New car for me! Legit 64k mile '94 Excel!

[Bubs360]

Every winter, my van goes away because it has no heat, and it would rust away. To preserve it, I usually pick up a $300 beater and sell it in the spring. Last year I picked up a homely, but very bad condition Mazda 323 for $300. It needed a bit of work, but I was able to sell it for $500 just days before spring break. After a winter of listening to the automatic transmission struggle to choose a gear, I decided the car this winter must have a manual transmission. I also have a larger budget, so no more beaters. I intended to keep this one.

After weeks of scanning car auctions, Craigslist and other classifieds, I had a selection of beaters to go look at today. A bunch of sad, high mileage cars but they were the only ones I had found in my weeks of searching. Suddenly, just minutes before embarking on a day trip to go see them, an interesting little car popped up on Craig's List. It was apparently owned by a little old lady, classic story. So, it is a '94 model with roughly 65,000 "original miles". Very skeptical. But, it was close enough so I went to take a look.

I arrived, and found an incredibly clean, great running and ready to go car with a legitimate 64,983 original miles and a strong clutch. After taking it for an extensive test drive and verifying the mileage, I talked with the owners and settled on $700, a very great price for the car.

It's a '94 Hyundai Excel GS Hatchback!



Great running little car, smooth runner. Five speed. There is a bit of an issue with the driver''s front brake caliper, it drags a little, but other than that it seems to be a good buy. Very nice transmission, very clean and the interior is almost spotless. If this wasn't actually a legit low-mileage car, then it would still be damn well taken care of. Tracks down the road straight and nice, handles well, and apparently gets great fuel mileage. Hopefully this will be a great little car I keep for years to come.

My one problem I have is that, upon arriving home, my left front brake was smoking. Just like a stuck hand brake, but up front. Perhaps a frozen caliper?

[C53A_4G63T]

OMG, I want it. Prob sounds wierd, but I love early 90's Hyundai's. I almost picked one of these up a year ago, but they guy wanted too much for it. $3,000. I laughed in his face.

Good steal.

[BlaRo]

Should have settled for $500 instead:

[Bubs360]

^ ^

I imagine this car would have a sure chance at winning. If only I had the cash and time to go participate...oh well. I do intend to race in that someday.

This is such an awesome little car! The one problem it did have, the radio being stuck on cODE, the battery was disconnected for a while and the anti-theft thing went, but was just fixed easily. Although the local Hyundai dealer wanted to charge me $45 to "hook it up here and figure out the problem", I dug through some manuals. Although I couldn't find the actual code, I tried the "3456" code they have as an example in the manual. It worked! Now I can listen to my favorite morning radio show as I take it out for the first normal drive tomorrow!

[public]

I love it

One thing though, is that rust or dust on the gearstick?

[prizrak]

W00t its a stick!

[NooDle]

nice! good price for it too!
I'd say the front brakes are a bit broken, or rusted shut. Other than that, good car

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Bubs360

My one problem I have is that, upon arriving home, my left front brake was smoking. Just like a stuck hand brake, but up front. Perhaps a frozen caliper?

Sounds like the brake hose needs to be replaced, same thing happened when I bought my Delta, but instead of smoke I had fire!

[Bubs360]

Drove it today and breaks were not sticking. Will keep an eye on it.

What a car! Sufficient power, great fuel mileage, drives great!






Yeah, that is actually a little rust on the gearstick. My van has some too, I could polish it right off. Condensation from its' long periods of sitting.

[DTMracer]

Honest, simple transportation. Seems you made a great buy.