1989 Hyundai Excel GL review from North America

Not much went seriously wrong with the Excel over 130,000 miles, but there was also not much left of the car at that point. There were no engine or tranny problems, and the clutch was the original. The front tires never stayed balanced, and the steering thus wobbled on the highway. The exhaust system had to be replaced about 3 times in that mileage.

The car wore terribly cosmetically as in paint and flimsy plastic exterior parts, it looked like a piece of junk after only 1 year of driving it. The body rusted terribly over the course of 5 northeastern winters, which thankfully ended up doing it in.

It was a cheap commuter car to buy and own, but never at all a fun car to drive. It was flimsy, buzzy, uncomfortable, and deadly underpowered - it could never get up even the smallest of grade at a speed over 45 MPH.

I can't fault it mechanically as it never let me down, I did maintain it well. But I hated this car and was embarrassed by it every second I was seen driving it, and was overjoyed the day I got to surrender the horrible little thing to the junkyard.