Junkyard Find: 1987 Hyundai Excel 3-Door Hatchback
Until the appearance of the Chrysler 200 and the current generation of Mitsubishi Mirage, the fastest average showroom-to-junkyard speed I’d ever seen with a new car took place with the first-generation Hyundai Excel. Even the wretched Yugo, its rival for the title of Cheapest New Car Available In America, seemed to hold together until at least age six or seven before going to The Crusher, but I started seeing plenty of solid-looking ’86 and ’87 Excels at Southern California U-Wrench yards by 1990 or so.
Still, some of those early Excels stayed on the road for decades, and I try to document those miraculous survivors when I find them. Here’s the cleanest first-gen Excel I’ve seen in at least 25 years, found in a Denver self-service yard last week.
The Yugo GV sold for a hilarious $3,990 in 1987, while the zero-options base Hyundai Excel 3-door hatch cost $4,995 (about $11,520 today, and the exact same price as the Chevy Chevette, which was— shockingly— still being sold new as late as 1987). No other new cars could approach those prices that year, though the cheapest possible Subaru 3-door hatch cost $5,398, the Volkswagen Fox went for $5,690, and the Plymouth Horizon America had a $5,799 price tag. The Chevette seems like the better choice than the Excel that year, in hindsight.
Hyundai quality shot up quickly starting in the early 1990s, rendering Alec Baldwin’s harsh “ You drove a Hyundai to get here” line nonsensical to those who didn’t recall the shoddiness of the Excel. The owner of this car must have been able to see the future, though, because it stayed in very good condition for its 33-year life, and it got these golden door monograms and stripes at some point.
Not even 90,000 total miles.
The pristine spare and jack remain where they were when installed by lineworkers in Ulsan.
The ’87 Excel’s higher trim levels got a five-speed manual transmission as standard equipment, with a three-speed automatic as an option. The El Cheapo Excel had but one transmission available: a 1960s-style four-on-the floor manual.
This car must have been in a crash early in its career, because the hood is a repainted unit from a blue ’88 model. Maybe that’s when the striping and door lettering were applied.
This Mitsubishi-derived 1468cc four-cylinder engine made 68 horsepower, giving this car a power-to-weight ratio microscopically superior to that of its Chevette rival: 31.3 pounds per horse versus the Chevy’s 32 pounds per horse.
At least there’s a better-than-nothing late-1980s Audiovox cassette deck, complete with auto-stop. The base Excel came with nothing as standard audio equipment, though you could get a Panasonic radio at extra cost.
You could get two Excels for less than the average price of a new car, according to this 1987 television commercial. With the least expensive Ford Taurus listing at $10,491 that year, that seems plausible.
Just the car to haul five adults in a snowstorm!
The problem with those American-market ads was the lack of serious reverb on the announcer’s voice. In the Excel’s homeland (where it was known as the Pony Excel), that problem did not exist. Speeding up the film for the track-driving scenes seems like cheating, but maybe South Koreans were too busy dealing with momentous historical events in 1987 to notice.
For links to 2,000+ more Junkyard Finds, head over to the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Grandpa must have loved this thing . -Nate
Been reading this site for years. Finally....yes finally decided I had something important enough to say to create an account so I could post. Are you ready for this?? I worked for Enterprise Rent A Car in 1991 when they got, if I remember correctly, over 2000 Hyundai Excel's. The rumor was they paid something like $3,000 per car. These were the $9.99 weekend special car. We required a credit card or we ran a credit check on you if you paid cash. The location where I worked didnt bother doing the credit check if you rented the Excel with cash. ERAC rented these to death. Made a ton of money. Then sold them for (again, if I remember correctly) more than they paid for them. I didnt realize posting could be so satisfying. Think I need a Chesterfield now. (honestly though, I dont smoke)