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)
I would happily take either of them but the wagon is nicer,cheaper and a wagon.
I voted Suzuki (I am heading to Hamamatsu in November, to visit the Suzuki Museum) but I am thoroughly surprised at how many voted with me – I certainly thought the “sporty” Hyundai would be ahead.
Better color, no turbo, wagon…and likely more reliable. Suzuki it is.
I’ve never driven a Scoupe, although I have memories of a girl in college driving one, and asking me on a date I never took her up on…
Early on in our time together, my better half had a green Esteem Wagon. Even though it was an automatic, it was far more fun to drive than it had any right to be. It had serious ‘slow car fast’ vibes and felt like a budget sports sedan (wagon?). I drove a Mk VI Jetta at the time, and the Esteem was faster and more fun in the corners. Unfortunately, she was involved in a minor accident after Suzuki withdrew from the North American market, and although the body damage should have been easy to repair, the insurer wrote it off. In the end, it was probably a good thing. On her drive to surrender the vehicle at the insurance lot, it started losing power. Over the last few blocks before it died and she coasted into the lot, a hot electrical smell turned into thick smoke coming out of the HVAC vents. She coasted into a parking spot, dropped the keys in the office, and walked away. Although I can’t definitively say that it didn’t burst into flames, I don’t recall hearing about a fire at the insurance lot that day…
TLDR… can I take both?
That Suzuki is really clean. Easy choice.
I want the Suzuki. Then I want to drop it. I’d be a sucker with low self-esteem.
Oh YEAAAAAH Yeeah
But are you buying it for you, or for your offspring?
I’d still trust any Suzuki over any Hyundai, and that goes double in the used market.
Also, a small wagon with roof rack rails is a truly wonderful thing to own. And a manual? You’re kidding me, right?
I wonder what part availability is like for both of these cars. If I go into a Hyundai dealership today, with that Scoupe VIN, could they get parts?
That Suzuki is in exceptional shape. Seriously, I knew a girl who had the sedan version, and that was already in poor shape back in… oh god… 2005.
Despite the torture it was clearly going through, it was a good car. You could do much worse for $2800. And it’s the wagon version! And it’s blue!
If I recall, Alberta doesn’t use salt on their roads (they probably should in some locations), so rust on that Hyundai is disturbing. Then again I have seen those rust in the desert.
My cousin had an Esteem. He took reasonable care of it. It lasted forever, was indestructible and actually a bit of fun to drive with the stick. The Ingersol (GM joint) Suzukis were built out of biodegradable materials, but the Japanese Nippon Steel showpieces like this esteem really survived winters well. I had a Swift GT from Japan and that never showed any signs of excess corrosion up top or underneath when I got rid of it after decade of Toronto salt. It was still on the road for a long time after.
Going with the big engine wagon. That thing is sweet, and better in every way than my 92 Escort wagon
I already have a practical daily driver, so give me the fun/faster Scoupe turbo.
Years ago I bought an ’89 Scoupe wholesale to resell. (I ended up with a big profit when it got hit and the uninsured driver was ordered by the small claims judge to pay me the Blue Book value, which he paid a couple of years later.)
The Scoupe has a rear-view mirror that is annoyingly close to the driver’s face. I hated that. It was also slow, and had a problem that mimicked a bad starter but wasn’t that, and I never did figure it out. It was my first and definitely last Hyundai, unless I win one on a game show one day.
The Suzuki wagon has twice the mileage but would be three times more fun and three times more useful. That is a little blue gem, unless it has some undisclosed problem lurking somewhere.
Jason needs to buy the Esteem for his friend as a parts car so he can restore the Better Call Saul car
I seem to recall sitting in each these at the yearly car show. As usual did not fit IIRC. Miss the car shows, they were an opportunity to check out new cars without the annoyance of sales units offering assistance.
I gotta go Scoupe. I don’t have any kids to haul so the wagon is just extra weight to haul around.
While I would quite enjoy having TURBO embroidered on my seats, a manual transmission & window little wagon wins today
This isn’t even a choice. Wagon always, but especially here, where the Hyundai was from the beforetimes, before they made a push to show everyone that they weren’t garbage…
Gotta go with the blue Suzuki. It’s a wagon and still looks nice enough. Hyundai’s of that era weren’t really very good cars. And after doing the conversion from Canadian Loonies, it’s still about $140 cheaper so Esteem it is.
I’ll take the Scoupe (or “Ess Koo-pay” on TG) since it’s far more interesting even if its mid-90s turbo will likely grenade itself sooner than later.
Speaking of little Japanese coupes no one remembers, when was the last time you thought of a Toyota Paseo, Geo Storm, or Nissan NX2000?
I literally see multiple Paseos, Storms (& Metros) on a daily basis in my small, not-very-fancy PA town. How ’bout the Nissan Pulsar?? Couple of those here too.