I was driving along the other day when I noticed something approaching my mirror extremely quickly. From a distance it kinda looked like a Lexus but I couldn’t quite place it. Mostly because unlike a Lexus, this car didn’t have a face that looked like the predator or the ‘I swear I am not a Toyota in Japan’ overcompensating L badge. In the fractions of a second it took me to critique the looks the sedan was close enough to be clear on my rearview mirror.
It was a Hyundai Genesis sedan. The latest in a row of cars that cemented the reputation of Hyundai as the New Toyota while Toyota is fighting with VAG over who wants to be the new GM. And, like VAG and Toyota, its success had to start from somewhere.
Now, while it took them until 1975 to produce a car on their own, Hyundai had existed for quite a while by then. It was founded in 1944 as Hyundai Building and Construction, then shortened to Hyundai Construction. Business boomed on account on the rebuilding efforts after the war and soon enough they found themselves not only taking care of construction, but setting up a separate company for making construction materials too. Their first automotive-related project to go overseas wasn’t a car, but rather a highway built in Thailand in 1965. The Hyundai Motor Company itself was another of their diversifying projects.
Their first products were Ford Cortinas built under license. Some of their parts made them into the Pony, which itself ended up becoming a multicultural melting pot. The Koreans brought the manufacturing facilities and the capital, the British brought in some leftover parts and the expertise from former British Leyland higher-ups. Mitsubishi brought the engines and Italdesign is responsible for the styling. Something I found very hard to believe until I remembered that apart from the Golf, The DeLorean and the M1 they were also responsible for the Daewoo Lanos, the Lacetti and the Daihatsu Move. Also the Morris Ital, but that’s a story for another day.
Now having a car of their very own to compete in international markets, Hyundai started exporting the Pony in 1976. Not to the U.S of course as they were starting to tighten their belts on the emissions front and the Mitsubishi powerplants were simply unable to cope. Nevertheless it still was a hit on the Latin American market and, oddly enough, Canada; where the second generation Pony would go to become one of the best-selling vehicles in the country. Amazing when you notice that everywhere you go to read about the early Hyundai Pony you read about the fact they didn’t seem to have much in the way of quality control. Why? Because it was one of the cheapest cars you could buy on the market at the time of course!
Cheapness and sales numbers have an odd relationship with one another. On one hand everybody loves to get things cheap or at least feeling like they’ve scored something on the cheap. The frenzy that happened a couple of years ago over $99 HP tablets that nobody wanted before is an example. On the other hand, you don’t want to be seen with something that’s considered ‘cheap’, which is why the Tata Nano hasn’t been selling terribly well despite being designed to make perfect sense for Indian families. The Pony managed to walk that line very well, and kept selling even after bits started to wear prematurely or fall off.
There was also a pickup version. The most popular around my neck of the woods. Everyone that I know that owned one seem to remember their ownership experience fondly. Even the army bought a couple of hundred of those for active duty and you could see them running about well into the ‘00s. For all the talk about them being of questionable quality, the pickups seem to live longer and still see active duty, like the example above.
It’s amazing to think that less than 40 years separate this car and the Genesis that overtook me and quickly disappeared into the distance. Or the Equus, a $60,000.00 Mercedes fighter. Even the Accent is a considerably more mature package than its direct predecessor. And I don’t see anyone complaining much about them other than how dull they are.
That’s funny. Just this afternoon I posted an old picture of a Chrysler in front of one of the mills of Kinderdijk. And I’m pretty sure the first picture of this CC-article was taken there too. Nearly at the same spot, if I study this map and compare it with the pictures.
Hyundai initially brought a teaser to the 1974 Turin motor show to build interest for the upcoming production car. Also by Italdesign, the Pony Coupe was sadly not put into production:
It looks like a DeLorean in both the window shape and the way the lower front slopes up to meet the flat hood. Giugiaro may not have had a lot of imagination (see also Isuzu Impulse).
‘Giugiaro may not have had a lot of imagination.’
I’m not sure how one of the finest automotive stylists in the world could get away with having not a lot of imagination.
So you’re saying this doesn’t look just like a DeLorean?
An FSO Polonez. That’s what it looks like.
Renault 30 ?
Simca 1308 ?
The Pony just follows the simple and square 5 door hatchback-lines, the norm back then.
I was thinking Renault 17 once I saw that second photo of the coupe.
