I know the early Hyundai Excels earned a fairly rotten reputation in North America, and from the sounds of things, deservedly so. But elsewhere, the little compacts seem to have done more than OK. Just look at this surviving one in a Salvadorian mall. The car may not be quite excelling, but it’s certainly going about its daily business fairly well.
Think about it, a good deal of Hyundai’s current worldwide might rests on the groundwork laid down by these early Pony/Excel cars. They couldn’t have been that rotten… everywhere. It’s a typical case of “One Continent’s Most Rugged Vehicle is Another Continent’s POS.” A theory advanced here at CC a while back, that’s hard to dispute when it comes to certain vehicles.
Now, I’m not saying early Excels were extremely rugged vehicles, in the US or elsewhere. Nor am I saying they were misunderstood by North American customers. The cars certainly fell flat on their Giugiaro-designed faces in the US and Canada, and that embarrassing start became quite close to being a terminal sin for the company’s worldwide aspirations. Looking over at the Cohort, it’s incredibly hard to find an early Excel still around, and truth be told, I rarely saw any back in California during the ’90s. A sign the cars arrived in the US with the wrong attributes for that demanding landscape.
But that poor showing eventually pushed Hyundai to find two traits within itself, both rather rare nowadays; the ability to listen and persistence. Both became essential in turning Hyundai’s fortunes around.
US eyes will probably notice that today’s find is an American grey import; those big plasticky bumpers being the main giveaway. I’ve no idea who would bother to import a mid-80s Hyundai Excel to El Salvador, but someone did. But while it’s a weird sounding idea, it ain’t rare nor strange. After all, there’s a healthy local market for used US grey imports, consisting mostly of undesirable cars bought on the cheap up north.
“Hey, you got any unwanted and cheap cars there in Sunny Valley? Heck, we’ll take a few of those!”
Here’s another US-sourced Excel, a sedan in taxi form, found not far from the hatchback at the shopping center. I’m pretty sure we can all agree these Excels got a lucky break by coming to El Salvador, whenever that might have been (early ’90s I would think). Had they stayed in the US, they would have gone to automotive-crunch-heaven eons ago.
Here’s one more US-sourced hatchback, pulling ahead of me not far from my home. Yes, these Excels do run!
Notice how I keep saying that these samples come from the US. How do I know? Well, the model was not officially sold over here back in the day. Instead, local Hyundai dealers were stuck with Pony pickups and ‘upscale’ Stellars throughout the ’80s. A bit of a curious lineup, but partly the result of conditions related to the ongoing Civil War. It’s a story I told a while back.
Excels may have not been sold in El Salvador, but as can be seen in the number of surviving samples rolling around the city, the cars worked decently in non-developed nations. After all, not-so-smooth engines in an average chassis with noisy interiors don’t matter much around here. As for their handling, do you really care about self-assured cornering when you’re busier avoiding potholes? (Trust me, I know what I’m talking about).
So, for all purposes, the Excel’s technological limitations were not pushed to their limits in local conditions, and their drivetrains generally rode at an easy –if bouncy– pace.
I’ve no idea how Excels fared in their native South Korea, or in Asia overall. But I would think they did OK, considering the company didn’t completely implode. But as has been stated in our previous nearly deadly sin post, Hyundai had overestimated its capacities when the Excel was sent to the US market as its entry card.
Those ambitions had been ongoing for a while. Hyundai’s early foreign forays appeared in the form of their 1975 Pony, of which a few are still found around San Salvador. Those cars were unsophisticated, economical, and ideal for such markets as Latin America. And they carried a distinctive shape penned by Italdesign’s Giugiaro. Not the most exciting of looks you may say, but when your streets are clogged with Datsun B210s, Giugiaro’s angular lines suddenly look mighty tempting. And think about it, an early Pony is about the cheapest way to get into automotive-Italian tailoring outside of a VW Golf.
