Good morning! On today’s Shitbox Showdown, it’s coupe versus wagon in the battle of “wow, can’t be very many of those left.” Even better, they’re both five-speed manuals. One of them has even got a turbo!
Friday’s black cats went about as I expected, with the Jaguar coming out on top. Ten-five for a British luxury sedan is a lot easier to justify than nine grand for a malaise-era personal luxury coupe. And that Cougar wasn’t that nice.
The biggest problem with the Jag that I see is that it doesn’t really look like a Jag. Someone in the comments suggested getting a used Lexus instead, and really, that’s probably a better option. A Lexus isn’t special either, but it would probably be more reliable, so you might as well. The XE is a nice car, but it doesn’t feel like a Jaguar. It’s not special enough. It could be anything.
All right, let’s move on to a couple of little imports you probably haven’t seen on the road in a while. One’s a Korean sports coupe with a silly name, and the other is a Japanese wagon that was sold all over the world under a lot of names. Which one would you call yours? Let’s check them out and see.
1994 Hyundai Scoupe Turbo – $4,000 Canadian (about $2,950 US)
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 1.5-liter overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Odometer reading: 133,000 kilometers
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Seriously – when was the last time you saw a Hyundai Scoupe? Do you even remember the Hyundai Scoupe? This sporty version of the Excel subcompact sold all right, but like so many other cheap sporty cars, nearly completely disappeared from the roads after a decade or two. It wasn’t a particularly well-built car to begin with, and I imagine most of them weren’t especially well looked after.
This is the highest-performance version of the Scoupe, the Turbo, which makes its survival even more improbable. “High performance” is a relative term; the turbocharger bumps the little 1.5-liter engine up to 115 horsepower from seventy-ish. Hey, for 1994, that wasn’t bad. It powers the front wheels through a five-speed manual, as any self-respecting small sports coupe should have. It has new clutch hydraulics, a new fuel pump and filter, and, presumably, a new radiator, since there’s an old one in the trunk.
It’s in surprisingly good shape inside, and definitely a period piece, with “Funfetti” upholstery, and the word “Turbo” embroidered on the seats. Being a Canadian model, it has neither an airbag nor motorized seat belts; neither was required in 1994. It does have a crack in the windshield, which, depending on where you are and how bad the crack is, might mean it needs to be replaced.
Outside, it has a little bit of rust around the edges, but surprisingly little. I remember seeing Excels and Scoupes come into the shop I used to work in, and they would be completely missing their rocker panels after only a few years. Someone took care of this car.
2000 Suzuki Esteem Wagon – $2,800
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Peru, IN
Odometer reading: 144,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
The Suzuki Esteem, or Baleno, or Cultus Crescent, or Chevy Cassia, or whatever you want to call it, was one of those cars that was built and sold everywhere. Show this car to most people in most places around the world and you’ll get a flicker of recognition. That will be about all the reaction you’ll get: “Oh hey, yeah, one of those.” It’s not really a special car, just one of millions of hard-working little runabouts plying the highways and side streets of thousands of towns.
Here in the US, of course, we got the “big” engine, in this case a 1.8 liter twin-cam four. It’s front-wheel-drive, of course, with a five-speed manual. The seller doesn’t give us many specifics, only that it has “no issues” and that it’s “well maintained.” Hopefully they can provide some receipts to back that up.
It is in really nice shape. We only get three interior photos, but in all of them it looks practically like a new car – except that you won’t find a new car with an interior this simple and no-nonsense. Crank windows, simple buttons and knobs for controls, and basic hard-wearing plastic – it’s refreshingly free of bullshit. I miss car interiors like these.
It has your typical dings and scrapes here and there outside, but nothing worth even mentioning. I don’t see any rust either, which is nice to see in Indiana. Good color, too. It’s a dull little car, but it’s a really nice dull little car.
Neither one of these would really have been anything special when they were new, except to the person who bought them. A new car is always special if it’s sitting in your own driveway. But now, two or three decades on, they’re so seldom seen that they’ve become kind of interesting. And with the used car market the way it is, they’re kind of bargains too. Which one is for you?
(Image credits: Facebook Marketplace sellers)
Suzuki for me! I’d drive it with confidence as others hold me in high esteem! 😉
J18 in the Zook is a really quite good motor. I have the bigger brother (J20) in my Tracker for 220,000 miles without TOO much trouble. Just keep up on the oil changes, or you’ll have to timing guides/tensioners eventually. Another thing I’ll say about suzuki’s of this era, is no matter how cheap and sad the interior looks, they are actually really well screwed together. Again, in my tracker, and my BIL’s Grand Vitara, we have no rattles in either after 200+ thousand miles.
