2008 Hyundai Tiburon GS review from North America

Nothing whatsoever.

When I first saw a Tiburon, I thought it was an exotic sports car, and was completely surprised to see the Hyundai emblem. It is a beautiful car, inside and out, and looks much more expensive than it really is.

Some car magazine reviewers have ripped the Tiburon because they claim it has a "dated" style, but even though I disagree with this statement, the design is what I like the most. I have driven a variety of 80's and 90's sports cars, and you just don't see a sleek looking 2-door hatchback anymore. Everything is either a sedan, or uses ridiculous looking "modern" designs.

There are two engines for the Tiburon, with different option packages. One is the 138hp 4 cyl, which I have, and the 6cyl which is 172hp. Again, car magazine reviewers have ripped the power of the Tiburons, and frequently recommend competing cars such as the Mitsubishi Eclipse (I test drove one and hated it).

I strongly recommend getting the 4cyl GS because the V6 doesn't offer enough extra power to justify the drop in fuel economy. And if headroom seems to be an issue, getting a sun-roofless model will make a big difference.

But after actually owning a Tiburon, I can say with full confidence that this is not a "slow" car as some people might say. Sure, it's not a turbo or supercharged, but for a normally aspirated 4cyl, it gets up and goes when you need it to. Better than I expected.

Yes, there are some cars out there with more overall power than the Tiburon, but realistically where are you going to use it? With photo radar, cops getting increasingly intolerant of speeders, and rising gas prices, there is just no need to have a daily driver that turns a 14 second quarter.

Despite what some reviewers might say (are you starting to see a pattern here?), the handling is quite good. There is a sharp turn near my house that I test cars on, and the Tiburon took it better than my Porsche 944, a car with near 50/50 weight distribution.

Simply put, the Tiburon is one of the best looking, if not THE best looking affordable sports car on the market, it has more than enough power, great handling, and Hyundai's 100,000k mile warranty that is transferable to 60,000 miles.