Hyundai to produce RWD cars in 2007
5/7/05, 07:33 AM
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I doubt they would hurt the GT market , but this should provide some serious sales competition for the V6 pony. I wouldn't be laughing at this - They have come a long way since the 80's. Hopefully this will spur the other manufacturers to start offering more affordable RWD options ---You hear that GM?
Hyundai to produce RWD in 2007
Hyundai to produce RWD in 2007
"FUTURE Driven" Hyundai will abandoning front-wheel drive for its next Tiburon
Due to be unveiled towards the end of 2007 before a local debut the following year, the rear-wheel drive coupe will be a "serious sports car", according to a senior Hyundai Motor Company executive.
Although details are scant, it is believed the Tiburon replacement will be a three-door coupe featuring many of the styling cues as well as the general proportions displayed on the HCD-8 Concept Car, which made its global debut at the 2004 Detroit motor show and has since appeared in Melbourne.
The HCD-8, as it stands, is powered by a supercharged version of a current 2.7-litre DOHC V6 with a six-speed manual gearbox.
However, variations of Hyundai's new-generation 3.3 and 3.8-litre V6 engines are expected to debut in the 2+2 seater sports car, with the latter one likely to be the range-topper.
"Yes, we are developing rear-wheel drive for the next sports car," was the surprising response from Hyun Soon Lee, Executive Senior Vice President for Hyundai Motor Corporation.
This remark came after a suggestion from the gathered press at the opening of the 2005 Seoul motor show in South Korea that the company seek the passionate sports car route to increase its global youth appeal, rather than simply focus on quality.
Mr Lee's remark even caught out other Hyundai executives.
It is a surprising development for a model that started out as the very unsporty two-door derivation of the front-wheel drive Hyundai X2 Excel of 1990 called the S-Coupe.
That car's predecessor jumped up to the 1995 J2 Lantra platform to become the SX, FX and SFX Coupe until the current, sharper - but still front-wheel drive - Tiburon came into the fray in 2002.
A rear-wheel drive sports car is in line with Hyundai's desire to push its vehicles further upmarket.
Such a model willl probably share many components with a rear-wheel drive sedan in much the same way that Nissan's 350Z has spawned a range of mostly-US market Infinity products such as the G35.
There has been speculation for some time that Hyundai was considering releasing a luxury line of vehicles above the current, Sonata-derived Grandeur - which has just had a complete makeover and is the star of Hyundai's stand at Seoul.
Adding further credence to Hyundai's sports image push is its re-entry into the World Rally Championship from 2008.
The company says it will field an all-wheel drive "sports car" very loosely derived from the yet-to-be released Accent replacement, the front-wheel drive MC4 small car.
Due to be unveiled towards the end of 2007 before a local debut the following year, the rear-wheel drive coupe will be a "serious sports car", according to a senior Hyundai Motor Company executive.
Although details are scant, it is believed the Tiburon replacement will be a three-door coupe featuring many of the styling cues as well as the general proportions displayed on the HCD-8 Concept Car, which made its global debut at the 2004 Detroit motor show and has since appeared in Melbourne.
The HCD-8, as it stands, is powered by a supercharged version of a current 2.7-litre DOHC V6 with a six-speed manual gearbox.
However, variations of Hyundai's new-generation 3.3 and 3.8-litre V6 engines are expected to debut in the 2+2 seater sports car, with the latter one likely to be the range-topper.
"Yes, we are developing rear-wheel drive for the next sports car," was the surprising response from Hyun Soon Lee, Executive Senior Vice President for Hyundai Motor Corporation.
This remark came after a suggestion from the gathered press at the opening of the 2005 Seoul motor show in South Korea that the company seek the passionate sports car route to increase its global youth appeal, rather than simply focus on quality.
Mr Lee's remark even caught out other Hyundai executives.
It is a surprising development for a model that started out as the very unsporty two-door derivation of the front-wheel drive Hyundai X2 Excel of 1990 called the S-Coupe.
That car's predecessor jumped up to the 1995 J2 Lantra platform to become the SX, FX and SFX Coupe until the current, sharper - but still front-wheel drive - Tiburon came into the fray in 2002.
A rear-wheel drive sports car is in line with Hyundai's desire to push its vehicles further upmarket.
Such a model willl probably share many components with a rear-wheel drive sedan in much the same way that Nissan's 350Z has spawned a range of mostly-US market Infinity products such as the G35.
There has been speculation for some time that Hyundai was considering releasing a luxury line of vehicles above the current, Sonata-derived Grandeur - which has just had a complete makeover and is the star of Hyundai's stand at Seoul.
