Car review: Hyundai Coupe

Hyundai Coupe (2000-2001)

2.0SE Auto

Purchased May 2007

This review refers to the facelifted version of the Mk1 Hyundai Coupe.

The good points:

• Looks - a bit like Marmite, you love it or you hate it. My Coupe was in black, so with the twin headlights looked sleek and aggressive. One person commented that it was not dissimilar to the Batmobile, another said it was a little bit like KITT.


• Image - Hyundai is not exciting enough to command too much attention from the boy racers, but it still has something exciting about it for the discerning punter like myself ;-)


• Cost - Hyundai Coupes are not expensive; mine cost less than £5k, and that was more expensive because of the automatic gearbox. You can even pick up a nearly new SIII (the newest model) for just over £10k. The insurance is not prohibitive either. Hyundai also introduced a 5-year warranty a few years ago, so you can get a second-hand one that would still have a decent amount of warranty left.


• Comfort - with leather bucket seats, a great driving position, cruise control, electric windows and sunroof, this is a pleasure to sit in (at least if you are in the front - headroom for rear passengers is not great).


• The drive - it doesn't actually drive like a sports car (it is front wheel drive for a start), but it is very smooth, with the automatic gearchange barely noticeable. It is more suited to cruising than racing, I liked to set the cruise control at about 75mph (sorry Officer, I meant 70mph!), and glide along on the motorway. If you need a little extra juice to overtake, it only takes a little squirt of the throttle.

And the things that are not so good:

• As with any ageing car, it is worth checking the service history and paperwork before buying. Although it is not a sports car, I had a nagging feeling that previous owners had driven less than conservatively.


• Electrics - although all the instruments worked fine, I got through about four or five headlight bulbs in a year, and then, rather disastrously the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) failed. Fortunately, when I bought the car, I managed to get an after-market 12-month warranty thrown in, so got the ECU replaced at no extra cost (it would otherwise have cost about £500-600 for parts and labour).


• Rear headroom - if your passengers are taller than about 5'3", they will find themselves cramped in the back, due to the raking rear window (although the legroom is fine).


• MPG - the official figures (according to Parkers) is 29mpg on the combined cycle. Like most people, a decent amount of my driving is stop-start on the way to work, so it wasn't cheap on fuel. As of May 2008 (fuel at about 105p per litre), £50 of fuel would last for about 300 miles.

Do I like this car? I love it, although I recently downsized to a Seat Ibiza 1.4, as the Hyundai was eight years old and had a decent number of miles on the clock - the Seat is working out OK, not as torque-y, but much cheaper on fuel, tax and insurance. However, as a driver, there is little comparison - the Hyundai was comfortable, smooth and has good torque (if not lots of power) and a decent gearchange. On top of that, it looked good. Definitely my favourite car that I have owned. 8/10.

Nottingham Forest New Home Kit 2008

Sneak previews are now available of Nottingham Forest's new home kit for the forthcoming season. You can find out what I think by visiting the Nottingham Forest blog.

Live Review: Athlete/Delays

Athlete/Delays

City Pulse Festival,

Nottingham, 24th May 2008

A Bank Holiday weekend where the sun is out, a free festival featuring one of my favourite bands, does it get much better than this? The festival actually spread across the whole weekend, but Saturday was the "indie" day, with some local and up-and-coming bands preceding Elliot Minor, before Delays took to the stage, followed by headliners Athlete.

I have followed Delays since I lived in London in 2003 - Xfm were playing Long Time Coming on fairly heavy rotation, and I was inspired enough to invest in the debut album Faded Seaside Glamour, and its 2006 follow-up You See Colours. Delays are often bracketed as psychedelic-indie pop; this was true on the basis of the first album, although the second disc was a lot more electro-pop. The gig was part of the promotion for their new album Everything's The Rush, which I have yet to get hold of (actually, I didn't even know it was out until about a week before the gig).

I always wondered whether they would be able to transfer their sound onto the live stage, and they did not disappoint. Aaron Gilbert, often described as the "keyboard whizz", actually stands behind a sequencer, which means that he can control the keyboard sounds, including the soaring strings that characterise much of Delays' songbook. Opening with Long Time Coming, the start of the gig was unfortunately hampered by the fact that lead vocalist Gregg Gilbert's microphone was not turned up high enough, a problem shared with bass player Colin Fox, whose backing vocals were equally inaudible. Thankfully this problem was rectified during second song This Town's Religion.

After a familiar start, Delays then started playing some of the new songs, comprising a good two-thirds of the set. Delays are distinctive because of Gregg's vocals, which veer between a gravelly rasp and a sweet falsetto (it was months before I found out that he wasn't a girl!), but Aaron shares lead duties on a couple of the new songs. The new songs are more obviously commercial than the old stuff, which tonight included Hideaway, a storming rendition of You and Me (much stronger than the album version), and set closer Valentine (an absolutely brilliant song which you might know from Match of the Day).

Although I suppose I am biased, I was really impressed with Delays - they were tight, the rhythm section of Colin Fox and Rowly were impeccable and also looked cool, and they seemed to enjoy themselves, despite a relatively lukewarm audience (largely due to the fact that not many people had heard of them!).

After a wait of an hour or so, Athlete came on and had more support from the crowd. I am a casual fan of the band - I liked a couple of the singles from the first record, I bought the second album, but paid little attention to the last CD. They largely played the greatest hits, opening with Half Light, with Tourist, You Got the Style, and Hurricane getting a good reception - as expected, Wires provided the lighters in the air, standing on the shoulders type-moment.

Closing with Twenty Four Hours, Athlete were good value for money (or at least they would have been if anyone had to pay!). Although they are not quite my thing (Joel Potts' voice can grate on some songs), they are a very good live band; tight (despite having a stand-in bass player - regular Carey Willetts was on paternity leave) and putting in a decent amount of energy for a gig that falls steadfastly between albums. I particularly liked the contribution of sticks-man Steve Roberts, but I always was a fan of drummers...

Let's not forget the reason that we were here - a free music festival, laid on by Nottingham City Council with support from BBC Radio Nottingham and their music champion Dean Jackson (who is a judge for the Mercury Prize you know!). If I was to give marks out of ten, Athlete would get 7, Delays 9 and the gig itself would also get 9 - a great initiative to give music, for free, back to the people. Nice one.

I have put together a photo gallery from the day - click here to view the slideshow. If you hover over the picture and click on the "i", you will also see some explanatory captions.