First Drive Review
The Musée Océanographique in the principality of Monaco has an aquarium filled with creatures and plants collected from the world's oceans. We decided to check out the shark collection during our test drive of Hyundai's third-generation Tiburon. Tiburón is Spanish for "shark," and the folks at Hyundai are hoping that their redesigned sports coupe will take a bigger bite out of that market. They are betting that a sleek new skin and more muscle under the hood are going to make this coupe more menacing to the competition.
We ended up at the fish museum because we couldn't find a parking space anywhere else. After lapping the F1 circuit in Monaco numerous times, we tried to make a pit stop at the café in front of the casino, but our Korean coupe wasn't exotic enough for the valets. They turned up their noses and shooed us away like an unpleasant odor, although the new Tiburon did get a better reception from people with less snooty dispositions. Hyundai is hoping the addition of an optional V-6 will attract more male customers, since 58 percent of current Tiburon buyers are of the female persuasion.
More power under the hood isn't the only change to the 2003 model; it has been restyled inside and out. Like the old coupe that used the previous-generation Elantra platform, the 2003 Tiburon platform is derived from the new-generation Elantra. The wheelbase is 2.2 inches longer than that of the most recent coupe, and the length, width, and height are increased by 2.1 inches, 1.2 inches, and 0.6 inch, respectively. That first Tiburon coupe was a sleek Giugiaro design, while this one is the work of Hyundai's own design studio. The second-generation face lift, with all its bumps and flares, muddled up the coupe's clean lines. The new car is edgier, with sharp creases in the front fenders and a smoother, more tautly stretched skin overall. From the side there's a resemblance to the Ferrari 456GT via the long hood and short rear deck, and from the front it smacks of a Mercury Cougar.
Hyundai's designers call the interior of the car "simple yet functional." We think dark and stark are better descriptions. Every surface in the car is black, and although the materials don't feel cheap, the lack of any sort of accents to break up the monotony gives it a drab and spartan look. Round instrument faces replace elliptical ones, and the rotary climate-control knobs have been moved down in the center of the dash. The front bucket seats are comfortable and very supportive Recaros. There's not much headroom, however, in the rear seats. Slamming the hatch shut with an adult back there could result in a ride to the emergency room. The seats do fold down for carrying larger cargo.