Adding further credence to Hyundai's sports image push is its re-entry into the World Rally Championship from 2008.
The company says it will field an all-wheel drive "sports car" very loosely derived from the yet-to-be released Accent replacement, the front-wheel drive MC4 small car.
5/7/05, 08:08 AM
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My girlfriend has a Tiburon. I sure hope they've made improvements in quality. That thing has been a total pain in the ****. She wants to dump it for my Mazda6 once I get a Mustang GT.
5/7/05, 08:21 AM
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Originally posted by TomServo92@May 7, 2005, 8:11 AM
My girlfriend has a Tiburon. I sure hope they've made improvements in quality. That thing has been a total pain in the ****. She wants to dump it for my Mazda6 once I get a Mustang GT.
My girlfriend has a Tiburon. I sure hope they've made improvements in quality. That thing has been a total pain in the ****. She wants to dump it for my Mazda6 once I get a Mustang GT.
5/7/05, 08:23 AM
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Originally posted by burningman@May 7, 2005, 8:23 AM
no clue about quality but i like the way the new Tibouron looks
no clue about quality but i like the way the new Tibouron looks
5/7/05, 10:15 AM
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My buddy from work have 2004 Hyundai Tiburon SE with 2.7L V6 engine with 172 hp. That is one sweet car, I love it. We never raced, but I think even if we did he could beat me.
5/7/05, 11:30 AM
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The new Tiburon is a rip of the old Mustang. Put them side-by-side and you can see a good bit of influence in the design. Problem is, Hyundai suffers from the same V6-bias as all the Japanese makers.
5/7/05, 01:24 PM
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Korean cars have come a long way in terms of quality and styling in just a couple of years and they're hard to beat for price.
I haven't noticed much bias agains the V6 except from a lot of people on this site. Not a flame, guys, just simple reality. Most people buy cars for transportation and most of us here buy them for fun, and very few people actually go to a track.
Kudos to Hyundai for developing a car like that.
I haven't noticed much bias agains the V6 except from a lot of people on this site. Not a flame, guys, just simple reality. Most people buy cars for transportation and most of us here buy them for fun, and very few people actually go to a track.
Kudos to Hyundai for developing a car like that.
5/7/05, 11:08 PM
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Originally posted by racerx+May 7, 2005, 8:24 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(racerx @ May 7, 2005, 8:24 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-TomServo92@May 7, 2005, 8:11 AM
My girlfriend has a Tiburon. I sure hope they've made improvements in quality. That thing has been a total pain in the ****. She wants to dump it for my Mazda6 once I get a Mustang GT.
My girlfriend has a Tiburon. I sure hope they've made improvements in quality. That thing has been a total pain in the ****. She wants to dump it for my Mazda6 once I get a Mustang GT.
[/b][/quote]
I have just over 22K on it and it hasn't seen the dealership since I bought. It's been bulletproof. Gas mileage isn't that bad either. Even with some pretty spirited driving, I still average 22-23MPG with the V6. With straight freeway driving I get around 28-29.
5/8/05, 06:31 PM
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Originally posted by scottie1113@May 7, 2005, 1:27 PM
Korean cars have come a long way in terms of quality and styling in just a couple of years and they're hard to beat for price.
I haven't noticed much bias agains the V6 except from a lot of people on this site. Not a flame, guys, just simple reality. Most people buy cars for transportation and most of us here buy them for fun, and very few people actually go to a track.
Kudos to Hyundai for developing a car like that.
Korean cars have come a long way in terms of quality and styling in just a couple of years and they're hard to beat for price.
I haven't noticed much bias agains the V6 except from a lot of people on this site. Not a flame, guys, just simple reality. Most people buy cars for transportation and most of us here buy them for fun, and very few people actually go to a track.
Kudos to Hyundai for developing a car like that.
5/8/05, 07:05 PM
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hmm RWD tibouron. i've seen some new ones and they look alright, but i knew deep down they were still FWD. RWD and a beefy V6 (of maybe even a V8? hopefully) would make this into a VERY nice car. Ford might lose some sales from the V6 stang, if they are priced around the same...
5/9/05, 10:07 AM
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thats awesome!
Cant wait to see them with RWD.
I'm pretty sure the quality on the Tiburon will go up. Hyundai does have the most reliable car in the market today. The Sonata. So I wouldnt worry about that.
Cant wait to see them with RWD.
I'm pretty sure the quality on the Tiburon will go up. Hyundai does have the most reliable car in the market today. The Sonata. So I wouldnt worry about that.
