Hyundai Excel History

The Excel was the first Hyundai sold in the United States, arriving for 1986 at a rock-bottom price of about $4,995; it set a record for first-year import sales with nearly 169,000 units.

Its low price drove huge volume, but quality problems dented Hyundai's early US reputation — a perception the brand spent the following decades reversing. Production ran through 1994, when the Accent replaced it for 1995.