The seats are comfortable and well bolstered, with lumbar and butt support, leather with nice cloth inserts. The three spokes of the leather-wrapped steering wheel are fairly fat, but the leather feels nice in your hands. The instruments are backlit in cool blue. The speedometer is on the left and tach on the right, with temperature and fuel between them, plus a digital display for the odometer and average speed. The gunmetal accents on the panel look nice.
The center stack is squarish, with two big round climate vents over smaller ones on top of the dash; they handle the strong air conditioning. The usual instruments run down the center, with reasonable controls without bran-teasing challenges to figure out. There are two cupholders, a small glovebox, door pockets and a small single-chamber console between the seats. Our SE had the sunroof and we opened it to the Pacific sky, which came through with a loud whoosh. There's an optional wind deflector for the sunroof, but our test model didn't have it.
The rear seats offer 29.9 inches of legroom, which isn't much but isn't bad for a two-plus-two coupe. The Eclipse has 29.2 inches and the RX-8 only 23 inches, although the RX-8 does have those small rear doors that help rear passengers enter and exit. But the RX-8 only has 7.6 cubic feet of trunk space, about half as much as the Tiburon and Eclipse.
We had a couple of problems, namely our right toe making contact with some low-hanging thing under the dash, every time we moved our right foot from the brake to the throttle. And there's a horrendous blind spot behind the right C-pillar, when you look over your shoulder in that direction.
Hyundai's boast that the Tiburon SE can hold the road as well as European sports cars might be going a bit far, but the road-holding is quite good for the price.
The nicest thing about the Tiburon might be its throaty, hollow exhaust note. It's really fun to run up through the six-speed gearbox and enjoy the sounds. A lot of hot sports cars don't sound so hot, but the SE does a great job of delivering that sensual enjoyment, so good you forget there's just 172 horsepower. The redline on the tach is 6500, but the V6 will rev to 7000 before the rev limiter cuts the engine, and it sounds so good you often want to take it that far.
And when you look into the rearview mirror, you see the high spoiler to remind you that the Tiburon is at least trying to be cool. It does block visibility out the rear, which might be inconvenient because if you're always revving the engine to redline, you might want to keep an eye out for the cops.
The aluminum double-overhead-cam V6 is mounted transversely. It makes 181 pound-feet of torque, which isn't a ton, but it's all there at a low 3800 rpm, and that means a lot. Cruising along at 75 mph in sixth gear, 3500 rpm, you can mash the throttle without downshifting, and the SE accelerates well; of course, it'll squirt away better if you downshift to fifth. Just don't expect neck-snapping acceleration from the 172 horsepower, which has to pull the Tiburon's 2986 pounds.
Even with only 181 pound-feet of torque, the torque steer from the front-wheel drive is noticeable.
The gearbox, called the ZF, is good, but the shifts aren't so sharp because the lever has a long throw and the linkage isn't as tight as it might be. However the clutch action is smooth, especially on the upshifts, and that compensates a bit for the long throw; so overall, the upshifts work.
We can't say the same for the downshifts, at least not with heel-and-toe downshifting, because the gas pedal is quite a bit lower than the brake pedal. So you can't fit the toe of your foot on the brake pedal and your heel on the gas. As serious as Hyundai was about the track-tuned suspension, it's surprising they missed something simple like the pedal position for sporty downshifting.
The ratios are fine; sixth gear is a tall overdrive designed to deliver better fuel mileage. It's basically an extra gear on top, because the ratio of fifth gear (0.86:1) is almost the same as the fifth gear (0.84:1) in the five-speed gearbox on the GS model. Still, the SE has the lowest fuel mileage (18 city, 26 highway) among the Tiburons.
We got a chance to test out the brakes, running the Tiburon SE hard on a downhill run to the Pacific Ocean through Malibu's canyons. The SE's larger rotors (12-inch diameter front, compared to 11-inch on the other Tiburons) are cross-drilled for cooling, the first time Hyundai has tried this technology that's not uncommon to high-performance cars. The SE won't stop like, say, the BMW Z4 M Coupe we recently tested; but the brakes are good and solid, and don't forget we're talking about a $22,000, four-seat sports car here.
The suspension is pretty firm on a choppy freeway, but not unbearably so, and it's reasonably comfortable over mere ripples. You might consider this firmness a reminder that it's ready for heavy duty in corners. The SE handles them just fine, although again, it's not in the same league as a car like the M Coupe, because it's not in the same price league. However, the structural rigidity of the Tiburon exceeds that of the BMW M3, according to Hyundai.
The Tiburon SE has its limits when driven aggressively through switchback curves, but handles the situation well. It does a better job than its main competitor, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, and isn't that far off from a Mazda RX-8, and both of those cars cost thousands more.
Hyundai Tiburon comes as four models, beginning with the inexpensive GS ($16,595) which uses a DOHC 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, mated to a five-speed manual transmission or optional ($1100) four-speed automatic with Shiftronic manual control. Standard equipment includes power windows, doors and heated mirrors, air conditioning, keyless entry, a 220-watt Kenwood MP3 sound system, and 16-inch alloy wheels. Cruise control isn't standard; it comes in a package with the sunroof.
The Tiburon GT ($19,295) uses a DOHC 2.7-liter V6 with the same transmission options as the GS, and 17-inch alloy wheels. Inside, there are black leather seat bolsters with cloth inserts, an automatic climate control system, and cruise control. The optional sound system, with the sunroof in the Sun and Sound package, is a 440-watt Infinity system with six CD player, MP3 capability, and subwoofer.
The GT Limited ($21,595) brings in the luxury, with that Infinity sound system and a red leather interior.
The SE ($21,995) is the "track-tuned" model. It uses the 2.7-liter V6 with a six-speed gearbox, multi-gauge cluster, high rear spoiler, red front calipers on big vented rotors, aluminum pedals, and the red leather seats with black cloth inserts. The suspension is tuned for hard cornering, and there's electronic stability control with Brake Assist and Traction Control. The standard sound system is the 220-watt Kenwood that's in the GS, and the sunroof is optional.
Safety equipment that comes standard includes anti-lock brakes, tire pressure monitor, and side airbags.