Those early Ponys had engines courtesy of Mitsubishi. Meanwhile, the car’s drivetrain was proven technology designed with the help of British Leyland engineers (a story better covered here). A basic front engine rear wheel drive layout, with independent struts up front and semi-elliptic leafs at the back. Nothing extraordinary, but an asset in regions with little access to modern tech. Should your little Pony break down on some dirt back road near Guadalajara, a local mechanic would certainly know a way of getting the car back to work.
On the other hand, the Pony was quite behind what the rest of the industry was offering at the time; all quickly switching to space-efficient FWD drivetrains with IRS suspensions. Wisely, Hyundai found the will to restrain its worst impulses and kept the car away from the developed world.
For the time being.
But that early Pony did get the brand noticed in many markets around the globe. And this –barely– surviving sample is part of that early wave.
About which, don’t let that sloping fastback shape fool you; the early Pony was a 4-door saloon. A pickup version was also offered, while a proper hatchback finally appeared in ’81.
The friendly-looking first-gen Pony remained in production until ’82, when an upgraded and slightly more aerodynamic design appeared. It was that 1982-1990 version that first reached North America, arriving in Canada in 1983. Looking at comments left at CC on previous Pony posts, the Canadians were the first to find out that Hyundai wasn’t quite ready for the big time. Those early North American Ponys showed themselves to be quite disposable.
But regardless of the quality failings of the Pony II in Canada, Hyundai was dreaming big. South Korea was rising, and Japan had done wonders in a short time. Surely they could do it too, right?
With the 1986 Excel, Hyundai was joining the modern FWD world, once again with an aerodynamic body courtesy of Giugiaro. Engineering-wise, the car was based on Mitsubishi’s second-generation Mirage/Colt. Once more, a mill of Mitsubishi origin was found under the hood, this time the 4-cyl. Orion series, with a 1.5L displacement.
And the car was cheap! The second lowest-priced vehicle in the US for ’86. Just about 1K more than that other cheapie non-wonder, the Yugo, and looking far more like a real car.
With low price and accessible amenities as its allure, Fortune magazine named the Excel its “Best Product #10”. Hyundai’s headquarters had to be brimming with joy when their little Excel sold 168,882 units in that debut year. A first-year record for an import on US soil.
It’s a chapter covered previously by Paul in more detail.
Hyundai’s headquarters may have been jumping with glee, but elsewhere alarm bells were going off. More specifically, around Hyundai’s US dealers. A group of people well aware that the car’s reliability issues and high-figure sales were to sour future buyers on the brand.
The dealer-factory relationship is something not often talked about, and on more than one occasion, an element that can seal a brand’s luck in a particular region. It’s, in all honesty, an awfully crucial but hard to track down factor.
In the case of Hyundai, much frantic exchange apparently took place between the two. Dealers sent alarming messages to the factory about the Excel’s disintegrating qualities, while Hyundai’s headquarters only saw ballooning sales.
“What do you mean there’s trouble? Americans love our Excels!”
And no, that’s not an actual quote.
Of course, headquarters got the message sometime later, once sales tanked. By 1998, the tarnished brand only moved about 90K units in the US… between four model lines.
Photo from the Cohort by canadiancatgreen.
Ultimately Hyundai got the message and learned a lesson or two about listening. A bit late I may add, with much damage already done. Luckily, the company had other qualities; one of them being persistence. A rather rare trait in this age of get-rich-quick corporate mentality.
As known, Hyundai went into a long and concerted effort to make amends for its automotive sins. One can read on the company’s corporate website the many progressive and consistent steps it took to accomplish that turnaround. A three-pronged attack centered on customer practices, messaging and product development.
In customer practices, innovative no-cost maintenance programs were applied, aided by extended protection plans. Other areas included extensive dealer training, both in service and attention. Hyundai’s district managers also monitored warranty repair work, and contacted customers who had suffered frequent problems. Those among many other programs, in a process that took years to accomplish.
Meanwhile, Hyundai’s advertising focused on the message of being a ‘caring company.’ Plenty of their images featured up-and-coming professionals, often placing female subjects at their center.
