1998 Hyundai Excel GX review from Australia and New Zealand

What has gone wrong with my Excel GX?

-Rear brakes were fixed by previous owner.

-New battery.

The previous owner said its been very reliable.

Otherwise nothing.

I bought this as a second run about car I could use and park where ever I wanted as I wanted to take care of my Elantra.

I bought the second Hyundai because as far as I'm concerned I have great respect for the in house Alpha and Beta motors used in the Excel, Accent, Getz and Elantra, Tucson.

When I was shopping around for my Excel I wasn't fussed about mileage. I just wanted an Excel that was looked after and ran fine.

I test drove over 10 different Excels before I bought one. The first one I drove had close to 400,000km on it! but it drove excellent. The only reason I didn't purchase that one was purely because it was PINK.

I spoke to a few mechanics and overall they all said never knock an Excel for reliability. They were a cheap car. but have an extremely robust engine. I even had the Excel commended for its reliability by a security company which told me they have had cars see the life of over 600,000km on them.

Enough of that. This is about my Excel.

I purchased it with 200,000km and only paid $2,500 for it because the registration was due in a few days. The car itself always starts and runs very smoothly. I am servicing it regularly every 7,500km as I want to look after this little gem as much as possible. But with saying that, it does get thrashed a little bit.

When I bought the car I did change a few things.

-Drivers door seal- ripped

-Hatch seal- leaking.

Other than that nothing else has been touched.