I've a mate who's a used car dealer - any Hyundai Coupe he offers has a queue of potential buyers at his door.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Mechanically pretty good. Essentially its proven Mitsubishi technology so well-made and reliable. I would go for the auto.
The only thing I don't like is the ambience of the interior (you sit a bit low and its a bit gloomy) and each one I've sat inside had a slightly funny smell!
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My parents have a 55 plate V6 with 18k on the clock so ill tell you what they have said.
Good points:
Engine has very good mid-range punch from 3500-5500 is especially strong.
Will pull from 25mph in 6th gear on the manual without hassle.
Ultra reliable - not one problem since it was new.
Great dealers.
Great on long distance with cruise control on.
Big boot for a coupe.
Sounds great on the redline.
Kids mistake it for a Ferrari which is good for Hyundai, not so good for Ferrari!
Seems to have a much better image than the rest of the Hyundai range.
Very easy to drive.
Paintwork quality excellent.
Carpets good quality.
Air con is VERY effective.
Handling is very surefooted and stable despite it being a heavyish car.
Not so good points:
High side bolsters on the seats make getting out hard on a hill, as do the very heavy
doors which swing back at you on a hill very hard if you not careful.
Rear seats limited to those under 5'3 as head will bang on the rear window constantly.
Storage inside is limited.
Boot carpet very thin so protect it with a mat.
Fuel consumption dips to a 22 mpg average in town, but mid 30's on open road.
Gearbox can be notchy when cold but once warm its firm but slick.
Check the alarm works - we have to reset the fobs every 6 months but it only takes a minute
once you know how.
Parking sensors highly recommended as rear visability is very poor and the dealer fit ones work
very well - saves scraped rear bumper.
Turning circle is notably poor.
Overall, my parents love it and my mum said the only thing she can think that would equal
it for her would be a WRX Impreza which she may get next.
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Re the "notchy" gearboxes on these cars (and Hyundais in general).
It's all down to the linkage, and how you change gear.
Hyundais have a mechanism in the linkage which "catches", for want of a better word, the gearstick when in-gear to prevent an accidental pulling the gearstick out of gear when the clutch is engaged (try it, it's VERY hard to pull the car out of gear without pushing the clutch pedal down).
The problem is that a lot of drivers have a habit of pulling the car out of gear just as they're starting to push the clutch pedal down. The result of this is that it defeats the above mechanism, causing the whole thing to move out of sync with itself and the result is a "clicky" effect when the car is cold.
(I know this sounds odd, but this happened with my Accent as well).
If you get into the habit of making sure the pedal is all the way down before even starting to move the gearstick, the mechanism becomes really smooth and light to the touch.
I've found this on all Hyundais and Hyundai-based Kias I've driven as courtesy cars as well (I've come across the issue over and over because, try as I might, I can't persuade SWMBO to control the gearchanges correctly!!).
The system appears to be self-readjusting -- a few days of changing gear properly and the clickiness goes away completely.
The boxes themselves are tough, but they won't tolerate slapdash gearchanges without complaint.
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I don't understand how the mechanism you describe would work, or why it is needed.
To pull / push any car I've driven out of gear without pushing the clutch down (none of them hyundai) you have to carefully balance the throttle to remove any load across the transmission so there is no engine braking or acceleration. When you do that it slides out of gear with no resistance. If there is a small amount of load you feel it click as you pull it out and if there is a lot of load then it will not disengage (well it may do if you really yank on it).
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Jase1
With all due respect, there is no such mechanism as you describe. All cars are difficult to shift gears unless the clutch is depressed.
The Hyundai gearboxes are Mitsubishi-derived and in my experience pretty much ALL Mitsubishi gearboxes have sub-par synchromesh, making them notchy and a pain to change gear when cold. In fact on some Mitsi's you can't shift into first unless the car is stationary. Its just the way they are designed. The F5M42 gearbox (used on a whole range of FWD Mitsi's, Hyundai's etc inc. SpaceStar, Galant, Volvo, SpaceRunner etc etc) is a pig to use on a cold morning until you've driven about 5 miles. At high mileage 3rd gear synchro gets weak and will crunch on every shift. This is not helped by the cable operated change mechanism.
