The seller sums this next car up with the simple statement: “The cleanest lil ford festiva anywhere”. The Festiva was Ford’s entry level subcompact, engineered by Mazda and built by Kia, designed to deliver maximum fuel efficiency and minimal cost in a lightweight front wheel drive package. Sold in the United States from 1988 to […]
What started life as a humble Ford Festiva craphatch—Mazda-designed, Kia-built, and barely the size of a bento box—has been transformed into something Subaru never dared build. Underneath that flat green hatchback body lies the full drivetrain from a 2001 Subaru Legacy: EJ25 boxer engine, 5-speed manual, and all-wheel-drive grip, all shoehorned in thanks to welded-in […]
The 2009 Hyundai Genesis 4.6L was Korea’s stealthy attempt at taking on BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes with a rear-wheel-drive, V8-powered luxury sedan that didn’t need a badge to impress. This Sterling Blue two-owner Florida car packs 375hp, a buttery ZF 6-speed, and features like heated/ventilated seats, nav, and a rearview camera—without the drama associated with […]
There is an ancient gearhead proverb that goes something like this; if you are going to drive a Hyundai, it better be powered by a Chevy V8. And wow do we have a treat for the LS-swap lover in the crowd today. This plain looking white Genesis has a fully built V8 and a T-56 […]
This next car should not have survived the years in the condition you see today…because it is a Hyundai Accent. Who would preserve such a miserable pile of cheap Korean metal and plastic…I don’t know, but I appreciate it. Because there is a horse for every saddle and a saddle for every horse and cowboy […]
The Hyundai Elantra isn’t a cool car by any measurement. It is miserably Korean built penalty box that offers little in excitement for anyone but perhaps a teenager who is excited to drive around a car his/her parents donated to him/her. So it is odd that I find myself posting an Elantra on DT -home […]
Are you trying to decide if you next car should have 2 cylinders or 4 cylinders? Perhaps you want the frugal fuel economy that only 2 cylinders can provide, but the smooth and refined sounds of a 4-cylinder. Or maybe you want some of the 4-cylinder horsepower, but mixed with the 2-cylinder maintenance costs (2 spark plugs, 2 intake valves…everything costs 1/2 as much)…but you can’t decide. Then you get a 3-cylinder engine, because now you get all of the thrashy noises associated with a un-even number of cylinders combined with a hamster-pulling-a-boulder-up-a-hill acceleration. Find this 1992 Daihatsu Charade offered for $3,500 in Groveland, FL via headcrash wreckingbook. Tip from David.
Read out loud and really fast for best effect: Hello car fans and welcome to another edition of Unlikely Manuals — the game show where even if you lose, you go home with a sore left leg and copy of our home game. Today’s next contestant is a late model Korean economy car with a plastic engine cover emblazoned with a meaningless acronym related to its particularly fuel injection strategy (nobody ever said; I wasn’t gonna buy this car because I wasn’t sure about the method of fuel injection, until I popped the hood and saw the chromed GTDiMqVPDQ badge and then I was sold) and you’d expect to open the door and be greeted with some steering wheel mounted buttons that were connected to a CVT that has all the positive engagement and auditory appeal of an immersion blender in a can of marbles. Lo and behold, if you look past the low rent cloth seats and black plastic interior trim that was inspired by the Harbor Freight free coupon lineup, you’ll find a manual gearbox shifter. Granted, that shifter might have the feel of an immersion blender in a jar of kimchi, but if I’m gonna drive an economy car and save on fuel, it better be manual gearbox…and I don’t care about the injection. Find this 2012 Kia Soul with 6-speed offered for $4,500 in San Diego, CA via craigslist.
I know what you are thinking. The guys at DT have found the Christmas rum cake storage and eaten at entire box. Ok…that might be true…but you’ve got to hang on and take a second look at this tippy low budget small SUV crossover thing from a South Korean automaker. I never thought those words […]
The Chrysler Crossfire is infamous for utilising the earlier SLK platform from Mercedes, but in a distinctly low-rent sort of way. As it turns out, the Crossfire wasn’t the only mid-00s ‘new’ car born from an old Mercedes platform; this was based on an old E-Class. How old you ask? W124-vintage. This is the Korean […]