It hardly seems any time at all since Hyundai launched the Coupé, but already the car is in its third generation. Fortunately the styling department has calmed down somewhat after its last attempt, which turned one of the most attractive machines of its type into something that caused horses to shy away in fear and provoked spontaneous bawling among infants who came across it without warning.In the fashion of the moment, the new shape has a few more sharp edges than seem necessary, so the design does not flow quite as well as it did when the original Coupé was introduced, but it's certainly a major improvement on the car it replaces.I'm discussing the styling first because this is quite possibly the car's most important selling point. The Coupé, like a lot of its rivals, is not what it appears to be. It looks like a sports car, but it doesn't feel like one. In two-litre form, as tested here, it is far from sluggish, but you would never mistake it for a road racer. Similarly, the handling is far from pin-sharp, though it's smooth and precise as long as you don't try to push it too hard. If you ever read a road test which describes the handling in derogatory terms, you'll know that whoever wrote it was trying to make the car behave in a way it didn't want to.The most obviously "sporty" aspect is the driving position, which is determined by the fact that the roof and the floor are very close together. I'm significantly more than six feet tall, and I struggled to find a position of even the most basic comfort. With the seat in a position I liked my head was trying to push through the top of the car. When I reclined, it hurt my back, and I couldn't reach the steering wheel. When I moved the seat forward, my legs splayed out. The best compromise position involved hurting my head, back and legs in equal measure. I'm not sure when my knees will recover from this, but I don't expect it to be any time soon.Drivers of more reasonable stature presumably won't have this problem, but personally I'd have to consider the Coupé to be a truly magnificent car (rather than just quite a good one) before I began to feel that the discomfort was worthwhile. I didn't even try to get in the back, where there is absolutely no room at all - best to consider the car as a two-seater unless you have very small children to transport.The interior, mostly black with occasional touches of silver, is generally quite sombre, but it's livened up by three neat little dials in the centre console. Once again, style is more important than substance here, since the one in the middle gives an instantaneous mpg reading (the effect of which is to remind you that you use more fuel the harder you press the throttle pedal) and the one on the right is a voltmeter. Not much you can do if the reading on that one flickers.That leaves the dial on the left. Bet you can't guess what that's for. No? Okay, then. It tells you how much torque the engine is producing! It does, too. I think this is a safety aid as much as anything, as you can stay alert for hours and hours trying to work out a set of circumstances in which this information could possibly be of the slightest use to anyone. I'm not sure there is an answer to this, but as a game it out could provide endless fun for all the family, if there was nothing good on the radio and nobody had remembered to pack the Travel Scrabble.I'm not sure how the torque is measured, though the system does seem to work - when the fuel system cuts out on the over-run the gauge drops to zero, which is certainly the way things should be. I just wish a similar amount of thought had been put into telling you how much fuel is left in the tank. The main instrument panel has a fuel gauge and a trip computer which lets you know how many miles you can go before having to refuel. No problem there, you would think, except that they don't seem to tell the same story.I'm writing this after having crawled to the nearest petrol station (nine miles away, this being a rural area). The needle on the gauge hadn't even crawled up as far as the Empty mark, but the trip computer said I had 83 miles to spare. Either one instrument or the other is wildly inaccurate. Possibly both. I suspect it's the fuel gauge, because there wasn't a hint of fuel starvation on the journey. This may be simply be a fault with the test car, but you never know. If it's a common problem among Hyundai Coupés, it's a little disappointing in this day and age.If you are a Coupé owner you would quickly get used to that foible. You would also have a reasonably inexpensive, attractive-looking car which is pleasant to drive as long as you're of no more than average height. Overall, it's an appealing car, if by no means a great one.Second opinion: Not being of quite the same Gulliver-in-Lilliput stature, I thought to begin with that the Hyundai was rather close-fitting, but after a few miles it seemed fine. Mind you, having been influenced by seeing Farina racing, with that very laid-back style of his, I tend to recline the driving seat quite far, and rarely have trouble with headroom. Fine-looking machine for its target market, complete with snazzy hot-air extractor vents behind each front wheel. The thing about the handling is that you don't have to force things. If you approach a corner quickly, brake lightly in advance (if at all), keep the Coupé on a light rein and just let it waft itself round on a not too heavy throttle, you'll often find that annoying persons who have been pressing on your back bumper drop back as they scrabble untidily round. This is another car, though, about which I wonder, when considering the ride/handling compromise, whether the low-profile tyres are even remotely necessary. The torque indicator? It's just a bit of technical fun, matching the mpg dial. A talking point, as our main report proves. Ross Finlay. Engine 1975cc, 4 cylinders Power 136bhp Fuel/CO2 33.6mpg / 202g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.2 seconds Top speed 128mph Price £16,495 Details correct at publication date
Our Rating
