Topic: Motoring Memories: Hyundai Pony, 1984 - 1987

[Autos_Editor]

While not an outstanding car in any way except price, the Pony did establish Hyundai's North American beachhead, says Bill Vance.

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[overtakeyouintheleftlane]

A time Hyundai would wish we would forget. The Pony and "Stellar"  were terrible! I swore after seeing my dad's Stellar and someone else's Pony that I would never buy a Hyundai.

How time has changed Hyundai, I wouldn't mind buying their Sonata or Elantra now (currently don't need another car yet) but they are high up on my list.

It's great to see that they have improved so much, I'm interested to see where they will be in a  few years.

[rrocket]

One of the worst cars...ever.

[tpl]

One of the worst cars...ever.

I am not so sure.    I suspect a Pony driven in a place with no salt on the roads and given an oil change once in a while would have worked well... not as well as the equivalent Toyota  but well enough... for the 3rd world anyway.

Now worst cars ever:   Most products of the British motor industry from the mid '60s until its demise were worse than the Pony.

[Erik]

The car the Hyundai fanboys would like to pretend never happened.....

[Weels]

Back in my college days, when I was driving around in a '79 Mercury Zephyr (don't ask me how many times I had to say to people "no it's not my mother's car"..) one of my buddies had an '86 Pony - it was the special model, called Prince IIRC?? Red with a black stripe pkg...I thought it was a pretty nice car... it's no wonder that I try to block that era of my life from memory...  

[chrischasescars]

The car the Hyundai fanboys would like to pretend never happened.....

When I owned an Accent and frequented a Hyundai forum, there was a 20-ish-y/o guy posting there who LOVED the Pony. He drove one and had two or three parts cars. Kept talking about putting a 2.8-litre GM V6 in it. Crazy bugger, he was (and probably still is).

[Mike]

Back in my college days, when I was driving around in a '79 Mercury Zephyr (don't ask me how many times I had to say to people "no it's not my mother's car"..) one of my buddies had an '86 Pony - it was the special model, called Prince IIRC?? Red with a black stripe pkg...I thought it was a pretty nice car... it's no wonder that I try to block that era of my life from memory...  

A 1979 Zephyr wagon was the car that swore my parents off Ford forever.  My mom will still not even consider a Ford because of that car 

[Mike]

When I was in high school (circa 1994) my older sister was dating a guy who had a 'hand-me-down' Hyundai Pony.  Yes, it was still on the road in '94.  The amount of tricks you had to do to get that thing to start was hilarious.

[Jaeger]

Well, you gotta start somewhere - the Pony was undoubtedly cheap and generally craptastic, but it was a beginning.  I knew a guy who drove one - and to say it was less than reliable would be an understatement.

Of course, "less than reliable" would also have been a MASSIVE understatement in respect of my Chrylser LeBaron Turbo Coupe of a similar vintage.  If I made a list of the things that DIDN'T break on that unmitigated POS, it would be shorter than the things that did.  And in comparison, that car a) cost about three times what the Pony did, and b) came from a manufacturer with decades upon decades of automotive manufacturing experience.  Funny how the domestic fanboys would judge the Pony more harshly.

Jaeger

[gta_driver]

My good friend had one. If it was damp and rainy, it wouldn't start. He had to carry a long extension cord, a tarp and  a hair dryer. On more than one trip with him, he had to use the hair dryer to dry out the starter to get the vehicle to start.

[Arthur Dent]

You know the Ponys weren't that bad. They where old fashioned for sure but the ones I've seen have been mechanically reliable. The optional 1.6L with the 5spd is even a little zippy for the time period. BUT they rusted like crazy. That and they where more a 70s car than an 80s one. The body shell was based on the Morris Marina not the Ford Cortina. Hyundai used to build Cortinas under license. They used a Cortina rear axle for the Pony though. Engine wise they where the same as a 70s Mitsubishi / Dodge Colt. Front suspension was struts not coils springs - the Stellar used coil springs.

I had a Hyundai Stellar for a while and it was quite a pleasant car but getting rusty even in Alberta.

[hemusbull]

It will be fair to compare Pony with german engineered Opel Cadet sold here as Chevrolet Chevette at the same time. Any recollections? It was terrible car with awful reliability. This forgotten car was the main Pony competitor.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It will be fair to compare Pony with german engineered Opel Cadet sold here as Chevrolet Chevette at the same time. Any recollections? It was terrible car with awful reliability. This forgotten car was the main Pony competitor.

Not forgotten for sure. Chevette was way out of date by the mid 1980s. A friend in high school had a diesel automatic one. Only car slower than my single choke 2.3l Ranger.

Another fellow I knew had gotten a hold of an 83 or so Chevette with a bad motor. He replaced it with a turbo 3.8 from a Buick T-Type. He fabricated some fender flares and fitted a Jag rear end. He did an amazing job on the body work, and the car went like a scalded cat, though the handling was apparently a bit "unpredictable".

