Possible car purchase... need opinions

[clownphish]

Ok, here's the deal, my hubby and I have had this '87 Vette since April-ish and so far, if it is possible for something to break it has. Last night the ****** died AGAIN in front of my father's house about an hour away from home. Fortunately he let us borrow his '93 Dodge Colt (yay! :mad so we have wheels.

We DESPERATELY want to get rid of the Vette before we can't help filling it w/dynamite and watching it meet it's sweet oblivion. On a whim on Saturday we test drove the '04 Hyundai Tiburon; overall impression of the vehicle was positive despite Hyundai's past reputation. Can anybody offer some info or personal experience w/this car? I've read mixed reviews (most rating it a 7 out of 10). Any suggestions on how to get rid of the Vette before it meets its demise? All I want is for the hubby to have something that a) he will stick with, b) can fit a child seat for future kidlets, and c) is reliable. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[EXA4DRIVER]

Buy my car

 

[Turbo Matty P]

This is an educated review of Hyundai. Hyundai received it's bad image from being supplied powertrains from mitsubishi. Once mitsubishi reuined Hyundai's american image hyundai decide to buy themselves away from mitsubishi and create their own engines and trannys. Once this was done they started offering the 10yr/100K mile warranty to lure back hesitant buyers. This has worked AMAZINGLY well as Hyundai has reported double digit gains each fiscal quarter since. Hyundai is struggling right now to produce a more upscale line of cars hince the start of the Kia line....this will be the base model line similar to Lexus' toyota. The hyundai Tiburon is a great car. A little pricey for what you get, but a very solid and capable car. I've also never seen a motor respond so well to an injen intake as the Tibby GT. Something reported like 18whp! Also, the aftermarket is fully supporting them now and have massive turbo kits for the 4bangers as well as superchargers for the V6. If it were my money (and it was when I made this decission) I would choose the 03 Mazdaspeed. They are about $4-5K less than a loaded V6 GT and faster to boot. They also have a better sound system and more interior room for hauling stuff around. Being a factory turbo car they are easier to get power out of (cheaper). Also, I'm 99% sure a MSP will hold higher resale value than the Tibby. All in all....The Tiburon GT is a great car. I wouldn't mind owning one and parking it out in the drive for everyone to see. If you can get a good GT for around $18K OTD I'd take it.

 

[clownphish]

LOL EXA4DRIVER! Don't I wish! No, he won't buy a P5, not enough HP. While his Vette is far from peak hp output at 275 that's a helluva lot more than our piddy 130.

 

[Turbo Matty P]

Hyundai is Korean.....their performance is pretty good out of the box. It'll outrun a Celica GT-S and it's a heavy car. Again, I like the hyundais, but you can get more car for less green with the MSP.

 

[clownphish]

Thanks Turbo Matty P! That's the kind of response I was looking for! I gotta agree w/you space wise; it almost seemed like a miniature car, so cute! I've already suggested the MSP to him but I think he just wants something different than a Mazda. Maybe if I didn't already have an MP5 he'd be game. He thinks they're underpowered. I realize the Tib could be putting out a lot more w/the V6 GT (which is what we were looking at) but it's good to hear there is a lot of aftermarket availability out there to soup it up a bit. Thanks!

Edit: Ooops, thanks everyone else too for your input, this is really helpful!

 

[clownphish]

Well, we test drove a used MSP (5k miles on it) last night at an Acura/Nissan stealership and were none too impressed. Not that there was anything wrong w/the car, they were trying to sell it for $21,900!!! The Mazda dealer down the street had a *new* one for $21,000. Whatevah! It's odd though, the Tib is stuck in our heads now. I like it personally, it's a tight little vehicle. We'll see this Thursday, meanwhile we're going to do more researching and looking around. Thanks for all your responses everyone!