Ferrari-lite
by David Finlay (24 May 07)

Hyundai must have got its money's worth out of the Coupé a long time ago. Although we're on the third generation now (that's roughly what the SIII in the name means), this is still basically the same car that first came on the market ten years ago, and the concept is starting to feel a little stale.

Not that the Coupé is without appeal. If you ignore the horrible front-end styling introduced in 2000, and later wisely abandoned, this has always been Hyundai's best-looking car by a very substantial margin. In its current form it looks just a little bit like a Ferrari, which is perhaps why it is outstandingly popular in Italy.

The looks are the best bit. The Coupé gives the impression that it's a sports car, but in practical terms it isn't. In impractical terms, it certainly is - if you are more than six feet tall you are always going to struggle with the severely limited headroom, and although there are four seats you can forget any attempt to put anyone larger than a healthy four-year old in the back.

If you're interested in style, you'll consider this a reasonable swap for the exterior elegance. If you're interested in driving, you'll want a more sporting experience in return for the lack of room. The Coupé doesn't really provide this, though it makes a better job of it in two-litre form than the 2.7-litre V6 we tested recently does.

The two-litre engine is the middle of three in the range (there's a 1.6 down at the bottom). It produces 141bhp, which is 24bhp shy of the V6 and leads to a one-second penalty in the 0-62mph time (to 9.3 seconds) and an 8mph shortfall in top speed (to 129mph). If we're still talking about trade-offs, the relative lack of straightline grunt is more than compensated for by vastly better fuel economy. And of course the 2.0 is nearly £2000 cheaper to buy.

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