[dirtyjeffer]

not sure why the Pony gets such a bad rep...one error in the article is the price...the Pony was not $6k, it was $2995...the "upmodel" Excel was "only" $4995 (i almost bought one in 1988, but grabbed a hot sportbike instead)...when i worked as a gas jockey in high school, i offered to check the oil of a customer who came in for fill up (had to ask with all customers)...i ended up putting 5 liters of oil in that car as it wouldn't even register on the dipstick...i think the oil capacity of that engine was only 5.5 liters...perhaps a bad rep can be partially attributed to horrible upkeep from the owners (since the car was so cheap, it was likely neglected)...yes, they did rot badly, but so do a lot of cars from that era (all Japanese imports from the 70's and early 80's were equally terrible), as were most of the domestics...when Ford Tempos were $8995 and the Pony was $2995, that was saying something...was it a great car??...not really, but it was cheap and served a purpose, and was also a start...if you really want to berate the car, blame Ford for the body issues and Mitsubishi for the powertrain, as about the only thing Hyundai about the Pony was the emblem and the name on the car...look at the crap the domestic brands were putting out in the 80's and 90's, and they were 80+ years in the market, not 1-5 years old...if the domestic brands were able to improve their products in 20 years like Hyundai has, i can't even imagine what we would be driving today...perhaps those flying cars were were promised in the 50's would be a reality.

[dirtyjeffer]

Not forgotten for sure. Chevette was way out of date by the mid 1980s. A friend in high school had a diesel automatic one. Only car slower than my single choke 2.3l Ranger.

another car that got a bad rep...i had 3-4 of them in my younger years...cheap to buy, cheap on gas, any repairs were dirt cheap for parts (and easy to work on)...i thought they were great little cheap cars.

[ktm525]

You know the Ponys weren't that bad. They where old fashioned for sure but the ones I've seen have been mechanically reliable. The optional 1.6L with the 5spd is even a little zippy for the time period. BUT they rusted like crazy. That and they where more a 70s car than an 80s one. The body shell was based on the Morris Marina not the Ford Cortina. Hyundai used to build Cortinas under license. They used a Cortina rear axle for the Pony though. Engine wise they where the same as a 70s Mitsubishi / Dodge Colt. Front suspension was struts not coils springs - the Stellar used coil springs.

I had a Hyundai Stellar for a while and it was quite a pleasant car but getting rusty even in Alberta.

I have a memory of the Stellar etched in my brain. Three big uncles and myself stuffed into a mid 80's Stellar. The small 4 cylinder (1.4L? backed by the 3 speed automatic couldn't get up to the  80 km/h speed limit. I think our run was about 20 blocks before we turned off...


That 1.4L couldn't have made much more than 60 HP?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

not sure why the Pony gets such a bad rep...one error in the article is the price...the Pony was not $6k, it was $2995...the "upmodel" Excel was "only" $4995 (i almost bought one in 1988, but grabbed a hot sportbike instead)...when i worked as a gas jockey in high school, i offered to check the oil of a customer who came in for fill up (had to ask with all customers)...i ended up putting 5 liters of oil in that car as it wouldn't even register on the dipstick...i think the oil capacity of that engine was only 5.5 liters...perhaps a bad rep can be partially attributed to horrible upkeep from the owners (since the car was so cheap, it was likely neglected)...yes, they did rot badly, but so do a lot of cars from that era (all Japanese imports from the 70's and early 80's were equally terrible), as were most of the domestics...when Ford Tempos were $8995 and the Pony was $2995, that was saying something...was it a great car??...not really, but it was cheap and served a purpose, and was also a start...if you really want to berate the car, blame Ford for the body issues and Mitsubishi for the powertrain, as about the only thing Hyundai about the Pony was the emblem and the name on the car...look at the crap the domestic brands were putting out in the 80's and 90's, and they were 80+ years in the market, not 1-5 years old...if the domestic brands were able to improve their products in 20 years like Hyundai has, i can't even imagine what we would be driving today...perhaps those flying cars were were promised in the 50's would be a reality.

No, the Pony was only a few hundred cheaper than an Escort, $6000 was about right as far as MSRP. Even though the Escort wasn't class leading, it was an order of magnitude better than the Pony.

Hyundai had licensed bodies, engines and transmissions, but the onus was on them to choose the steel and do the QC. Can't blame Mitsu or Fords for the result.

[Arthur Dent]

You know the Ponys weren't that bad. They where old fashioned for sure but the ones I've seen have been mechanically reliable. The optional 1.6L with the 5spd is even a little zippy for the time period. BUT they rusted like crazy. That and they where more a 70s car than an 80s one. The body shell was based on the Morris Marina not the Ford Cortina. Hyundai used to build Cortinas under license. They used a Cortina rear axle for the Pony though. Engine wise they where the same as a 70s Mitsubishi / Dodge Colt. Front suspension was struts not coils springs - the Stellar used coil springs.

I had a Hyundai Stellar for a while and it was quite a pleasant car but getting rusty even in Alberta.

I have a memory of the Stellar etched in my brain. Three big uncles and myself stuffed into a mid 80's Stellar. The small 4 cylinder (1.4L? backed by the 3 speed automatic couldn't get up to the  80 km/h speed limit. I think our run was about 20 blocks before we turned off...


That 1.4L couldn't have made much more than 60 HP?

Stellar had a 1.6L or 2.0L engine. The auto probably didn't help. My 1.6L / 5spd wasn't bad. Not sure if I've ever found the quoted hp for the 1.6L but I'd guess 70hp or so.

[Spec5]

I dated a girl whose father had one of these things. He always complained about the body on it but otherwise was pretty decent. I seem to recall it having issues starting in wet, cold conditions - but then again my parents '83 Park Avenue Electra had the same sort of issue - and you can bet it cost nowhere near what a Pony cost.

Long story short - they don't make'em like they used to...... THANK GAWD!

14 second 0-60?! Hell I can do better on my mountain bike!