And everything Frank Lloyd Wright designed had a flat roof. Frank Lloyd Wright … now there was a guy with no imagination.
Seriously, calling one of the greatest and most versatile automotive designers in history a guy without a lot of imagination? I don’t even know where to begin.
The lower front slopes up to meet the front of a VW Rabbit, too. Does that mean that this looks like a Rabbit? Oh yeah, Giugiaro designed the Rabbit, too, so this is basically the same car.
Everybody is pointing to everything he designed except for the Pony coupe, and not addressing how much it looks like a DeLorean.
Look, Giugiaro was the hottest designer in the 70s- 80s, and was designing a huge number of cars at the time. Yes, he worked within a given design language, both his in particular, as well as of the times. Frankly, the Pony coupe reminds me more of some of his other cars than the DeLorean, but perhaps you’re not so familiar with his wide body of work.
We’ve never attempted a major retrospective of Giugiaro’s work, but you might want to take a look at this post, which covers the evolution of his mid engined sports cars, and which very directly led to the DeLorean.: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1977-lotus-esprit-s1-giorgetto-giugiaro-takes-up-origami/
The point is, if it looks like a DeLorean to you, that’s your call. If you think Giugiaro was a designer lacking in imagination, that’s also your call. Just keep in mind that there’s no designer who could crank out dozens of new cars per year for clients all over the globe, and somehow have them all look completely different. It just doesn’t work that way, anywhere, and anytime in automotive design history.
Pininfarina did the same thing, as did others. Every creative person has only so many themes available to work with. That applies to painters, musicians, etc. I can tell a piece of music is by Mozart within in the first few notes. Does that make him “unimaginative”? Are you intimately familiar with the creative process?
I agree. Designers work with what they’re given to design. Oleg Cassini designed the AMC Matador. Gucci designed the AMC Hornet. Karmann drew a design for what became the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. I imagine if they’d said “hell no! I’m not going to design this car, or style that car,” they’d be out of a job, and possibly out of business, because of their un-willingess to try something different now and then.
Well one thing is for sure Paul. There isn`t any creative process in 99% of today`s” Pop” or “Rock” music.It all sounds the same.
At Jason.
Gucci designed the Hornet?! Oleg Cassini designed the Matador? Huh? WTF! These cars were designed by Dick Teague, AMCs own styling chief.
The Cassini and Gucci packages were mere decor options, and just how much each designer had to do with those is debatable.
Did Levi’s design the Gremlin too?
And Karman is a coachbuilder, the design was by Ghia.
I was making a comment about how much that particular silver concept resembled the DeLorean, and it did. Giugiaro was no god of amazing design, really. He’s credited with some pretty uninspired stuff like the Eagle Premier and Hyundai Excel. He had several designs that were very similar in such a way to show that he was more than capable of phoning it in for a paycheck (not totally his fault, as the mfrs. would still often use a recycled looking design of his).
I was making a comment about but one of his designs in there, but I’ll go ahead and back it up a bit more now: he was a near celebrity of design in that time period probably because his best talent was making mundane metal at least have a more balanced look than it might otherwise. The best of them (Golf, Nikon F4) look deliberate and purposeful and don’t have any glaring flaws. That’s probably the best recommendation of his “language.” That certainly has its place, but doesn’t make him above reproach for sometimes selling the same design more than once (Lexus GS, Daewoo Leganza, Jaguar Kensington prototype). Even if a design is pleasing, being associated with look-alike products is not something to which a designer should aspire.
Just curious, Dave. Who would you consider to be a great stylist?
@ roger628: You’re right. They didn’t design the cars I mentioned. They merely lent a styling hand to various cars. The design of the cars themselves came from various designers from their respective companies, but they also brought in various stylists to give certain cars a little upscale look. That’s what I was referring to. Ghia gave the Karmann-Ghia that style and shape the VW Karmann-Ghia was known for. He also lent a hand in styling to other cars. 🙂
It happens more often than one might think. BMC Farina sedans versus the Peugeot 404, anyone?
Heck, Marcello Gandini somehow got away with giving two completely different manufacturers essentially the same car other than minor details, and it hasn’t hurt his reputation. Behold the Iso Lele and the Lamborghini Jarama:
Adding to Paul’s point; Giugiaro was no slouch in the 60s as well. The below montage is a selection of Bertone cars directly from the hand of Giugiaro. There are some similarities between them and some differences. Not all his cars were origami or wedge.
