Reader, I sit down to discuss with you the pros and cons of the new Hyundai Coupé in a state of bewilderment and confusion.I had intended to start off with a pretty damning resumé of the restyling job which has been done on what was formerly a most attractive looking car. I was going to say that the front end treatment - particularly the work that has been done in the area of the headlights - reminded me of two older cars, one each from Austin-Healey and Marcos, and to point out that those cars had been nicknamed "Frogeye" and "Ugly Duckling" respectively.Not being imaginative enough to come up with a similar tag for the Coupé, I was going to combine these two and suggest "Ugly Frog" as a possibility. I was, in short, prepared to be devastatingly witty at the expense of Hyundai's design department.As Dorothy Parker demonstrated when writing book and play reviews for magazines such as the New Yorker and Esquire, it's generally more fun to satirise something you don't like than to praise something you do, so I was in buoyant mood a few minutes ago when I met one of The Lads and invited him to cast an eye over the Coupé's lines. "Look at this!" I said. "What do you think of that then, eh? I mean, honestly.""I like that," he said. "Whatever's under the bonnet," he added, as my jaw thudded to sea level, "it looks as if it really moves."We agreed to differ, and parted - myself shaken to the innermost depths at this treasonable behaviour. After all, what good are Lads if they suddenly express approval of something you think is ridiculous?He did, I must admit, have the decency to criticise the test car's paintwork (not the same as that of the car pictured above), which he said looked like etch primer. It's a particularly unappetising shade of yellow, and to those of us who think Hyundai has fallen out of its tree making a car look like this in the first place, the addition of such a dreadful hue gives the Coupé the suggestion of something which (a) is about to die of some awful sickness involving lots of pus or (b) has just done so.It is the way of this wicked world that superficial good looks are a bonus in life. That's why, for example, the delightful Lindsay Davenport will never gain as much media coverage as her gaspingly sexy but apparently less talented tennis rival Anna Kournikova.Similarly, I approached the charmingly shaped first version of the Hyundai Coupé three years ago already prepared to like it. By no means the best sport-oriented car on the market, it was a perfectly acceptable machine nonetheless, and one which I might have considered owning (not least because it would be a pleasant thing to look at in the mornings).But its successor puts me in a different humour altogether and makes me feel that if it is going to look like that it had damn well better do something spectacular to justify it. And frankly it doesn't. The two-litre engine is quite good and sounds better, but the handling is less precise than I remember from the old car, and the suspension damping makes you feel that neither end of the car is tied down to the road as well as it should be.There's a lot of insufficiently controlled body movement which soon takes you to the point where either the front or the back (depending on circumstances, or perhaps a roll of the cosmic dice) seems ready to let go in a big way. You don't often reach that point in the dry, but on wet roads the threat is all too present even at moderate speeds.In terms of the driving experience, certain rivals - the almost equally bizarre-looking Toyota Celica springs to mind here - are way, way ahead of this car. On the other hand, if you want to make a dramatic visual impression, this is probably the one to buy. Unlike me, you may think it looks terrific, but to judge by the aghast stares of several dozen passers-by (to say nothing of most of the other Lads) by no means everyone around you will agree.Second opinion: Mildly disapproving of the appearance, eh? Well, I can't see this as a visual improvement on its predecessor, which had the best-looking head-on view of any car ever built in Korea. But the Hyundai is a much roomier coupé than most rivals. Rear-seat accommodation is a category up from occasional. Nice gearchange, with some fine across-the-gate sweeps if you palm it through rather than give it the elbow. I don't think many owners will explore the limits of the handling and get so picky. Reasonable price - especially £13,999 for the entry-level 1.6. I encountered some Lads too, while stopped at traffic lights with the driver's window open. They liked the Hyundai. One of them shouted across: "You must have some money, to afford a car like that." The other, more worldly-wise, perhaps, added: "Or a rich wife!" Ross Finlay. Engine 1998cc, 4 cylinders Power 137bhp Fuel 31.7mpg Acceleration 0-62mph: 8.6 seconds Top speed 125mph Price £17,399 Details correct at publication date