Faults:

Everything that can rot away has been replaced.

General Comments:

I got this car from an old Hyundai/Yugo/Daihatsu dealership. It was sitting in back, and when I went in and ask the manager about it, he said make an offer. Well I sat there for a few minutes and he blurted out 300 dollars.

It has been sitting in the back lot since 1988, along with several other Excels and a few Yugos. I was shocked the see that the car only had 37,000 miles.

I had it towed home and started to replace belts, hoses and other items of that nature that had sat over the years and rotted. I did a complete tune up and then started the mystery of why it wouldn't start. A month passed and still no one could figure out what was going on. I realized soon that is why it was sitting on the run down dealership back lot.

After replacing the fuel pump and everything else I could think of, I was about to throw in the towel, but I had an idea, so I sprayed the carburetor down with some spray on carburetor cleaner, and after a few minutes I heard it trying to start, and then a giant puff of smoke and it came to life.

It ran really rough for the first few days, and then smooth sailing from there, and everytime after that if it started to act up and not start, all I had to do is spray the carb down and it's been fine.

This is a pretty spartan car - it doesn't have any special options and it has a four speed manual transmission. It's great on gas, but very slow moving; you have to really gun it to keep up with traffic.

I'm thinking of selling it or doing a trade in for a new Hyundai Elantra sometime this year. Oh, and it's very hard and expensive to find parts for this car.