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Hyundai Reviews Hyundai Tiburon Hyundai Accent Hyundai Elantra GT Hyundai Santa FE Hyundai XG350
Hyundai
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Hyundai Reviews2003 Hyundai Tiburon Review
GT offers great looks, good performance, low price. 2003 Hyundai Tiburon Base Price (MSRP) $15,999 As Tested (MSRP) $18,744 Just about everybody would agree that Ferrari makes some of the best looking cars. What if you could drive a car with Ferrari 456GT looks for under $20K? Okay, the 2003 Hyundai Tiburon is not a Ferrari clone but there's' no denying that it has Ferrari 456GT styling cues in its sleek new design. It also has some Ford Mustang, Mercury Cougar and Toyota Celica as well, which is not all bad. A Hyundai? Yes, the company has been working hard to produce attractive cars with performance and panache, and it looks to have succeeded with the all new Tiburon. More important, the quality of Hyundai cars has improved tremendously in the past few years, according to the respected quality gurus at J. D. Power and Associates. Tiburon means shark in Spanish. This Tiburon may not look like a mean machine but the GT V6 version is surely going to stir the waters as it swims among established fish such as the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota Celica GTS, Ford Mustang, and Honda Civic Si. 2002 Hyundai Accent Review
Low pricing with unexpected zippiness. 2002 Hyundai Accent Base Price (MSRP) $8,999 As Tested (MSRP) $10,244 Hyundai hasn't raised the price of the base-level Accent since the end of the last century. Yet this handsome little car gets better every year. Accent was thoroughly re-designed for model-year 2000 to provide more interior room, a smoother-running powertrain, and better isolation from whatever mechanical noise remained. 2001 brought a bigger, more sophisticated engine for GL and GS models. Horsepower rose 14 percent, and torque 9 percent. Now, for 2002, all GL and GS models come with air conditioning as standard equipment. Hyundai Accent is protected by one of the best warranties in the business. If you're looking for a new-car experience at used-car prices, then the Accent may be right for you. 2002 Hyundai Elantra GT Review
Hyundai comes of age with new GT model. 2002 Hyundai Elantra GT Base Price (MSRP) $12,499 As Tested (MSRP) $14,572 No excuses, disclaimers or frequent reminders about the low price and great warranty. Hyundai's new Elantra GT is a good car on its own merits. How so? Start with the five-door body style, which offers the practical advantages of a small wagon with the sleek look of a well-designed sedan. On the functionality scale, this package is hard to beat. Consider the most powerful standard engine in the subcompact class, and a standard-equipment list as long or longer than cars that cost $10.000-$15,000 more. The Elantra GT's interior is nicely finished. Measured by build quality, it meets or beats most of its competitors. This Hyundai has the sporty feel many subcompact buyers seek, and with the standard manual transmission it's good fun to drive. We believe it will surpass most buyers' expectations. The Elantra GT was introduced late in the 2001 model year and did not change for 2002. 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe Review
Economy with style. 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe Base Price (MSRP) $17,199 As Tested (MSRP) $20,689 Hyundai sure has changed. Today, Hyundai produces the eye-popping Tiburon sportster, the elegantly handsome XG350 and, not least, one of the curviest compact SUVs on the market, the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe has what Hyundai Motor America's president calls a very high gawk factor. We think it's a good description. A year after its introduction, the Santa Fe never fails to draw our attention. But rather than gawk, we drove. And we liked how the Santa Fe drove, both on and off paved roads. For 2002, Hyundai has beefed up Santa Fe's standard-equipment list. 2002 Hyundai XG350 Review
New name, more performance 2002 Hyundai XG350 Base Price (MSRP) $23,999 As Tested (MSRP) $26,094 Hyundai's XG sedan offers mid-size roominess and practicality with styling and appointments that place it firmly in the near-luxury class. Yet, as you might expect of Hyundai, the XG350 is stickered closer to the $25,000 price of a workaday family hauler. Add Hyundai's five-year/60,000-mile bumper to bumper warranty (and 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain coverage) and the XG350 represents a terrific value. When we drove the new Hyundai XG300 last year, one of our few complaints was the lackluster performance of its 3.0-liter V6. Now Hyundai's flagship has returned with more torque, thanks to a 3.5-liter V6. With the larger displacement comes a new badge: XG350. The Hyundai XG350 is no pauper posturing in a prince's clothes. This is genuinely a cool car, an aspirational car in the current marketing lingo, although it's not especially original or unique. The XG350 shows Hyundai has left the bad old days behind to become a serious contender among quality mid-size cars. Hyundai Reviews
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