wow this has turned into quite the lil thread!

 

My two cents: Our youngest daughter bought a new Hyundai Tiburon GT Coupe two years ago. She just had to have it after the the Fast and Furious movies. It looked pretty cute as a sport compact, but it went down hill from there! The tires were thinly cheap! The power moon roof broke in three months. The thing rode like a buckboard with no springs. It was loud with rattle noises inside, like riding in a beer can. The drivers side leather was wearing through at about 8K miles. Dealer said its normal! Door button controls broke and fell off! The whole car was a sadly, very cheaply made!! It was in at the service bay about every three to five weeks awaiting repair or replacement of a broken something!! She finally just gave up and then traded it for a sweet new 2007 Ford Fusion (cost less) with 17" mags and tires, all leather bucket seat interior, 6 CD player etc. She loves this smart and sassy looking Ford and would not take another Hyundi if you gave it to her. I have worked on cars for over thirty years and had a complete look over of her Tiburon , and came to the realization, it was a just cheap little box that just happened to look cute.

 

I agree, and ford is 1/2 assing it right now too, which doesnt help much.

 

Hyundai keeps insisting there's no plans to drop in the new Genesis V8, at, if I recall, 4.6 liters and ~350hp or something. That would potentially really make an impact -- pony car torque and acceleration coupled with sport coupe chassis dynamics -- and be a real category buster. But as it is, all the contenders in the pony car / Japanese sport coupe categories remain entrenched in their respective ruts, errr, realms.

Japanese makers seem trepidatious about the time proven "big motor in a little car" formula which almost never fails. Nissan would seemingly rather eat worms than drop one of their excellent, off-the-shelf V8s into the Z-Car chassis. And Toyota has seemingly resigned itself to selling excellent and utterly soul-less four wheeled appliances. Honda ... V8 ... no habla V8.

American pony car makers -- just Ford and its Mustang for the moment -- seem to feel handling excellence is a foray into automotive exotica that, to their base Joe Six Pack audience, would go over like Wiccans at a fundementalist church revival meeting (though SVT did flirt with apostacy with a cobbled IRS in the otherwise ancient SN95 chassis). Ford balked, blinked and ultimately bungled putting an IRS into the S197, backfilling rhetorically by trying to imply their lively axle, as good as it is for the type, is as good as an equivalent IRS, which would somehow cost Ford (but nobody else) $5k to bring to market. Sounds like a good rationale for drum brakes and carburetors too.

Anyway, I think Hyundai is really missing an opportunity to break out of the second tier Japanese/Korean pack with a hugely compelling car that could potentially go head to head with the Stang, Camaro, Challenger, Z car and numerous other performance rides for typically scant change. Rather, they are instead meekly acceeding to their proper social station lest they ruffle any feathers. I'm sure they have a multitude of reasoned, rational and sober arguments why their L4 and V6 lineup are oh so sensible, which, against the potential of V8 rumble and third gear rubber, come off as insipid and myopic.

Oh well, I'm sure it will be a perfectly fine car, probably pretty darned quick in V6 trim. But it won't be the stellar car it could be with their new V8. The potential new kid on the block will be playing safely in his own yard.

 

I thought maybe hyundai had some cojones when there was talk about a V8 Tiburon, it would have been neat to have seen an asian pony car. A few of my comrades into the asian car segment would have loved a V8 Tiburon.

 

Ummm... why are we talking about Hyundai?!

 

...General Vehicle discussion thread...affordable RWD sport coupe with potential V8...competition for the Stang...slow day at work...

 

You do understand that there are people all over North America who say exactly the same thing about Ford...and yet we all hope they'll give the Blue Oval another chance.

Your own feelings should give you some idea of the kind of uphill battle Ford has on its hands, because by all accounts, today's Hyundais are much better.

That said, Hyundai's biggest battle right now, IMHO, is getting over the fact that it's a Hyundai. The name equates to cheap, affordable Japanese wannabe cars, with derivative styling.

This car is NO competition for any serious American muscle car, unless Hyundai were to drop a more powerful V8 into it. But by the time that happens - if it ever does - Ford will be offering bigger, even more powerful V8s in the Mustang. And the Mustang (and Camaro and Challenger for that matter) will always maintain that intangible quality of heritage that Hyundai is unlikely to ever attain.

As I see it, the real Asian challengers are the Nissan Z car, GT-R, and whatever Honda and Toyota decide to throw our way in the next few years.

 

+1,000

Ford has a horrible rep as of now.

 

What if Ford were to take the S197 chassis and offer a different skin on top of it? Something more modern (ala 350Z) to be more in the interest of people who don't want "retro" looks. They could keep most of the underlying components, but just change the top. Maybe even sell it as a Mercury or something. Any thoughts?

 

The new Mustang isn't "retro", it's good design; timeless design.

 

A lot of non-Mustang people still feel it is retro as it applies heritage cues from the past: retro. All I am really asking is wouldn't it be cool if Ford could make some more money off of the S197 platform in the form of a more modern design that might attract others from a design like this to a Ford product? Rumor back indicated a possibility of a S197 based sedan. I figure anything that can continue to generate revenues near the Mustang is a good thing for Mustang enthusiasts.

 

Could be kinda right- I think it goes back to the classic comparison commercials- the Mustang is "The Leading Brand" - And my bet is the Mustang tastes better

 

I think Ford did miss a great opportunity here by using the S197 platform to create a Mercury Cougar. Add a few inches to the wheelbase for a bit of actual rear seat room, notch up the interior quality and features, drop in an IRS to raise the ride/handling standard and render it all in sophisticated modern styling and voila, the perfect counterpart to the retro Stang. But Ford, in their agonizing myopia, somehow rationalized their ways out of this excrutiatingly obvious solution.

Now Mercury, starved of any compelling models, is dying a slow, agonizing death -- Ford lacks either the guts to kill it outright and put it out of its misery or the foresight to reinvigorate its lineup to make it viable again. Thus, Mercury just stumbles along on money sucking life support with no future prospects at all. The one-model S-197 platform -- the bespoke Mustang -- has a rather small production volume to amortize development and production costs, is forced to pinch pennies and content, hence cheapish interior materials, antiquated SRA axle, etc.

 

Sounds oh so familiar with the likes of Olds and Buick. One dead the other just... well dead. Hmm a four door S197 as in G8 competition?

 

rhumb, you and I have agreed in the past on things (BON days) concerning using the Mustang as a springboard for other models that appeal to different tastes without sacrificing what the Mustang is and has been. It is only because of the vacuum left by other manufacturers in the RWD coupe arena that the Mustang is thriving. Ford could use their expertise here to really build out a full range of vehicles that don't just follow other's paths.

- G8/Charger competitor in the Interceptor concept
- Luxury CUV for Lincoln against the X5 and ML (RWD being a must)
- Mid-size luxury sports sedan for Lincoln against the CTS and 5 series.

Of course, some of this would depend upon the continued development of engines and drive-trains to help suit each need. That isn't going to happen either.

 

Of course I do and they're just as entitled to that opinion as I am to mine.

 

Well 'blah, blah, blah' to you too.

 

I'm like Charlie Brown: whenever you talk, all I hear is "blah, blah, blah".

 

That's OK. I have the same reaction to Rhumb.

Just kidding, Rhumb.