5/10/05, 07:02 PM
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I sold my 03 Tiburon GT V6 to get my 05 Mustang GT Vert. I passed over a 03 Mustang V6 for the Tib. The quality and bang for the buck on the Tiburon is hard to beat. Plus the thing really took to breathing mods. I put some Eibach Sportlines on it and it handled like it was on rails. Its a great looking car and can be made to go, I did only NA mods to it and it would challenge any stock 04 Mustang GT. JD Power now ranks Hyundai ahead of Toyota in consumer satisfaction. I'm looking forward to seeing if this RWD thing becomes a reality.
5/11/05, 08:04 AM
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A couple of things may shock you guys......
First of all Hyundai has a V8 in it's home market, and Japan. It is a 4.3 or 4.5 rated at about 265 hp in a luxo-barge sedan. With re-visions for epa requirements and power improvements it could see the better side of 300 hp.
The current Tib was not supposed to be as popular as it is. Hyundai is ranked number one in quality in the US. Read it and weep. They wanted to be part of the tuner scene so invested a lot of effort into the current tib. It's fallbacks are only it's weight and it is underpowered (for it's weight) COnsidering the car has an all steel body and all steel chassis, it is easy to see why it is heavy. However it has been a smash hit with the Tuner scene and it is a very good selling car. Hyundai is geared to sell 50k units per model at maximum. They never expected the Tib to sell half that but they sell more than 25k a year. They can thrive on lower numbers, therefore can be comfortable in a highly competitive segment.
GM has something up their sleeve. Not because of hyundai, but instead of the ZETA II platform, they are using a different platform that will have the ability to be Fwd, Awd OR Rwd. There are rumors that they will offer a pony car (reportedly NOT to be named CAMARO) a little before the Hyundai comes out.
Hyundai will again shock the public by offering great quality, great price and hopefully, decent performance.
Will it compete with the Mustang or the Chevy pony car to be named? No way in heck. They are not prepared to make enough cars. They know they could not sell enough cars, and they would not try to sell enough cars to make any impact on either one. They also know there is the aftermarket support. They will have an all new car with (maybe) an all new V8, that will have NO aftermarket support at first. GMs aftermarket goes back 50 years. Fords Modular V8 aftermarket goes back 10 years. They know this more than GM and Ford. The have the biggest aftermarket support program of any of the Automakers (where they actually financially support some of the companies).
So in short they will not affect the pony wars in any way other than adding another name to the mix. This is nothing but good. Also look for the Hyundai to have IRS and bold styling, hopefully with a DOHC V8.
I will consider the Hyunda pony car to be like the AMX of the first pony car wars, a decent car that didn't hurt the others, but added another option to the list.
First of all Hyundai has a V8 in it's home market, and Japan. It is a 4.3 or 4.5 rated at about 265 hp in a luxo-barge sedan. With re-visions for epa requirements and power improvements it could see the better side of 300 hp.
The current Tib was not supposed to be as popular as it is. Hyundai is ranked number one in quality in the US. Read it and weep. They wanted to be part of the tuner scene so invested a lot of effort into the current tib. It's fallbacks are only it's weight and it is underpowered (for it's weight) COnsidering the car has an all steel body and all steel chassis, it is easy to see why it is heavy. However it has been a smash hit with the Tuner scene and it is a very good selling car. Hyundai is geared to sell 50k units per model at maximum. They never expected the Tib to sell half that but they sell more than 25k a year. They can thrive on lower numbers, therefore can be comfortable in a highly competitive segment.
GM has something up their sleeve. Not because of hyundai, but instead of the ZETA II platform, they are using a different platform that will have the ability to be Fwd, Awd OR Rwd. There are rumors that they will offer a pony car (reportedly NOT to be named CAMARO) a little before the Hyundai comes out.
Hyundai will again shock the public by offering great quality, great price and hopefully, decent performance.
Will it compete with the Mustang or the Chevy pony car to be named? No way in heck. They are not prepared to make enough cars. They know they could not sell enough cars, and they would not try to sell enough cars to make any impact on either one. They also know there is the aftermarket support. They will have an all new car with (maybe) an all new V8, that will have NO aftermarket support at first. GMs aftermarket goes back 50 years. Fords Modular V8 aftermarket goes back 10 years. They know this more than GM and Ford. The have the biggest aftermarket support program of any of the Automakers (where they actually financially support some of the companies).
So in short they will not affect the pony wars in any way other than adding another name to the mix. This is nothing but good. Also look for the Hyundai to have IRS and bold styling, hopefully with a DOHC V8.
I will consider the Hyunda pony car to be like the AMX of the first pony car wars, a decent car that didn't hurt the others, but added another option to the list.