A partial solution is changing the gearbox oil. Using Castrol SMX-S (75W-85) will give some improvement, but I have had best results with Amsoil "Synchromesh" this is a very light (70W-80) GL-4 oil. It is expensive though. Nearly as good is Redline MTL (70W-85) - available by mail order from Delta Oils Europe in Grantham or Demon Tweeks (plus some other places too, I guess). Its around £10-12 per litre.
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All hyundais suffer syncro problems - even the new facelift getz.
from new, its most noticable in reverse - but with general wear and tear gears 2, 3 and 4 - deteriorate.
as mentioned - u have to push the clutch pedal right down.
try driving the mark 2 and mark 3 hyundai accent (not the latest mark 4 which seems to be improved - although its only done 8,000 miles to date - and reverse syncro is already causing problems) - this is the worst case of it.
Every owener of these cars rants about the gearbox. And hyundai's policy is to change the syncros and fill the box with the thickest oil possible to help minimise the design fault.
However changing the syncros with new ones - makes it worse as you have to go through the whole experience of bedding them in - I have found with my hyundai's that after 80,000 miles the box is bedded in and the syncro problem is not as noticable.
as for the coupe - great car.
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These gearchange problems sound just like the good old days of British Leyland in the early 1970s. Maxis, in particular, were noted for these problems, specially the early cable-change models. (I know, I had two!).
It seems odd to me that 35 years on a major manufacturer can still be getting something so basic so wrong.
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ps: when I was in Monte Carlo earlier this year the Hyundai coupe seemed to have taken over as the most frequently-seen car from the Fiat 500!
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I dont know how the 6-spd difffers from the other boxes, but its is very slick when you change quickly, but quite stiff when you change slowly.
With practice, the 6-spd can be used without complaint and there are no issues with reverse at all after 18k. All that could really be argued over is that its a bit stiff going into 2nd for the first few miles when cold, but it loosens up fairly quickly.
Other than that, its no worse than many other makers gearboxes including the one in my van which is far more notchy than the Hyundai, yet with practice, you can get clean changes in the van aswell.
Personally id go for the auto myself, but the manual on the V6 isnt so bad that you wouldnt buy it on account of it.
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All I can say is that this is what was described to be, and it fits with my experiences of using the gearbox every day.
If I am careful to always dip the clutch fully before changing gears, the box on my Hyundai is the smoothest and least notchy I have ever come across.
Neglect to do it, and the linkage (stress linkage) makes all kinds of odd noises. You can tell it's the linkage because the sounds seem to come from inside the cabin. On the one occasion I've ever managed to coax a proper gearbox crunch out of the car, the sound was totally different.
Apart from that one occasion, after 60k miles the box on my car is completely crunch-free. I have to say I've crunched my Nissan's gearbox more times than that through carelessness.
As for the bit about all cars being difficult to shift unless the clutch is depressed, that ain't the case with Vauxhalls. I tried it a couple of times on the works Astra out of curiosity, and lo and behold it just flopped out of gear no problem with the clutch engaged.
Like I say, in 48,000 miles I have only once had a crunch out of the Hyundai's gearbox, and that was through carelessness. Either mine's a particularly good example, or there's just a knack to these boxes.
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Incidentally, although I would never do this on a regular basis, I happen to know that my box will quite happily shift into first from upwards of 10mph, even when freezing cold, without complaint. Synchros seem perfectly strong to me -- the works Astra (nearly new) couldn't achieve that.
The weird thing is, the noises I was experiencing before I fixed by gearchange practice, exclusively happened when changing up the gears, where the synchro barely has to work at all. Changing down, good as gold.
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