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.