[I'm] considering a 2006 Azera in the fall but [I'm] reluctant [to get
one] because it is a brand new design. For that reason [I'm]
considering [a] 2005 XG350 or Tiburon.
Er. The Azera and XG350 are 4-door "luxury sedans", and the Tiburon is
a 2-door coupe with a backseat that's a perfect size for 1 person under
5' tall. Figure out what it is that you really want first. If you have
to transport more than 2 people, do *not* get a Tiburon. They're fun
cars, but they're not really designed for hauling lots of people or lots
of cargo.
Solacing comments, good or bad, from owners.
ITYM "soliciting". FWIW, I've had a 2003 Tiburon GT for the last 2.1
years, and it's been great. No mechanical problems at all except for
the time I ran over a raccoon, which did $80 worth of damage to the
trim. The car accelerates fairly quickly, handles pretty well even if
the nose wallows a bit during high-speed maneuvering, has a theoretical
top speed of 140 mph[0], and is reasonably good in the snow if you're
careful. It has more cargo space than you might think, since you can
fold the rear seats down--I managed to fit an exercise bike into my Tib,
which would've been very difficult in most sedans.
Some XG350 owners (and Santa Fe with the 3.5L engine owners) have
complained about the electronic throttle found on those models.
Symptoms include a small but perceptible lag from when you push the gas
to when the car starts accelerating. If you decide on an XG350, pay
attention to this when you test-drive it. I've also heard reports of
the XG350 "lurching" when coming off the line, but IIRC they have a
firmware upgrade for the transmission which drastically reduces the
problem. groups.google knows more about that than I do; this newsfroup,
keyword "xg350", see what you can find. HTH,
[0] I've never driven my car that fast, but other people with the same
make/model have. 120 was reasonably easy, but I don't drive over 80 in
normal conditions for basic sanity and fear of the 5-0.
