The first-gen Hyundai Excel was sold in the United States for the 1986 through 1989 model years, and it was a supremely bad automobile. So bad, in fact, that most of them were used up and crushed by the middle of the 1990s. Because of their rarity today, I always photograph early Excels when I see them (including this ’86, this ’87, and this ’88). Hyundai did a fairly extensive cosmetic facelift for the 1990 Excel, and this generation was sold though the 1994 model year. The second-gen version was much more reliable than the first— it would have been hard not to improve upon the fantastically crappy 1986-89 Excels— but by that time just about everybody knew to stay away from the model. That makes these cars even harder to find than the initially-hot-selling first-gen Excels. Here’s a ’93 that I spotted at a self-service yard in Denver.
A modern EFI system on the licensed-from-Mitsubishi engine helped a lot.
This car barely cracked six figures on the odometer, but that’s still a lot better than most of its predecessors.
Here we see a happy South Korean family getting all schmaltzy with their ’93 Excel.
Just a decade before, South Korean car ads were much more macho, as seen in this Daewoo Maepsy ad.
By the time of the second-gen Excel, you could get a sporty coupe version (called the Scoupe in North America and the S Coupe in Europe). I’ve managed to find just one junkyard Scoupe since beginning this series.
I can only assume the woman was driving in the ad because the husband had a much larger car, and this was the car he bought her to tote around the kids.
But hey I guess with women getting the vote less than 5 years before then, they could do more things!
This car is offensively bad, and I hate everything about it.
Quick! Identify the camshaft on the driver’s seat!
Too late: Honda V6, C30 or C32 DOHC from an NSX, either intake or exhaust cam.
(Thought it might be a Mitsubishi MIVEC cam, but the only V6 DOHC MIVEC appears to have been used in the Pajero Evolution, which would be very thin on the ground in the US — pretty close to non-existent)
It probably launched out of the engine of this horrid little turd, possibly impaling the driver.
If internet usage had been as common at the time this thing was new, I wonder how many sights would have been running a Hyundai death watch?
None.
I will still say that a stick shift stripper model Scoupe was not a bad car for a nice looking economy coupe. In typical USDM spec of AC + PS + AT, it would probably be mostly excruciating to drive as the accessories and powertrain losses would eat away any usable power that poor little 1.5L Mitsu had.
I sold new Hyundai’s 10 years ago, and I had a girl trade in her 90’s era Scoupe in on a new Hyundai. She must have been super loyal to Hyundai, because that Hyundai Scoupe was absolutely worn out in every way. I remember driving it to my used car managers office for an appraisal, and I noticed how I could feel every single possible movement of the suspension system from the tires all the way through every steering/suspension component in the steering wheel. Damn car had the best “road feel” of any car I have ever driven in my life.
My manager looked out the window and appraised the car at 50 cents.
She drove off in a new 2001 Tiburon that same day.
Haha, scoupe. I remember that
or at least i remember reading about it
Drove one of these (think it was probably a ’93)on a long road trip with a friend while in college – it was her new car. We drove all the way from Kansas out to Connecticut to see a girl I was kinda’ sorta dating (the car’s owner was a good friend of hers).
Few things stick out in my mind, It was pretty much brand new and even in 93′ didn’t have a stereo in it. Total stripper, roll up windows, etc. I happened to have a car stereo sitting around (I was away at college w/ no car) so like any ridiculous college student I thought it was important enough to spend a few hours installing a stereo temporarily for the trip. The other huge thing was that it was a manual with only 4 gears. No problem with driving a manual, but averaging 75-80 mph for a good portion of the trip meant we were probably around 4500-5000 rpms in 4th gear. Now that I think about it I’m pretty sure I was gauging that number by sound alone b/c if I remember right it didn’t even have a tach. Never met a car that could have used a 5th gear more than that one. Even with buzzing the hell out of the engine like that I bet we were still getting in the mid-40’s for gas mileage. We even slept in it for a good chunk of the night on an ill advised “oh, we’ll just drive straight through” on the way home.
Pretty much a perfect car for a college road trip. Good memories.
I’m surprised the stereo is still in there, and the interior is almost completely intact.
I’m not surprised no parts are sold, no one wants any!
More like nobody needs any. This car & its friends from this era are destine to be like the Nash Metroplitan or a great many Ramblers, they survive simply because some skinflint was also anal retentive about keeping their car pristine.
I knew somebody with the next gen after this, still a stripper but honestly it was no worse than a corolla or civic from that era at the very bottom. The engine wasn’t as refined and suspension was so-so but it really wasn’t a horrid car like this generation was.
There was no “next gen” after this. It was sold until 1994. So you must be referring to a different model.
There was a next generation. It was the Accent in 95.
My friend has one as well. Bought stripped, in black, under 7 grand.
He drove it until 2 years ago. 40 mpg, rarely gave him an issue, 200k+ miles. He sold it for $800 to his Hyundai serviceman.
It was an acceptable car and he got his monies worth.
Wish there was a simple under 8 grand car out today, might be doable with a new Accent if there was some incentives, although they are a little different engineering wise.