5/11/05, 09:15 AM
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Originally posted by Colvindesign@May 11, 2005, 7:07 AM
A couple of things may shock you guys......
First of all Hyundai has a V8 in it's home market, and Japan. It is a 4.3 or 4.5 rated at about 265 hp in a luxo-barge sedan. With re-visions for epa requirements and power improvements it could see the better side of 300 hp.
The current Tib was not supposed to be as popular as it is. Hyundai is ranked number one in quality in the US. Read it and weep. They wanted to be part of the tuner scene so invested a lot of effort into the current tib. It's fallbacks are only it's weight and it is underpowered (for it's weight) COnsidering the car has an all steel body and all steel chassis, it is easy to see why it is heavy. However it has been a smash hit with the Tuner scene and it is a very good selling car. Hyundai is geared to sell 50k units per model at maximum. They never expected the Tib to sell half that but they sell more than 25k a year. They can thrive on lower numbers, therefore can be comfortable in a highly competitive segment.
GM has something up their sleeve. Not because of hyundai, but instead of the ZETA II platform, they are using a different platform that will have the ability to be Fwd, Awd OR Rwd. There are rumors that they will offer a pony car (reportedly NOT to be named CAMARO) a little before the Hyundai comes out.
Hyundai will again shock the public by offering great quality, great price and hopefully, decent performance.
Will it compete with the Mustang or the Chevy pony car to be named? No way in heck. They are not prepared to make enough cars. They know they could not sell enough cars, and they would not try to sell enough cars to make any impact on either one. They also know there is the aftermarket support. They will have an all new car with (maybe) an all new V8, that will have NO aftermarket support at first. GMs aftermarket goes back 50 years. Fords Modular V8 aftermarket goes back 10 years. They know this more than GM and Ford. The have the biggest aftermarket support program of any of the Automakers (where they actually financially support some of the companies).
So in short they will not affect the pony wars in any way other than adding another name to the mix. This is nothing but good. Also look for the Hyundai to have IRS and bold styling, hopefully with a DOHC V8.
I will consider the Hyunda pony car to be like the AMX of the first pony car wars, a decent car that didn't hurt the others, but added another option to the list.
A couple of things may shock you guys......
First of all Hyundai has a V8 in it's home market, and Japan. It is a 4.3 or 4.5 rated at about 265 hp in a luxo-barge sedan. With re-visions for epa requirements and power improvements it could see the better side of 300 hp.
The current Tib was not supposed to be as popular as it is. Hyundai is ranked number one in quality in the US. Read it and weep. They wanted to be part of the tuner scene so invested a lot of effort into the current tib. It's fallbacks are only it's weight and it is underpowered (for it's weight) COnsidering the car has an all steel body and all steel chassis, it is easy to see why it is heavy. However it has been a smash hit with the Tuner scene and it is a very good selling car. Hyundai is geared to sell 50k units per model at maximum. They never expected the Tib to sell half that but they sell more than 25k a year. They can thrive on lower numbers, therefore can be comfortable in a highly competitive segment.
GM has something up their sleeve. Not because of hyundai, but instead of the ZETA II platform, they are using a different platform that will have the ability to be Fwd, Awd OR Rwd. There are rumors that they will offer a pony car (reportedly NOT to be named CAMARO) a little before the Hyundai comes out.
Hyundai will again shock the public by offering great quality, great price and hopefully, decent performance.
Will it compete with the Mustang or the Chevy pony car to be named? No way in heck. They are not prepared to make enough cars. They know they could not sell enough cars, and they would not try to sell enough cars to make any impact on either one. They also know there is the aftermarket support. They will have an all new car with (maybe) an all new V8, that will have NO aftermarket support at first. GMs aftermarket goes back 50 years. Fords Modular V8 aftermarket goes back 10 years. They know this more than GM and Ford. The have the biggest aftermarket support program of any of the Automakers (where they actually financially support some of the companies).
So in short they will not affect the pony wars in any way other than adding another name to the mix. This is nothing but good. Also look for the Hyundai to have IRS and bold styling, hopefully with a DOHC V8.
I will consider the Hyunda pony car to be like the AMX of the first pony car wars, a decent car that didn't hurt the others, but added another option to the list.
They days of Hyundai's poorly made cars is way behind them now. It'll be fun to see what they come up with
5/11/05, 03:55 PM
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im really excited. the RWD hyundai (how many tried did it take for me to spell that? anyone?), the new chevy ponycar, a possible new RX7.
hot darn! these next few years will be like heaven on earth for car guys/gals like us! :w00t:
hot darn! these next few years will be like heaven on earth for car guys/gals like us! :w00t: