Need some advice about Tiburon.

[JohnnyB.]

Hey everyone!

I cannot choose what to buy: Tiburon or Avante (Elantra).
Current candidates are:
Tiburon 1996-1997
Avante (Elantra) 1997-1998

Mileage of both is approx.50k miles

I like Tiburon very much, but a few issues are about to stop me from buying it.

I would really appreciate if anyone can confirm or deny the following about Tiburon 1996-1998:

Is it right that:
1) Tiburon is very expensive in maintenance. (Compared to Elantra)
2) Tiburon isn't good in winter and additional winter tires are NECCESSARY (We have snow in winter here in South Korea)
3) Tiburon's back seats are ABSOLUTELY unusable for adult people (height of 6' or 182cm) and sitting there even for 1 hour is a disaster, even if you shift front seat slightly forward.
4) Tiburon has usually problems with air conditioning in summer.
5) Tiburon has not so good paint and after some time there are "holes" in it.
6) Tiburon has poor re-sale rate.

If anyone can add something to this list of possible bad things in Tiburon from your own experience, I will be very thankful.

Thank you for your attention!


[Edited by JohnnyB. on Jul 3, 2004 5:56 AM]

[AUTOBOT]

1) Tiburon and Elantras are the same. Same engine, and same chasis. There are a few suspension diferences and obvious cosmetic one. Neither are expensive to maintain.

2) It is all the tires that are on the car. Many people drive Tibs through snow all the time. If you put the same tires on either car, they will perform basically the same in snow.

3) Yes the back seat in the Tib is tight. Unusable no, but tight. But, it is your car so you should never ride in it. Unless you plan on buying the car to use as a taxi, then get what you want and if your friends don't like it, they can get a car or buy you one.

4) I don't know of any abnormal problems with the Tibs a/c but again, if the Tib had them, so would the Elantra.

5) Hyundai paint around that time wasn't the best but they used the same paint for all their cars.

6) All Hyundais have a poor resale rate but you also don't pay as much for them. Basically, what you lose in the resale, you gain in the initial low price. Either way, you are buying and used car that is about 7 years old and resale rate shouldn't be a huge concern.

Like stated earlier, the cars are the same. If both cars were properly maintained, they are fairly equal. Both are good cars. The only other way to look at it would be the type of driver both might have had. The Tib is more likely to have been owned by a younger kid who drove it like a sports car and beat on it more.

If both cars run good and check out well, then it realy just boils down to 2 doors or 4 doors. Get the one you like.

[REDZMAN]

As for particular problems in S. Korea man, why don't you contact David from Kspec.com ? His email address is admin @ kspec.com (take out the spaces). He lives in Uigongbu and lived in Seoul for years. He drives a 2001 Tiburon and can tell you all about any issues with it and driving it in Korea's CRAZY weather mang.

As for the problems you state above, I've not heard of any of them, and I've only known a few folks that have bought snow tires.

[Mad-Machine]

Tibs are good in the snow... I am running Potenza RE750s.. a nice SUMMER tyre... except for having problems getting going when their is a layer of snow on the ground, I had NO problems at all.. when I still had the stock OEMs on her.. she did really good.

All the above is accurate.. Think of the tib as the Elantra coupe... a sporty, better looking elantra.. and you would not be far off.

[JohnnyB.]

First, thanks to all of you guys for your answers.

In this case I will choose Tiburon, because I will drive it alone most of the time. But sometimes I'd probably like to go, say, to seashore with 2-3 friends (this is not supposed to be very often).

So: is it really a big discomfort to spend 1 hour on the back seat for one or two 6 feet (182cm) guys even if I shift slightly forward my front seat (BTW, is it shiftable?)

Are you satisfied with air conditioning and heating in your Tiburon? (Tib and Elantra are different in this sense because of different construction of the body, different amount of doors etc.)

Did anyone have any problems with automatic transmission on Tiburon?

Is 50k miles a good mileage to buy 1996-1998 Tib? Or I will need to replace a lot of things in a few thousand miles?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but I have no opportunity here to answer them by myself - I don't speak Korean.

[Edited by JohnnyB. on Jul 4, 2004 3:39 AM]

[Mad-Machine]

the autotrannies are not the best in Hyundais.. they do not like to get beaten on. As for the air and air conditioning.. both work excellant in my tib.. and while they are a little different, again the elantra and tib use the same basic system.. but the interior of the tib is smaller.. so it works better and faster.

Some faults I have seen.. one a design fault, the other something transient nobody else seems to have noticed..

I like to drive with the windows open.. even in the rain.. unfortunatly, the roof design leaves a nice path for the water to come off of the windsheild and then pour over the side of the car to drip DIRECTLY onto the power window switches... poor design.

My air conditioner has an odd sound. A transient sound that lasts about two seconds with about five minutes between... it is a high pitched whine that seems to come from under the passenger side of the dash.. nobody else hears it in their cars.. but I also know my hearing is biased towards the high end...

[REDZMAN]

Johnny, that's why I said to talk to David, he is very fluent in English and would even talk to you on the phone there.

For your questions...

1. No, it's not that uncomfortable in the back, just watch your head getting in. Yes, you can shift the seats.

2. Very satisfied with the heat and AC, and I live in the Desert.

3. Haven't heard of any major problems, it depends on how you drive.

4. 50,000 miles for that year is very good, you are lucky they don't have MORE miles. LOL

5. You should learn some Hangul while you are there, fantastic language, and easy to pick up. Why are you in Korea? Teaching? Where are you from?

[sniff15]

i think early tibs are ugly

[Mad-Machine]

did we ask for an aesthetic critque?

[JohnnyB.]

[...deleted...]

[Edited by JohnnyB. on Aug 17, 2004 12:37 AM]