I just took issue with the blanket statement. Perhaps if you has qualified it with ‘…not have had a lot of imagination when designing this car.’… it might have been less provocative to me.
I have a piece planned on the genesis of the Mazda Luce, another winner from Giugiaro’s hand, with some interesting concept sketches that may help shed light on the creative process and what ends up on the street.
Oooh; a Luce! I look forward to that. I happened to see one one the streets in Vienna in 1969, and was quite smitten. A very delightful sedan.
Also looking forward to your Luce story.
Anyone who thinks Frank Lloyd Wright only designed flat-roofed houses has not seen his early work. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Early Work, Bramhall House, New York, 1968 would be a good reference.
“the British brought in some leftover parts and the expertise from former British Leyland higher-ups”
And yet Hyundai not only survived, but eventually thrived. My estimation of the company just went up a few points.
S.Korea effectively closed its car market to let domestic manufactures mature enough until they started building something vaguely competitive. There was even a period when buyers had to wait for a year or more to get their car due to underproduction. And the British toyed with economical liberalism at the time, letting cheap Japanese imports to ruin their domestic car industry.
Not bad looking (the front seems to have a bit of the Euro Escort (MkII?) about it) and from the side I see a lot of Isuzu Gemini (I-Mark) and it seems to be a fairly efficiently laid out car. I’ve seen a couple abroad but never driven one. They did seem to to be more durable than the Excel which was their debut model in the US years later.
You are right that Hyundai has come a long way. Even their bread and butter cars are now considered relatively competitive. I just read somewhere else that the 10 millionth Elantra nameplated car just rolled off the assembly lines which is quite a feat.
CC effect! I saw a Mk II Escort yesterday.
+1
I remember seeing these when my wife and I went to Quebec on our honeymoon in 1995. It’s the one Canadian-market car I remember seeing from that trip that was completely unfamilar to me, as opposed to a Canada-only badge-engineered version of a car that was sold in the U.S. (e.g., Pontiac Sunrunner, Chrysler Intrepid); in light of its high popularity in Canada, that makes sense.
Another car that might possibly be in that category is the Nissan Micra, but I’m not sure if I made note of those on that trip, or if I only learned of those later via the internet.
I remember these well my buddy had one up here in Canada. It seemed to have factory equipped rust from day 1 burned blue not just on start up from the day the warranty expired. Made the chevette (Acadian) seem like a well put together machine by comparison. It took me many decades to admit Hyundai could make a nice car. I do miss them as aside from Renault lecars they were about the only thing my 74 VW van could win stop light drag races against.
In 1984 some friends and I drove to Florida primarily to hang out in the Daytona Beach area, but also spent a day at Disney World. While traversing the vast parking lot on the way in, we made two discoveries: 1) a wallet on the ground stuffed with about $400, lots of credit cards and a Canadian drivers license, and 2) a Hyundai Pony parked near the wallet with Ontario plates. We looked the car over, as it was still two years before there would be Hyundais in the US, then turned the wallet in to Lost and Found. I don’t know if the wallet belonged to the Pony driver, but he wrote me a gushing letter of thanks for saving his vacation.
Oh, and we also met Dan Marino at Disney World.
It’s kind of an ironic twist that for much of its history Hyundai Motor relied on Mitsubishi very heavily – not just the Pony, but also the Excel, and the Grandeur (an upscale executive sedan that was the ride of choice for high government officials and corporate execs). And today, Hyundai has eclipsed (pun intended) its former big brother in the marketplace.
I’ve heard of the Hyundai Pony. But I’ve never seen one in person. For some reason (maybe for good reason, maybe not so good), it wasn’t sold in the USA. At least I’ve not seen one. I didn’t hear about Hyundai until the Excel.
I saw one with Quebec plates in California in the mid-90s.
The Pony was pretty crude. If Hyundai had launched into the US with it they probably would have failed. The unreliability of the Excel almost killed them off, and that was a much better car.
Gotta love those early-’80s 4-spoke wheels.
This video from youtube is kinda neat; even though it’s in Korean, it has some of the first Ponies tooling around France, Greece, etc. I must admit, they do look crisp and modern in the footage.