At first glance, one would be tempted to think the ads don’t deviate much from the ‘active lifestyle’ many competitors promoted. However, when looked upon more closely, there’s an underlying message of ‘wellness’ and ‘protection’ sprinkled throughout. All in service to the ‘caring company’ concept behind Hyundai’s messaging of the period.
Branding, marketing and messaging aside, all would be for naught if the cars themselves hadn’t improved. Which they certainly did. It’s hard to compare the Hyundais of today to those from the early ’90s. Something I know a little about, after briefly testing an early Accent at a Los Angeles dealer back in 1994.
I vaguely remember getting in the car, turning the ignition, and listening to its little engine idling not too smoothly. Stepping on the gas pedal and revving it, it was clear Hyundai’s tiny Accent was a notch or two below the Civics my fellow coworkers drove.
So it all quickly ended in a no-sale. As I walked away –this I remember better– the salesman stood silently, hunched over the Accent’s hood in frustration. His reaction was not necessarily in response to me walking away, but rather, at the subpar product he had to entice buyers with.
Very different days indeed, of a brand that seemed would never get its act together.
That said, is not like the company didn’t have the resources to pull its turnaround. The corporation was and remains an industrial giant in its native South Korea, and the matter of funds was never in doubt. Instead, it was a matter of will and planning. And when looking at larger companies that failed to accomplish similar about-faces, the factors that matter most.
So, besides automobiles, Hyundai’s industrial might has been showing up in other forms in this region. Putting aside the occasional Uber rides I get on Hyundai’s modern cars, the Hyundai product I ride most often is pictured above. Very hi-tech, very smooth, silent, and efficient. Whenever I go into it, I feel like I’m in one of those Korean Rom-coms my wife keeps streaming at home. All I’m missing is some K-pop tunes to play along as I ascent from the parking lot to the mall’s third floor.
Kidding aside, if you want to see remnants from the tumultuous beginnings of Hyundai’s auto division saga, there are a few of those around in Central America. Rolling fossils, evidence of an almost terminal mistake.
Not that we would know that in this region, as these do their work reasonably well around here. Regardless, I would think there are a few lessons the little car embodies; from knowing how to find the place you belong to, to finding redemption after a misguided endeavor driven by unrealistic expectations. All to reach a happy ending. A story not too different from the Korean Rom-coms my wife keeps watching.
(Note: Dealer-factory interactions as remembered from a Sports Cars International article covering Hyundai’s US advertising strategies of the late ’90s.)
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1987 Hyundai Excel – The Damn Near Deadly Sin
Automotive History: Hyundai Pony – From Humble Origins
The Hyundai Origin Myth Revealed: There’s A Ford In Your Pony
COAL: Hyundai Pony Pickup – A House Divided; Or How Split Partners Push Forward
The Excel Sedan Looks like a first gen Proton Saga.
Not surprising, since it was also based on the Mitsubishi Lancer/Mirage.
I continue to believe that while early US market Hyundais certainly had some quality issues, their fate here in the 80’s and early 90’s was just as equally attributable to the demographic they were sold to. At $4995 they were popular with folks who had high expectations, limited resources and likely haphazard mindsets about maintenance. They were big sellers to college students (or their parents on their behalf), lower income folks and first-time new car buyers. By 1990 just about any of the late 80’s Excels on the road looked like they’d been beaten to within an inch of their lives. They may have been abused and neglected because they were unloved, but they were also victims of their own early marketing success. When your product is sold largely to folks who have little experience at care and feeding, it’s going to be viewed a certain way by the public at large.
I quite agree. It’s obvious that these Excels were not truly junk. A combination of issues caused them, and Hyundai being new to the vast and demanding US market was a very major one.
I think the Excel coupe and sedan look just like both the coupe and sedan versions of the I Mark / Spectrum. Which I believe were also designed by Giugiaro.
BTW some of those Asian rom coms are enticing for some reason. Just watching the subtitles while trying to make sense of the Mandarin, but you barely need to because they’re so comfortably predictable.
