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00:03 Hi, I'm Greg Fink, senior editor at Motor Trend.
00:08 And I'm speaking with Scott Margison, director
00:10 of product planning, Hyundai Motor America,
00:12 and Miles Johnson with the Public Relations Department
00:14 of Hyundai Motor America.
00:15 Scott, I know Hyundai has a lot of exciting products coming
00:19 to or currently in its showrooms.
00:22 But I kind of want to take a step back and talk about two
00:24 Hyundai vehicles that arguably helped the brand make
00:26 a bit of a case for itself as one that
00:28 was capable of making sporty and exciting products.
00:31 And that's the Tiburon and Genesis Coupe.
00:33 Sure.
00:34 Thanks, Greg.
00:35 The Tiburon had a nice evolution throughout its lifecycle.
00:41 And as you get into the early 2000s,
00:44 the design really evolved into a much more sophisticated
00:48 sporty coupe design.
00:49 And one of the big attractions for the Tiburon
00:52 was that it had a V6.
00:53 Was there ever discussion of putting in the 3.3 liter V6
00:56 or something a little more under the hood of it?
00:58 No.
00:59 Just because of the packaging size,
01:01 that would have been development that
01:03 would have been done to build on the existing front wheel
01:07 drive platform.
01:08 With the plans to move to a rear wheel drive platform,
01:11 that development would have only been applicable for maybe
01:15 a couple of years at the end of the lifecycle.
01:18 So too difficult to justify maybe
01:20 would have pushed the price point up a little bit.
01:23 So instead of trying to push the current car up
01:27 in terms of performance to the next level,
01:30 that's when it was really decided, well,
01:31 the car should just be replaced as a whole
01:34 and then build on the rear wheel drive platform.
01:36 And after the 2008 model year, the Tiburon, it goes away.
01:40 And in a way, the Genesis Coupe sort of
01:42 replaces it as Hyundai's sporty two-door model.
01:45 But the Genesis is kind of a different animal, really.
01:47 It's rear drive.
01:48 It's about 10 inches longer.
01:49 Was there ever talk of either making a third generation
01:52 Tiburon or selling the second generation model
01:54 alongside the Genesis Coupe?
01:55 And what ultimately led to the decisions
01:57 that decided that was not how it was going to go?
02:00 So those discussions were held.
02:02 But ultimately, it was decided we really
02:05 wanted to push for more performance.
02:08 And it made sense not only for the sporty coupe performance,
02:13 but also because if we went to rear wheel drive,
02:15 that would also be part of having a rear wheel drive
02:18 platform for a Genesis sedan as well.
02:22 You know, Greg, the one thing that almost made it
02:25 was the name, because the name Tiburon actually
02:28 had quite an enthusiast base, a fan base.
02:30 There was a little bit of discussion,
02:32 I remember, from the design team and some other people
02:35 on the staff about keeping the Tiburon name,
02:38 because it did have some similar design cues.
02:40 I don't know if you guys remember that, but it did.
02:43 And so maybe Scott can get into that a little bit.
02:45 There's always a lot of history behind naming.
02:47 So yeah, Tiburon was a good name.
02:51 And obviously, when we're coming out with a vehicle,
02:53 it's still in the same basic space.
02:56 This was going to be rear wheel drive, more serious car.
03:00 Still talking about a sport coupe, the Tiburon name,
03:03 we did have good recognition with it.
03:05 And so that was a consideration.
03:08 Should we just keep the Tiburon name?
03:10 But at the same time, we really wanted
03:12 to emphasize rear wheel drive, associate rear wheel
03:16 drive with Genesis coupe and the sedan.
03:19 And that was kind of a core part of the model offering.
03:22 And was it early on decided that the model would have
03:25 different sheet metal and to some degree,
03:27 powertrain options than the sedan?
03:29 Or was there a point where it was going to be literally
03:31 a Hyundai Genesis coupe?
03:32 Because there was a desire to have it be a real sport coupe,
03:37 not just a two-door version of the sedan, that type of coupe,
03:41 that really necessitated completely different body
03:44 design.
03:45 And was there ever talk of offering it
03:47 with the sedan's V8 engine?
03:48 There was talk.
03:50 And there were a couple that were done for fun.
03:53 So Reece Millen did a couple of V8 Genesis coupes.
03:57 We showed those at SEMA.
03:59 Those were fun.
04:00 We had the Tal V8, which is a really good V8.
04:03 Those rumors were always swirling.
04:05 But it just is not something that
04:07 would work in the Genesis coupe in terms
04:10 of engine compartment packaging, other things like that,
04:12 to have it.
04:13 Looking back, though, is there anything
04:16 from the Genesis coupe program or the Tiburon program
04:19 that you wish you could have done differently?
04:21 Yeah, I think one thing was on the Genesis coupe.
04:24 And you could see what happened during the lifecycle, which
04:27 is when we launched the vehicle, one of the things
04:30 that we weren't satisfied with was just
04:33 the overall quality feeling of the interior,
04:36 the interior materials, things like that.
04:38 Doing it again, we would probably
04:40 put in more of what we actually did later
04:42 on at the facelift timing, which was to go back and just
04:46 change some of the interior materials
04:48 to be softer materials, things like that.
04:51 And when you go over to Hyundai headquarters,
04:52 you see the car for the first time.
04:54 What were your thoughts on that being the design?
04:56 Right from the start, it was in a pretty good place.
05:00 There was a lot of discussion in the early stages
05:03 of development, especially on the window line,
05:06 the dropped window line, whether to keep that or abandon that.
05:11 But outside of that, I think the exterior design
05:13 was pretty solid from the start.
05:15 I remember Eric Stoddard was the designer on that car,
05:18 with Joel Piazkowski, who's gone on to do other things.
05:21 And I remember talking to Eric, and he did sandbag his best
05:25 design towards the end.
05:27 He knew he had a great design.
05:28 He waited to the last minute to drop it.
05:31 And I remember that was the one that got picked up.
05:34 And it had those signature elements
05:36 that Scott was talking about.
05:37 Would you like to see Hyundai bring back a vehicle
05:39 similar to the Genesis coupe?
05:41 Would I like to see a vehicle like Genesis coupe come back?
05:44 Yeah, absolutely, and maybe even with more performance.
05:47 But in the meantime, the Genesis G70 is a great substitute.
05:51 I really can't thank you guys enough for being here.
05:53 And please stay safe.
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