By Antti Kautonen
Let’s think back on the Hyundai timeline. There’s the Sonata, before which there was the Sonata, and then there were a whole bunch of Mitsubishi-engined Sonatas, and then there’s the Stellar. Exactly! The Stellar, an in-betweener from the time when Hyundai still built Ford Cortinas under licence, and was in transition to using Mitsubishi partsbin stuff in bodies they designed themselves.
The Hyundai Stellar was a rear-drive car that used the 1970s Cortina platform, but under the hood was a Mitsubishi four-cylinder. The body was a Giugiaro design, tall, blocky and narrow, and the glasshouse is a good few percent too far back to make perfect sense from the side on. They aren’t exactly commonplace anywhere, but there’s a surviving, fully loaded 1987 car in the Netherlands and it’s for sale.
Stellars were imported to Canada and some European countries, and in the UK they were marketed as a cheap alternative to the then-new Ford Sierra, which was a quite a bit too blobby for the conservative Ford buyer. Enter, then, the very affordable Stellar that didn’t have anything daring except for the badge.
There’s quite a bit of trunk on it, but the rear-wheel-drive chassis means it’s not really that spacious inside as compared to a more modern 1980s FWD saloon.
The dashboard is an interesting design, and there’s a lot of blue plastic in there.
The rev gauge design has been altered from the initial, curved shape one. This is a late car, and the Stellar was soon replaced by the new, front-drive Sonata that used a Mitsubishi Galant platform.
That is a sturdy gear selector if I ever saw one.
Two litres, 83 horsepower. It’s not going to be quick, especially with the auto.
This 2.0 GSL model has only covered 120 000 km, and it’s sat for some years. The asking price is a sort of reasonable two thousand euros, which for an unicorn like this is chips. Prepare to change some gaskets, even if the last service stamp is only 5000km old.
See the Autoscout listing here
Bonus: Take your time to enjoy the original 1983 promotional video for the Stellar. The music is quite funky.
[youtube width=”720″ height=”480″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfQLidmZAmg[/youtube]
[Source: Autoscout24.eu/YouTube]
Jeff Glucker
Wow, what a survivor! I don’t recall ever seeing these rear lamps before. A little bit of E23 BMW going on.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/BMW_E23_rear_20080127.jpg
It looks like a nondescript car you would drive in GTA. I kinda like it.
To me it looks quite a lot like Eagle Premier, also a nondescript design by Giugiaro.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Eagle_Premier.jpg/1280px-Eagle_Premier.jpg
I can’t really explain it, but I’m a sucker for nondescript designs. If a car looks like it was drawn by a three year old, I’m in. Dammit.
I briefly owned a 1986 Canadian spec example with the 1.6L motor. Seemed ok and old fashioned.
I see a hint of another Giugiaro-styled car in the profile – the Maserati Quattroporte III.
Spot on!
At the time (1984) I saw the Stellar as a softened copy of the Lancia Prisma. But in fact that was a shrinked Quatroporte
Well, it says a lot about the time, that the basic recipe is valid for a surprisingly broad range of cars:
http://preview.netcarshow.com/Volvo-780-1987-1600-06.jpg
My dad almost bought a Canadian spec Stellar new in early ’86. As a six year old gear head it was exciting to see the different vehicles that he brought home on test drives – I remember a Nissan Sentra and Nissan Multi, some weird Honda that memory tells me was a Civic WagoVan, a few different K cars, a Ford Tempo, a Renault Encore, and the two weirdo imports from Hyundai, the Stellar and the Pony. I can recall cars getting rejected for different reasons (the Multi because all the dealer had on hand were 5 speed cars and Mom couldn’t drive stick), but the list was winnowed down to the Aries and the Stellar. Apparently my great grandfather’s legendary thrift shone through, because Dad bought the 86 Aries, a six month old demo with 8000 km and absolutely zero options except automatic (which was a delete option, so this was a zero option car). I remember him choosing an AM only radio from some radio display cause the dash had a blank panel where the radio went.
Still think the Stellar was the better car, but FWD and its winter traction was what sold Dad on the Aries. Damn good car, Dad sold it in 94 with well over 250K kms on it.
FYI, I believe the fact Hyundai built Cortinas is why to this day they use a 4×108 wheel bolt pattern, a dimension shared with 4-lug Fords.
I can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure to drive one, but I think it would be interesting to drive that in 2015. Especially with a Sierra and some other contemporaries thrown in the mix for a comparison.
2.0L and 83 hp is an achievement, my ’88 Peugeot 205 is only 1 year newer and has 400 cc (and lots of kilos) less and over 20 hp more.
I’m not entirely sure why someone would be, but if someone is seriously interested in that car I offer my services as a native Dutch speaker and as someone who has exported cars before.
I think 2000 euro is way to much for this, 750 and I would think about it…..would make a nice daily driver this winter.
Found one in all of Canada, and a manual in mint condition, no less.
$5000 is crazy talk though.
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjAwWDgwMA==/z/3yUAAOSwyQtVy-Dr/$_35.JPG
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/summerside-pei/hyundi-stellar/1094432499?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true