Hi..new to the board here.

My son and I are looking for a car for him, and we've located two Tiburons that might fit the bill...not knowing much about Hyundai's I thought I would solicit some opinion on the board here. I've read up on what I could find, sounds like Tiburons are not speed demons (good!) but are reasonably reliable. The two choices (both around $5k) are:

2000 Tiburon, pastel yellow, 88k miles, body seems to be in reasonably good shape, a few spots and scrapes..good news here is the current (only) owner has kept up the maintenance and seems to care about the car..new brakes, belts, etc.

1999 Tiburon FX, dark blue, 73k miles, paint overall in good shape, but broken drivers side mirror case and driver's door has been replaced and paint job on door is less than ideal. Seems like current owner (2nd owner) has been keeping up on maintenance...i noticed a couple of rattles here and there on the test drive, but overall clean and in good shape

Both are similarly equipped, power windows, locks, A/C, auto, etc.

Any comments pro or con between the 1999 and 2000? Interesting that the older car has less miles..but i don't know any particular things to look for on Hynudais and Tiburons specifically. Any problems that tend to hide from the untrained eye?

Any comments welcomed.

Thanks!

 

Hey, I own a 98 Tib, which is the same as the 99's, and my husband owns a 2000. Mine has 174 000km on it, and when I bought it, it had 150 000km on it, after I bought it, we noticed Tranny problems, and that was a $1700 CD job, but who knows how the first owner drove it, right? Both cars are standard, which if your going to drive a sports car, it is soooo much better! My husband's has over 200 000km, and no major problems, there was about 55 000km on it when he bought it. If you take care of them, they are a great reliable car. I have had to replace a few relays in my 98'( which are fairly cheap), and all the bearings in the 2000, but when there is 200 000km on any car, you have to replace crap like that!!
If you can do alot of the easier work on it, example: breaks, oil changes, bealts, it's cheap to maintane. I recommend looking around if you have to raplace parts, the dealership is pretty pricey, we buy pretty much all our parts online. A good online store to get original Hyundai parts is www.fourgreen.com, it's in Korea, but it only takes 2-4 days to get parts delivered to your door, with free shipping.
Both of our original breaks lasted over 170 000km, but again thats with a standard, and we gear down alot.
We live in Ontario, and we drove all the way to Nova Scotia and back, and all the way to B.C and back, with no problems, I would say thats pretty reliable! They are great on gas, especially if you slap a cold air intake on it, which is a cheap mod.
As far as prices go, those are good prices for both the 99 and 00', especially with that low of miles. And as far as you saying that you have heard that Tibs aren't speed demons.... I wouldn't say that! I don't know what your used to driving, but those 2.0L, 4cyl, are a very peppy engine, we have raced quite afew cars, afew of them being 6cyl, and have blown them away. I have never seen my car's top speed, I'll only take it to like 190km/h, but my husband had his up to 208km/h, and it didn't cut out, it just wouldn't go any faster!!
Anyways, hope I helped you out a little. Just wanted to tell you that both my husband and I love our cars, he used to own a 97 Tib, and liked it so much his next car was the 2000 Tib.!

Stacey