On the interstate between Daytona and Jacksonville, sometime in the 80s, I was passed by a Hyundai that I guess was a 1st gen Pony. The 2nd gen Pony actually looks better than the Excel we eventually got in the U.S.
Korea would “seem” to be the exception to the rule that closing your country’s market to outside competition does your country no favors.
It would be interesting to know what the Korean car magazine “situation” is/was like. In the U.K. in the late 60s and 70s Japanese cars were heavily derided as being INFERIOR to the local/British products. The domestic market bias didn’t really start to evaporate until the late 80s/early-mid 90s… and even today the “British badged” product wins in a multi-car test in British mags.
The Pony was also sold here, its introduction was in 1979. I quote a domestic car website: “it rotted faster than an Austin Montego”. That about wraps it up.
I visited Korea in 1978 for a few weeks and ( being a car guy) paid some attention to the taxis I rode around in – which were all Ponys. I was living in Japan at the time, and the Pony was pretty crude and rough compared to the Japanese cars of the day. It was clearly only suitable for domestic, protected from competition, sales. I do have to admit that some of my impression may have been biased by differences between the two “Taxi Cultures”. The Japanese were using dedicated-design taxi-vehicles, cleaned and polished fastidiously, with spotless white upholstery covers. The Koreans were using Ponys, obviously, with cleanliness and maintenance standards which I will ashamedly describe as “American Taxi” level.
Suffice to say, that when the Excel came to the States, I recommended caution to friends considering them. I am amazed at how far the Koreans have come since then; they make some pretty good cars now and relentlessly improve them every year.
I wholeheartedly agree – I did a military tour in Korea in the early/mid eighties and these were the standard taxi with LPG engines. You haven’t faced death until you rode in a Pony only crudely put together whipping thru Seoul traffic, dodging busses and trucks, with the pressurized LPG tank in the trunk ready to go boom……
But kudos to the Koreans for going from there to where they are today….
My former wife’s first car was a copper coloured Pony. One of very few (the only one?) cars of the ’80s that used a manual choke! I had to keep reminding her to turn the choke off after the car warmed up…
My Pony was an automatic but still had manual choke and it was very difficult to not spin tires in snow. I believe the Pony was base on at least 10 year earlier British Ford Cortina frame designs.
I believe RX-7’s used a manual choke as well until about 1984.
Yes, all pre-fuel injection rotary Mazdas had semi-manual chokes. Pull it out, start the engine, move it in far enough to get a smooth high idle. When the engine got up to temp, the choke would automatically release. It was entertaining to watch the knob snap back in (I’m easily amused).
I was a bit surprised to see a manual choke on the Pony.
Both my 1982 Renault 5 and my 1987 Ford Escort had manual chokes. Always worked flawlessly.
Back in 1992 I bought an ’86 Pony for $150. It was red but faded to near pink and the motor smoked a little. I touched up a couple of small rust spots behind the rear wheels and left them in red primer as it matched closely with the rest of the faded paint. The engine had a burnt exhaust valve which was replaced from the parts bin at the machine shop and overall the car only cost about $400 by the time plates, safety check and taxes were paid.
It eventually became my mother’s car. She really wanted a Pony ever since she first started seeing them around. It wasn’t long before she was complaining about how slow it was. “You have to plan your left turns but it’s dead reliable” is how she put it. It served well for a few years before becoming a yard car at the wrecking yard. We just got bored with it that’s all.
While ours had the 1.4l with the automatic there was also a 1.6l available with a 4spd standard which was marginally less awful.
We Canadians love us some cheap cars.
Did you guys get the Lada Samara and FSO Nikki? Now those were cheap in every sense.
We got Ladas but not the FSO. We did also got Skodas and a few other East Europeans.
My first encounter with a Hyundai was an early Excel model in the early ’90s. My new Mother in Law had just had a miner accident in her Buick, and they gave here a Hyundai Excel as a loaner. I was intrigued by it, and went over it with a fine tooth comb. It reminded me of a slightly refined Yugo, but still plenty flimsy. WAY more flimsy than my ’73 Ford Pinto had been. But it also had sort of a “drive me hard” feeling.
Hyundai makes very good cars today, but sadly nothing I want or can afford, as they do not build an inexpensive two door. The Genesis Coupe costs as much as a Chevy Camaro. Not interested. At one point they made a 2 door Accent, and I might very well be interested in one if they still made it. I am a 2 door guy living in a 4 door world.
