Hyundai Coupe : Test Drive

Date: 10 August 2007   |   Author: Tristan Young

Category: Coupe Price: £17,766 Key rival: Vauxhall Astra Twintop

The Hyundai Coupe has made a design comeback.

The latest facelift means the car's back to being inoffensively good looking, which is where it started out before losing the plot a few years back with one too many nose jobs.

Hyundai's desire to grow volume means it's looking to the business car market, therefore the Coupe must not only turn heads but also impress on costs. The 2.0-litre car is the pick of the range from a drivers' stand point, with enough power to cope with longer distances and motorway work without feeling strained. It's far better than the 2.7 V6 on tax but is not as refined as its rivals and comes in with a 25% BIK ranking. Where the Coupe really gets beaten, however, is on overall running costs. A combination of high SMR rates, average fuel costs and average depreciation mean it's 33.3ppm is much steeper than, say, a similarly powered and specced Astra Twintop, which achieves 29.4ppm. And the Astra also doubles as a convertible.

Verdict: Facelift can only hide so much.

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