Hyundai’s Tiburon Coupe has always been a car with an excess of character over capability, quite honestly. Yes, for such a sexy two-door, it’s always been priced very attractively, but it’s quirky good looks and competent FWD chassis have always cried out for more go backing them up than the original 2.0-litre ‘four’ or even the subsequent 2.7-litre V6 could muster.

Now the latest iteration of the Tiburon has landed on our shores, and rather than looking like the aquatic predator for which it’s apparently named, it looks like something of an amalgam of certain very exotic machines. Put simply, it’s a beauty, with its sharp nose and purposeful, aggressive stance accentuated by the steeply-raked crease running along its flanks. Perhaps the rear-end could do with a bit more tightening here and there, but overall it makes a great performance impression.

We received the 2.0 GLS manual model for testing which, thanks to a bizarre decision taken by Hyundai SA, is actually the only real driver’s Tiburon we’ll be getting. The V6 motor will only come coupled to an automatic transmission, not even a semi-auto setup but a trad self-shifter.

Which is a real shame, because the five-speed manual fitted to the smaller car is a very sweet ‘box, and would be even better coupled to the beefier V6 mill. The lever snicks through the gate with a light precision, engaging each successive gear almost as if it’s being sucked into the new ratio which makes shifting quickly easy and enjoyable.

With the 2.0-litre engine producing 102kW at 6000rpm and 185Nm at 4500, you need to stir that lever a lot to get any taste of performance in the Tib. This motor makes a pleasing gruff, growling noise when pushing on supporting the sports-car looks, but isn’t exactly heavy in muscle so to make brisk progress you need to work at it.

The chassis beneath you inspires confidence too as it turns-in quickly and with conviction. Push hard though and you find that the front-end loses its grip on the tarmac sooner than you’d expect.

Still, for such an affordable machine, you’re sat in a decent enough place while all this is going on. The driving position is low-down and the cockpit intimate, but even for the tallest driver it’s comfortable enough which is nice. The dashboard plastics aren’t very pleasing, feeling cheap and fragile from first acquaintance.

For the money, then, what you get with the new Tiburon is precisely what you see. A very attractive, competent but undeniably cheap pseudo sports-car with performance levels more akin to your average sedan, a decent ride and handling characteristics which again are comparable to far less exotic-looking machines. If the V6 was available with a manual ‘box, as it is in international markets, there might be the basis for a pretty enjoyable little budget sportster, although the heavier mill up front would challenge the mediocre chassis more and could turn a decent-handling car into a hideous understeer-fest.

As it stands, we recognise that the Tiburon has carved it’s very own niche in the very bottom end of the loosely-termed ‘sports coupe’ market, and for that alone it’s likely to continue to sell in similarly limited numbers as the old model. But it isn’t a machine which we’re desperately keen to get back into soon…

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