If you liked the Accent coupe, may I suggest you wander over to a Kia dealership and take a look at the Forte Koup? (If you’ll forgive the intentional misspelling of coupe.) Since Kia is owned by Hyundai, it’s essentially an Elantra coupe with more “sporting” feel to the styling and less numb chassis tuning. It’s still an economy car but you could do far worse, and it’s pretty good looking in 2 door format. We have a 2012 Forte Koup and I’ve had no problems with it in 3 years of ownership.
They also did make an Elantra Coupe for a while, but it may have been dropped as it never sold well. I’ve only ever seen a few in traffic.
Saw one of those Koups yesterday, actually a rather sharp looking car.
Newly rich societies tend not to venerate old obsolete, consumer products, seeing them as somewhat of an embarrassment. Korea is very much like this, they send perfectly good cars to the crusher just because they are old. Having said that, things must be changing a bit as I’ve seen a restored lemon yellow Pony pickup in my area, and the prices for these are climbing. It wasn’t that long ago that a few-year old used car was almost free, especially if it was a Daewoo or Kia. I became a “Daewoo whisperer”, as I was intrigued by the Opel-based designs. My first car here was a 1992 LeMans, purchased in 1997. Was it crappy? Yes, highly unreliable. However this was mitigated by the fact I only paid $800 bucks for it. It still had an essential “German-ness” about it, and it cornered quite well, was stable at top speed and was dynamically superior to the only other car in my price range, the Excel. None of my subsequent Daewoos matched it for handling until my current Cruze, and it’s lowered with 245-45VR-18s on it.
Theres a Pony here somebody uses as a daily drive it parks outside the TAB every day you can see it on the cohort its all original and just beginning to rust in the door corners, there was a Stella the Korean Cortina cruising locally but I havent seen it for a while it may have died a natural death or simply failed its WOF and become a lawn ornament.
WOF? Is that like the UK MoT, an inspection?
Yeah Warrant of Fitness a 6 monthly inspection designed to direct revenue to the motor trade who lobbied for its introduction.
I haven’t seen a Stellar in years! (But I remember them well)
The Giugiaro two-door concept was excellent and the 1st gen four-door production car was alright-looking, and most likely better than what they would have come up with themselves.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/the-hyundai-origin-myth-revealed-theres-a-ford-in-your-pony/
I remember seeing one in Brooklyn, NY in the summer of `85 with Canadian plates. I thought to my self that this might be a new Japanese import.I also thought it was pronounced “High Un Day” until about six months later when they first went on sale in the US.I also knew a few people who bought them. They were not a pleasant experience, to say the least.
The first TV ads for them in Australia had the slogan “Say Hi to High-Oon-Die”. The ads were pulled a few months after. Rumour had it that the mispronunciation meant something quite different in Korean.
I remember when the Excel came out in the US they used the same pronunciation. And even earlier around 1968 when the Subaru 360 came out, the commercials were Su-BAR-u. Two different makes that pronounced their names incorrectly in the beginning.
We had the same Hi to High-Oon-Die ads in NZ. Subaru is still Su-BAR-u here – sure the ads now say Suba-roo, but no-one, including the local dealer, pronounces the name that way. And don’t get me started on Nissan!
The Pony was wildly popular in Canada because it was so cheap. It undercut the cheapest Toyota by at least $1000, so if you were strapped for cash, the Pony was for you. In the early 80’s, interest rates were outrageous and cheap cars did well. The problem with the Pony was they cars were hit and miss. Some were really good, and some were dogs. Most lasted about a decade and were toast by then. They were very simply to work on, but not the most reliable things in the world and nowhere near Japanese stuff.
I get to drive everything as rentals as I travel for my business and what I see Korean cars hasn’t changed a lot. They are a good value for the money and have a good warranty. If an appliance is what you want, then a Korean car will suit you. Whenever I drive one, I feel it lacks structural integrity and overall polish. For example, all Hyundai cars tend to crash into bumps and just not feel as solid as their Japanese counterparts. The steering in all the Hyundai’s I have driven was terrible.
I have seen a Pony ute, I assumed it was a cutdown maybe it was genuine I didnt at the time know they made one.
They made Pony utes and station wagons, not sure if we officially got any new though.
That Cortina in the third pic looks really weird. British body and grille same as my old Cortina, but with ovoid-rectangular lights, also LHD and repositioned wipers.