I loved the look and the price of the Excel, but was turned off by what I’d read about their performance and handling. When I was looking for a new car in 1989, my father encouraged me to take a test drive because, “You can’t make up your mind on a car based only on what you read.” So off I went to the Hyundai dealer and looked at a 3-door Excel GL. For the price of the Dodge Colt that I (my father) ultimately bought, I could have had an upgraded stereo, moonroof and a few other niceties. I really wanted to like it, but one drive confirmed everything I’d read about it. A pity, actually. Funny how different two related cars could be – like siblings, actually.
PS: I know that the Excel is based on the previous generation Colt/Mirage, but they still weren’t that different underneath.
What a find! Hyundai’s turnaround in North America should is remarkable – in the early 1990s, I was sure the brand would exit our market.
And the dealer/company relationship must have been interesting around that time, to say the least. It seems to me, though, that the vast majority of dealers kept the brand during those years (just a guess, but I’d be curious about the actual numbers) – if that’s correct, then the corporate folks must have been doing something right.
When the Excel was introduced in 1986, my mom briefly considered buying one, since she had a beater Subaru at the time that just had to be replaced. Fortunately, she avoided that scenario.
I remember these only a few years old, the owners never changed the oil then complained when they died .
-Nate
I’ve often thought the original Hyundai cars (Pony/Stellar & then Excel/Sonata) came here in the wave of 3rd world imports in the 80s. Lada. Skoda. & even the famous Yugo. I’m not sure at the time it was immediately apparent that Hyundai might be any different.
Out west in modern times your city survival likely depends as much on a car now as a horse a hundred plus years ago now. What’s a low to middle income consumer to do, particularly in choosing a 2nd car for the family? Nowadays a 2014 Corolla makes a fine choice. You’ll get many great years of service yet to come. But 40 years ago? In 1984, a 10 year old used car may or may not have been a choice. A 1974 Corolla had long returned to the earth from which it came. A 1974 Marquis might still be in service as a poor family’s main car, but lacked the modern features people were hoping for at the time in a commuter. Front wheel drive. Small size & economy.
Some families might have a new Camry or Accord, often replacing those 70s Big 3 hoopties, but certainly not two of them with the market at the time. A used base model K car or Fairmont (or even Cutlass) given the big 3 downsizing at the time, certainly wasn’t out of the realm of possibility as 5 year old used cars. But for those that kept hearing & experiencing that Japanese was the way to go at the time, Hyundai was at least East Asian. Close enough right?
Maybe not, but to your point, they certainly have the persistence to improving product that the Japanese makes have. As a result you have HK producing perfectly acceptable products today. Certainly with more style at least preferred by some, and honestly still at a lower price than many competitors. Checking out their current wares at this year’s auto show, certainly that seems to be their niche, offer more at a lower price. Only nowadays people won’t question your decision, even if many still swear by Toyota/Honda.
From 2005 to 2008 I spent some time in Seoul on business. Being Canadian I was familiar with the Pony and expected them to be relatively common there. I was very wrong. In all my time in Korea I saw only one Pony, and it was a pickup. The office and my apartment were both in Gangnam, which is a very wealthy and trendy area (remember Gangnam Style?), so not prime Pony area, but you did see Ferraris on weekends. I did travel around outside Gangnam and I did expect to see the odd Pony in an alleyway, but no luck.
As far as car sightings, one day taking a hotel shuttle to work, I saw two Wiesmanns in a parking lot. I had never heard of them, and I have certainly never seen one outside of Seoul.
You were at least 15 years too late to see a Pony anywhere, let alone Kangnam .
I arrived in Incheon in 1994, and over the next few years saw one or two, one owned by the gas station operator near my home. It was a former taxi, the ghost
lettering still visible in the sunlight. An even more astounding sight was spotting a Daewoo Maepsy (GM T-Car) one time. This was the competition to the Pony, and after a decade, they too were gone. The Pony sightings in subsequent years were very rare and almost always the pickup version. Perhaps owing to their utility, they were able to stave-off the date with the crusher for longer. The last one I saw was about 14 years ago in Chungnam Province, where I lived and worked.
