RiveraNotario caught a Pony still on the loose in Puerto Natales, Chile. Well, it dos appear to have an injured hoof, but otherwise it looks t be in pretty good nick. The Pony was Hyundai’s first car they designed aspects of by themselves, but there’s a some Ford Cortina to be found in it, as well as engines by Mitsubishi.
The Pony was exported to a lot of places including Canada, but not the US. A good call, as it would have been perceived to be a bit primitive with its RWD, although the Chevette was still being sold at the time.
Given its simple and proven underpinnings, it turned out to be a quite durable little cockroach.
We’ve got two more in-depth articles on the Pony here:
The Hyundai Origin Myth Revealed: There’s A Ford In Your Pony
The Pony was sold here in Uruguay from 1980 to about 1984, with no restylings in between, which probably means there was only a couple of shiploads brought in.
First came the sedans, which had a 1.4 liter engine, a vinyl roof, a platic cover for the rear window, á la sports car, and I think a 5 speed. Wonder of wonders, it had A/C as standard. Its price was quite lower than a typical “imported” car, i.e., all of those that had to pay an extra tax because of not being assembled here and that carried with them some extra status because of that. As far as I remember, the importer made a big deal about the Mitsubishi engine and rumor had it that it was a Dodge 1500/ avenger in the underpinnings, something that I think has been debunked. Afterwards came a station wagon, a 3 door hatchback and a pick up. You probably won’t see any on a normal day in Montevideo.
I saw a ton of these in Liberia (especially Monrovia) in the mid-’80s. Lots as taxis. Brings back a lot of memories… great to see this one still in action!
RWD you say….. hmmm…… LS SWAP!
Back in the 80’s whenever I saw a Pony I thought hmmm….. Lotus 11 kit car!
A neighbour had not one, but two Ponys. He put personalized license plates on each one, “B LATE” and “BE LATE”. I never figured out the iimportance.
One Pony caught fire, and the other one just died or was traded from what I recall.
In Toronto they were quite common when they were being sold, but they became rare quite quickly. From 2005 to 2008 I was in Korea frequently and I expected to see some Ponys but in all the time I was there I only spotted one, and it was a pickup. Actually there weren’t many older cars of any sort in Seoul where I spent most of my time. Maybe they were all in smaller cities or rural areas.
I’m in the Toronto area too and recall them being everywhere. My best friend’s mother had a gold one – looked sort of nice when new but rusted out very quickly and was frequently breaking down.
We also had the ironically-named Hyundai Stellar – there was an upper trim model called the Executive Sedan, which we thought was hilarious.
Canadian Pony is the 2nd generation, it has a softer lihe on the back trunk gate. Nevertheless it was quite popular because of cheap price and reasonable reliability. But it was not match for Japanese equivalent
The Pony wasn’t based on the Cortina, the Stellar was. The Pony was based on one of the later rear drive Mitsubishi/Dodge/etc Colt.
Correct; Mitsubishi Lancer A70. I doubt it’s much more than minor changes to that platform, if at all considering wheelbase is identical.
These cars were popular with students in Canada. You can typically pick them up used for 1000 bucks and drive them for a further 100,000 km or more.
It was recommended that you get the 1.6 over the 1.4.
* could, not can. They’re nowhere now.
These look better in a bright color. My one up close and personal experience with a Hyundai Pony was a 1985ish UK spec in a dull blue with a grey interior and automatic. it was a car but not particularly fun.
Yet one more ‘road roach’ to fall in love with .
I didn’t realize any early Hyundai products were reliable .
-Nate