I noticed the same thing Old Pete. I’m guessing they used the LHD Taunus firewall/scuttle/dashboard – the cars were the same under the skin. Ford did sell LHD MkIII Cortinas in parts of Europe that wore the MkIII Cortina body and not the different Taunus body, so the parts wouldn’t have been an issue. The headlights are interesting though. On first glance I thought they were just the usual late-MkIII rectangular lights with an odd grille surround. But the more I look at them, I’m convinced that they’re MkI Escort lights (which had more curved ends). Intriguing!
Weird… Ford sold BOTH Taunuses and Cortinas in Israel (a LHD country) at the same time and, as far as I could discern from my dad’s Cortina, there was no difference between it and a UK-spec 4 cyl one…
From 1976 the Taunus and Cortina shared the same body, an update of the 1970 Taunus body. The 1970-76 Cortina had a more curvy version of the ‘coke bottle’ look, wider central section to the front grille, wrap round rear lights and lacked stepped out area between the wheel arches.
Hyundai’s ‘tin’ grille with oval headlights is an interesting variation I hadn’t seen before.
I think that Hyundai as a whole have come a *long* way in not too long a time. We never had the Pony in the USA, but we got the Excel as the “debut car” in 1985 or ’86. Its main selling point, like the Pony in Canada, was price–$4995. Lured in quite a few buyers; for a while in the late 80’s and early 90’s, those 1st-gen Excels were ubiquitous. They also weren’t very good cars, and by the mid 90’s they had pretty much disappeared. I can’t remember the last time I saw one. But they had laid the groundwork for success and, most importantly, constantly improved their product.
Today? The Sonata (and Optima, as Kia is a Hyundai subsidiary nowadays) is extremely well-regarded against the likes of Accord, Camry, and Fusion. They have a compelling vehicle at just about every point in the market, and the Equus is extraordinarily impressive. A friend’s father has one and, while I haven’t driven it, from a passenger’s or observer’s perspective it is absolutely credible as a competitor in the luxury segment. Extremely impressive car. Not bad at all when one thinks about where they were in 1985 or 1975…
As a friend says about the Eqqus-“it might have bling, it might have game,its still a Hyundai just the same”.
Badge snobbery never dies, does it?
*They’ve thought of that, BTW. One of the options does not put a Hyundai badge anywhere on the car, only Equus badges/emblems. That way you don’t have to admit it’s a Hyundai if you don’t want to. 🙂
these were cool looking cars to m I even knew someone that had one. It was a bright red colour not sure the year though. I even remember getting to ride in it on a short trip when I was younger. what many in North America probably did not know is the other variation like the pick up and wagon or even the older version I seen 2 others one of which I got a photo of
My niece’s first car was a red Pony 4-speed like the one in the opening shot. Parked outdoors all winter long in rural Ontario, I remember hearing stories that it always started more reliably than her dad’s Rabbit Diesel when it was really cold.
During high school in Ontario, Canada, around the late 90s, there was a senior student who drove a faded silver (perhaps 1986) Hyundai Pony like the one in the ad. The car looked like a joke. When he applied the brakes, the car would stop and then roll back a few inches. One of his buddies once commented that at least his sunroof didn’t leak anymore and his reply was that it was because he duct taped it shut. Yes, the duct tape blended in perfectly with the faded silver paint. During Winter he would attach a piece of cardboard to the front grille (for faster warm ups perhaps). I remember once walking past an intersection after school where the Pony was waiting at a red light. Another student drove up from behind in a Sundance, honking the horn and playfully gave the Pony a slight push by touching bumpers.
Just a short time later around early 2000, a guy I had known who was friends with the Pony owner told me that he had scrapped the car. The owner’s dad had to fight to get even $30 from the junkyard because there was not one good tire on the car and it leaked gas. The owner had traded up to something completely different at the time. It was either a black 2000 Camaro or Trans Am. The Pony owner’s friend had ironically owned an old silver Hyundai sedan (perhaps an Excel or Stellar) before later trading up to a red ’95 Civic coupe after high school.
I think that Hyundai had entered the market trying to make cheaper cars, but they just didn’t have the reliability at the time. Their quality has improved since then. But I still felt insulted when over 6 years ago, someone had the nerve to ask me why I didn’t buy a Hyundai over the 2 year old Accord I had then recently purchased.