2003 Hyundai Tiburon

I bought this car new and within two months I had already taken it back to have both window motors replaced. This is where my story begins... I finally traded it in late 2007 after the warranty expired because I could not afford to pay constant repairs. The somewhat good news is that most of these repairs were covered under the bumper to bumper warranty. It also comes with roadside assistance which you will need when it breaks down on the side of the road. I would never own this or any other Hyundai without a warranty and as a result of owning this car I will never buy another Hyundai.

My Tiburon was fully loaded and a great little zippy car that I did like to drive. I was constantly annoyed with the constant trips to the repair shop however. It got to the point where I would leave things broken so I could get multiple items fixed in one trip. So it started with the window motors. Both were fried within two months of buying the car. I eventually ended up replacing one of the replacements as well. My air bag light would never shut off, this terrified me because of all the problems I had with the car. I envisioned one of two things happening either the air bag not going off if I was in an accident or it going off randomly. I had to take it back at least twice for them to solve this mystery. It ended up being some sort of sensor in my seatbelt latch. The keys are dangerous, they break! One is probably still in the passenger side door the other broke off in the ignition. Luckily i hadn't pushed it in all the way so it wasn't stuck in the ignition but this was the only key I had (the other having broken off in the door) so it had to be towed to the nearest dealer, this is where road side assistance comes in. This particular problem really upset me because Hyundai wouldn't have paid for the repairs because the "key" is not covered. I threw such a fit in the repair shop that they gave me a free key but I was going to have to pay for it.

There was also the fateful day I was driving down the road and my sunroof shattered. I still do not know what caused this, the glass came up in a volcano shape. Again it took some advocacy on my part so it was covered under warranty but I had to stick to my guns. The glue they used to repair the sunroof stunk so bad that my car never smelled the same again. The cap on the shifter came loose, small items I know but it goes to show that this car is made cheaply. There was on particular day we had ice and when I pulled on the door handle it broke off in my hand. I tried to get this under warranty and they refused to pay for it because it was weather related. It was shortly after that that I parked next to another Tiburon in a parking lot and noticed theirs was broken off as well, big surprise. The battery had to be replaced pretty early in the cars life, once again stranding me on the side of the road. The tires are very expensive because they are the low profile. I had a lot of problems with them going flat fairly easily. I am pretty sure that there were other problems but that I have repressed them. Most of this was covered under warranty but that does not take into account all the time I had to take off work to get my car fixed. There is hardly any head room in the backseat and if your windows aren't tinted it is like being baked in an oven sitting in the back in the summer. The final straw for me was the alternator completely died about a year ago while we were on vacation. The nearest Hyundai dealer was over 40 miles from where we were and we spent an entire day of our vacation at the repair shop. We almost drove away in a new car but surprisingly they didn't want to give us much for our trade in. The positive about this car is that it is very cute and zippy. Plus the car does me no good when things like the keys break off and I am stuck on the side of the interstate!

I sold this car with about 55k on it in very good condition and only got about 5K for it. The resale is very poor even though I had the top of the line model. I did like to drive it but I was constantly worried something new would break. It also sits very very low to the ground and that takes some getting use to.

The positive about this car is that it is zippy and it corners very well. It rides a little rough but that is to be expected from any sports car. I had a standard which gave me a little more power when on the road. The stereo was decent for it being factory. Even though it was a v-6 I got pretty good gas mileage out of it.