I’ll go for the Suzuki. Even though it’s an interesting car, I’m a little wary of the ’94 turbo.
Normally I’m a dead-ringer for a stick shift wagon. But the siren call of unreliable 90s turbo tech and violently “of-the-era” interior patterns make me pine for the Hyundai.
The wagon is absolutely the best choice, and the Hyundai brings only heartbreak, but with my rose-coloured glasses, all those red flags just look like flags.
Despite the 10 year warranties, 90’s Hyundais were hardly known for quality or reliability.
OTOH, Suzukis seem to be very underrated.
So even though I’m not in the manual-brown-diesel-wagon-lovefest cult, I’ll take the 50% approved manual-blue-petrol-wagon.
Suzuki, because: wagon. And it’s a great deal. Would buy it in a heartbeat if it was near me.
Manual wagon with cloth seats and crank windows – if it were some shade of brown it would be the ideal Autopian vehicle.
Needs more diesel for that.
The wagon is newer, more practical, and a cooler color too. So I voted for the Suzuki.
My brother owned a scoupe brand new in 93. It was of poor enough build quality that no one in my family has ever purchased another hyundai product even thirty years later.
They were known as K Mart cars then in our area.
Cheap and they sucked.
I’ll take the nice blue wagon.
The Scoupe I remember, it’s the turbo that I never think they actually offered here. And I don’t even think American Scoupes ever offered an airbag either for that matter.
I’ll take the honest little blue wagon. Makes me want to dig out a late ’99 copy of C/D I have with a little wagon comparo. Saturn and Ford weren’t included because they were on the brink of redesigns so it was just the Nubira, Esteem, and Elantra. That was the finishing order too, IIRC.
Work or play, little wagons (and trucks) make the world go round.
Cargo area window of the Esteem gives off strong Saab 9-5 and 9-2x wagon vibes. Esteem FTW.
I want the Esteem – Because it’s a wagon, its an actual color and it’s in great condition for it’s age/mileage.
Gonna need an “all of the above” option for this one.
Exactly. Either seems like a pretty good deal, and they’re both in good shape considering. Hell, I remember when credit unions etc wouldn’t finance Hyundai and Kia because they were crap.
I would have said Scoupe if not for the rust. It’s like Hyundai’s trial run before they introduced the Tiburon and Veloster. The no-nonsense little wagon is the better choice.
it is and I voted for it, but their is a certain draw to the Scoupe simply because it runs and I had no idea they made a turbo version. I did drive a 5 speed NA version that and ex girlfriends dad had and it was horrendous even when somewhat new, but a lot of things were back then.
Wagon wheels fer this guy.
I see a handy junior-size work vehicle–‘specially with the roof rack.
I feel like this Scoupe is from right before Hyundai even sort of got their act together. There’s a reason you don’t see any of them anymore.
I am a big fan of Suzuki cars. They aren’t generally sexy but if you take a little care of them they run for a long time; my parents had an XL7 for fifteen years. The Esteem is a no-nonsense driver that still should have a lot of life left in it for a very practical and economical runabout.
The early Hyundais were pretty sketch, and being in Alberta doesn’t make it last longer. I’ll take the Suzuki, but I’m ripping off the “ESTEEM” badges because that’s a stupid name.
I mean it looks enough like a subaru, you could likely upbadge it with some Outback logo.
Top trim Esteem wagons offered 2-tone paint too, really would add to the off-brand Outback effect.
I thought it was at first glance of the headline pic lol
I like the Scoupe, but as others have mentioned, seeing rust is a massive brown-red flag. I’m also a sucker for quirky wagons, manual gearbox’d ones doubly-so.
‘Zuk. Easy pick.
While I would like to vote for the Scoupe, the visible rust makes me nervous for the rust that can’t be seen under the plastic lower door and rocker cladding. I knew a guy when I lived in the upper Midwest with one of these (not the Turbo, but it had the plastic rocker covers) in the late 2000s. For fun we would kick the rocker covers when we walked by it in the parking lot, just to listen to the rust contained within rattle around and fall out. The floors also had holes everywhere, and I bet this Canadian model is no different on either account. Suzuki wagon it is, though I bet it too had rust issues, just hopefully not as bad since they can’t be seen from the outside.
I’ll take the little wagon. Slow car fast and all that.
Thinking the vote counter is screwed today?
Voted Suzuki, got Hyundai shit instead.