It was restored and painted a bright lime-yellow, the owner operated a convenience store near my home. Evidently, a vintage car enthusiast, a hobby
that attracts scant few people in that country.
In SK, you can almost time the disappearance of certain models to the minute. Rapid depreciation and semi-yearly road taxes can impose negative values in only a few years. Combining that with the Koreans disdain for used cars and/or superseded models usually means a very finite product life. Back in the day, Daewoo products always went away the fastest. As an example, in the mid-90s there were still plenty of Opel-Senator/Rekord based large models like the Royale and Super Salon around. By 2000, all gone. Hyundai products held up a little better, so competitors to the luxury Daewoos like the original, Mitsubishi- Debonair-based Grandeur were still still around in small numbers to about the mid-2000s. When I left in 2021, even G1 Cruzes were starting to thin out, whereas only a few years earlier there were scads of them.
Most cars that have not been wrecked are driven to the scrappers under their own power, in still presentable condition.
This even extends to imports. Plenty of MB, VW and BMW products meet this fate as well.
There are a number of You tube videos showing this. I took great delight in showing these horror shows to my Hungarian high school students.
There, for a myriad of socio-political-economic reasons, these cars would still have commanded decent money. The site of seeing cars scrapped that were still out of the reach of many Hungarians was more than they could stand, with a couple of kids asking me to stop the video! LOL
As for Hyundai’s reputation, they seem to have come full circle. H-K has had a huge headache with premature engine failures over the last few years. Yes, some owners were made whole, but many were not. The Theta 2 engine especially, is known for spitting out rods like kids spit out bubble gum.
I would never consider buying one nowadays.
Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense now.
A law school friend bought one of these a year or so out of school. He was married (to another law school friend) and they had one nice car. The Excel was bought as an inexpensive runabout. This friend was notoriously tight with a dollar, and if anyone would be lured by the Excel’s low $4995 base price, it would have been him. I don’t think he got bad service out of the car, but then he was of a demographic who could afford to give it good maintenance.
My current Hyundai experience is in a handful of semi trailers my employer owns. The company seems to be more than a niche player in that field these days.
Oh, to me, the great Guigiaro didn’t excel on this one. There’s something fundamentally awkward about it, something about it being round and square, perhaps? He also did the Isuzu I-Mark (Gemini here) and whilst that’s better, it’s also somehow NQR (fat and bland?).
A friend had a 4 y.o. one in 1991, and it was hideous to be in. Creaky, weak-feeling, shitful gearbag, poor ride, and Lada-level plastics. (Didn’t help that the brand was launched here by a dodgy billionaire who was later jailed). There’s surely not one left on the road today, because they really did break in big ways far too soon. That the one pictured is still soldiering on makes it some sort of holy relict.
However, that second-gen one the author tried in LA in ’94, that one flipped things entirely in these parts. Piled high, super-cheap, a not-great car, but miles and miles ahead of the first one. Everyone liked the bulby looks too. They sold so many here that these days there’s a cheapo race series for them! And it got the brand going for good.
“In chaotic scenes today, grannies, students and the generally tight-of-arse all rushed to the latest bargain hunt opening at Savers”.
Hyundais have indeed come a long way since the Excel was introduced to North America – and became a victim of their own initial success there. The company has definitely taken their experience to heart and has come back in a big way, not just in North America but also worldwide. They’re often seen as taxis in Beijing and Singapore. Also very preelevant in the Middle East.
And here in the USA, they have a full line of products, ranging from entry level, to electrics (Ioniq) and even luxury cars like the Genesis. A big comeback.
So like the K-dramas, Hyundai and their stable mate Kia have been successfully translated into many different tastes on a global basis.
Had friends who had a Pony and loved it. When the Excel came out they got one and it was a disaster. Interesting how one car made fans of the brand but the subsequent model made them curse the name. Also to note is how a bad enough model can cost a manufacturer all future possibilities of making a sale.