
The clearcoat on the spoiler, gas cap and rims has been weathered badly. I had a friend spray paint the rims and gas cap, which covered up the nasty peeling that the paint was doing. However, I don’t want a gunmetal spoiler and I’ve considered removing it, but then I’ll have to relocate the center brake light.
Cost of Ownership:
Everything so far has been covered by the 75,000 mile warranty aside from the clutch. I would recommend you go to a local repair shop for a clutch repair, as it cost me over $2,000 through the dealership since it was not under warranty and they claim it’s a special “dual plated” clutch or something along the lines.
Fun Factor:
The car handles very well and can pass effectively without downshifting or bouncing off the rev-limiter since it has low-range torque unlike other cars in it’s class. Not only is it fun to drive, the back seats fold down for plenty of storage space.
Pros: acceleration, handling, storage
Cons: dealership maintenance, back seat room