2. Hyundai Tiburon
Bet you weren’t expecting this car to make it on the list. However, without this car neither of the last two entries would even be possible. Back in the mid 90’s Hyundai wanted to get sportier and produce a compact sporty coupe to compete with its Japanese rivals. Produced from 1996 until 2008, Hyundai gave it the name “Tiburon” which is the Spanish word for “Shark.” Personally, I would have went with something a little cooler like “Marrazo” or “Siorc” if you want to name it after a shark but to each their own I guess.
The first generation Tiburon was a front wheel drive compact sporty coupe based on the same platform as the Elantra (hence why they have a striking resemblance to each other) and shared parts and engines with each other. The base Tiburon used the same 1.8 liter 4 cylinder engine from the Elantra that produced 130 horsepower or had an optional 2.0 liter engine for the more upscale FX trim rated at 140 horsepower. While it may not have seemed like a lot of power by today’s standards, these cars only weighed 2500 pounds soaking wet.
The 2nd generation Tiburon made its debut in 2001 offering more unique styling from the previous generation and came with the 2.0 liter engine from the previous generation as the 2nd generations base offering while a 2.7 liter V6 from the Sonata was optional for the sporty GT trim. You had your choices of 5 or 6 speed manual or 4 speed automatic. The variety of the Tiburon made it compete better with cars such as the Acura RSX and Honda Civic and fun fact, the Tiburon also came with a turbocharged 1.6 liter engine but it was only sold in countries like Greece who had high tax laws on bigger displacement engines.