19th Dec 2008, 09:33
I have a 97 Tiburon, and the same as above, I have electrical problemss with the windshield wipers, and the airbag light is on.
The biggest thing was yesterday; now remember this car is only 11 years old. My wife and I were driving on the interstate at 70 mph, and hit a bump in the road and heard a clunk under the car. Since it is winter here right now, we assumed it was snow or ice falling. Upon listening further we heard a sound of something draggin. We pulled over, looked under the car, and wow it was the gas tank laying on the ground; the straps both broke. The only thing keeping it there is the hoses and exhaust pipe... so that's 75.00 for towing and 111.00 for parts and 200.00 for service... not to mention already have replaced rotors, brakes, CV joints on both sides, and radiator.
Oh, I forgot to mention the trans is starting to slip. Nice huh.
13th Jan 2009, 08:30
Hi everyone, I live in Lebanon and I bought a year ago a 97 Tiburon FX 2.0 L.
Well I say it's a great car after all. It has a style, it has enough power and most of spare parts are affordable. Since the time I bought it, I didn't have serious problems, even if I'm driving it fast.
The clue to keep these cars going is to repair it only with someone well qualified, and not in the main Hyundai garage.
And for its price, it is possible to made lots of upgrades on it, so it will look better and much powerful.
And guys, don't forget that these cars are 11 years old now, and it's normal from time to time to change some parts.
13th Feb 2009, 16:12
I have owned new Hyundais since 1988 from the Tibs to Santa Fe, to accents to Elantra, and now I bought my first used Tib, a 97 with 151000 on it.
The car purrs, and the only money I spent on it was for new wheel covers. Hyundais are the best they - outsell Honda and Toyota. Read the papers man, it's the only company up in sales. Hyundai is taking over the motor world. I've never had any problems with any Hyundai I have ever had.
10th Jul 2009, 09:20
Well, I wish I could chime in with accolades about this car, but... We bought the car (1997 Tiburon FX) for our daughter less than a year ago. The previous owner saved the service receipts and it looked like he took good care of it, but we should have looked more closely. This car is fraught with electrical problems. In 6 months, we've replaced the starter (which was also replaced less than 2 years ago), replaced the ignition coil, cam sensor, crank sensor, due to recent intermittent starting problems and now the passenger power door lock has failed and the airbag light has come on continuously.
The dome light has almost never worked according to the service receipts and the airbag light and starting problems have been diagnosed numerous times over the years with no results. So these are not new problems, apparently. The transmission has been good so far, but the fluid is dark even after having it flushed and serviced, so I don't expect that to last either.
It seems as soon as we fix one thing, something else goes. So as cute and stylish as this car is, it's not the greatest value in my experience. Granted, there could be some out there that are lucky enough not to have a lemon, but be prepared... if you're getting one at what seems like too good of a price, it probably is and you'll pay in the end!
In comparison, my wife has a 1990 Toyota Corolla and I have a 1993 Mazda B2600 and neither of those vehicles have come even close to the problems we've had with the Tiburon. I'm very experienced mechanically and maintain all the vehicles for non-specialized work (no tranny, airbag or exhaust sys work) So I'm no newbie when it comes to mechanics. I'd never recommend this car to a friend.
3rd May 2011, 06:44
The best advice I could give you about your airbag light is take it into a shop, and have them hook a scanner up to your car. Ask them to reset the code, it should stay off, so long as there is nothing wrong with the air bag. But if it does come back on, there is a problem with your air bag system which you should have checked in case of a possible short to ground which could cause the air bag to deploy.
26th Mar 2008, 19:09
I own a 98 Tib, which has 190 000k.
My husband owns a 2000 Tib, which has 225 000k, and has been across Canada. He also used to have 97 Tib, and none of these cars have had major problems, not even close to the same ones.
I agree with buying as standard, and as far as buying these cars for your teens, did you ever think that maybe your kids drive the things like crap; they are teenagers, and I don't care how perfect you think they are, they still drive like idiots, especially sports cars.
Maybe this causes half your problems? Like the transmission? I mean if you own a 1st generation Tiburon, you have to remember that they are like 10, 11 years old. Any car that old is going to have problems.
And second of all, anyone that says it has no performance, I don't know what expect out of a 2.0L, 4cyl, with 150hp, but it's pretty quick for what it has.
No, they don't have the performance like a BMW and the high end cars, but you have to remember that the 1st generation of Tibs, only cost about $13-15000, not $50000. We have raced many 4cyl, and even 6cyl, and blown them away. They do like 203-208km/h. They don't cut out like most 'american made' crap.
So, I hope that having bad luck with one car, doesn't give them a bad name, because there are plenty of us that haven't had too many issues with them. I think you could buy any make of car and just get a 'bad one', it happens.