Beauty, it is said, is only skin-deep. That means ugliness is too, which is good news for these two cars. Let’s try to ignore their unattractive exteriors and see if they have any redeeming qualities beneath the skin.
Yesterday we looked a couple of fun green machines, and a few of you wanted a “Both” button. But there has to be a winner, and that winner, by a narrow margin, was the Saab 9-3 convertible. Sorry, air-cooled Volkswagen fans, but I think Friday is going to be a second-chance Showdown, so you’ll get another shot at it.
I think the Saab would be my choice as well. The Type 3 is just a little too primitive for me to deal with; it’s the kind of car I admire, but don’t actually want. The Saab would make a great weekend toy with a little work, without all the old-car hassle.
For today’s choices, we’re putting the “Shitbox” back in the Showdown. These things are ugly, rusty, beat to hell, and yet supposedly still run and drive just fine. And they’re both under our original $2,500 price cap. So let’s kick it old-school and check out a couple of absolute clunkers.
2008 Hyundai Accent – $1,950
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Chicago, IL
Odometer reading: 105,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Despite all its recent moves upmarket, when I think of Hyundai, this is still the car I think about: the humble Accent hatchback. Hyundai doesn’t make these anymore, and nobody else really makes anything like it anymore either, at least not for US consumption. It’s not much to look at, even in good condition, but it’s an honest little car, built to a price and unashamed of it. Looking for style over substance? Look elsewhere.
This Accent is a one-owner car, with only 104,000 miles on its odometer. It’s powered by a 1.6-liter engine paired with a four-speed automatic. Yeah, I’d rather have a manual too, but at this price, you take what you can get. It’s in great mechanical shape, from the sounds of it, with lots of new parts, including brakes and tires, so it shouldn’t need anything right away. The tire-pressure monitor light is on, though, so I’d check with the shop that installed the tires and make sure they installed the sensors right.
I wish I could show you more of the interior, but this is the best view we get. It’s dirty inside, and there’s heavy wear on the radio buttons, and that’s about all I can tell you. The seller does say that both the heat and air conditioning work fine, so that’s something.
The seller, amusingly, says that this car “could use some TLC” on the outside. Let’s be honest: It’s trashed. It has damage all over, occasionally repaired with duct tape, including what I think is a big hole in the right side. The left front fender is either completely wadded-up and straightened back out, or it’s a mass of duct tape too; I can’t tell which. Nothing against the seller, of course, but I’m not sure I’d brag about this being a one-owner car.
2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback GTS – $2,497
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, CVT automatic, FWD
Location: Farmington, MN
Odometer reading: 237,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Now this is a car I didn’t remember at all. I’m familiar with this generation of Mitsubishi Lancer; I’ve even rented one, but I had forgotten the Sportback version even existed until I saw this ad. I know the previous generation Lancer came as a wagon, and they’re as rare as hen’s teeth, but this might be even rarer. It’s a shame this one is in such rough shape, actually; a nice clean Lancer Sportback might be quite a find.
It’s a GTS model, featuring a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with Mitsubishi’s MIVEC variable valve timing system. It sends 168 horsepower to the front wheels through a CVT automatic. I know a lot of you hate CVTs, and there is some question about their durability, but this one has made it to 237,000 miles, so someone did something right taking care of it. It’s being sold by a dealer, so any other information about its previous care is purely speculative. I should note that both the check engine and TPMS lights are on, in the name of full disclosure.
It’s pretty fancy inside for a Lancer, with leather seats and a bunch of power goodies. It looks like it’s in decent shape, but I don’t know how many of the power features still work. The ad is no help; it reads like AI or, at best, boilerplate. You’ll just have to push all the buttons and see which ones still do something.
Outside, it gets ugly. Not only are the hood and front bumper mismatched, likely as a result of a minor accident, but the tin worm has been snacking on this car. The bottom of the left front fender is completely rusted out, and I shudder to think of what’s lurking under those side skirts.
Unfortunately, these are about as cheap as running cars get these days. You can still find better deals, but you have to be in the right place at the right time to grab one. This is what you’re more likely to find. So take a good look at them, warts and all, and decide which one you’d rather take a chance on.
Something about the Accent just says “Glorious little shitbox that will never die” to me. I had an earlier lancer with that engine and it was a good car, but at this time in my life I’d rather have the car that I can lovingly abuse without feeling bad about it.
The Hyundai’s timing belt about to snap has entered the chat…
Nah, I’ll wait for the bus, thanks.
This is too easy…Lancer! That Accent is trashed…the duct tape is funny. That Lancer looks like fun!
Tough call, I probably would have been fine with either new or lightly abused. These look terribly abused. If all things equal i might take the Mitsubishi just in it was probably a better car a one point. But that much millage over the Hyundai and at a $600 premium. Probably still the Mitsubishi really hoping the rubber band or the oil pump doesnt explode. The Hyundai you can just buy a used engine for $400 and throw it in in a few hours even without a lift.
The Lancer has a driver’s door that doesn’t go, “Grrrck!” when opening.
Winner.
Hyundai Accent for me. Less than half the mileage and the body damage doesn’t affect the drivability. And it’s cheaper!
And I don’t want a CVT car with over 237,000 miles on it that clearly has been in a more serious frontal collision
The Accent would be the perfect car for Boston. Anything already covered in dents has right of way at a Rotary.
IRL, I buy a lot of cheap cars for throwaway uses such as commuters or winterbeaters and I require a manual. They are a lot less likely to fail except for clutches which are relatively cheap. That said, here the Accent even though I live far from Boston. The price differential will pay for the unavoidable transmission problem.
Lancer all the way. As soon as I saw it had the 2.4 MIVEC, I was sold. 2 liter Lancers are buzzy and joyless, but that 2.4 is a torquey little gem of an engine. I had one in a 2005 Ralliart with a 5-speed. At anything above 80 km/h, you didn’t need to downshift to pass – it would just torque away. The body’s in rough shape, but it’s better than the Accent – and it would be so much more fun to drive until it fell apart completely.
Lancer. Mitsu GS platform FTW.
If you got creative, you could put a Dodge Journey front subframe in that thing (I mean, probably), with a Pentastar V6.
Or just one of those stonking Mitsu turbo 4s turned way up.
You think of the Hyundai Accent? I’m a little older, and people my age remember the Hyundai Excel… a tiny sedan that screamed, “Would you like fries with that?” If you were poor and absolutely, positively, had to have a new car, it was about as cheap as it could get. (I think it had a really long warranty to compensate.)
evolmost
Things would really be sucking if these were your only choices. Lancer because duct tape covering a hole in a car is just an abomination. Man, both of these are garbage and will return to the soil sooner than later.
I clicked the Mitsu because it’s less shitty. That’s really about it – i got nothing else.
Lancer, because I mostly suspect it will expire first. Then I can buy a better car, instead of doing the fool’s errand of trying to pump money into a corpse.
The Hyundai may actually run for a bit. Then I might actually be tempted to dump money into the void (But it runs good!) instead of doing the sensible thing – saving up for a better car.
This is likely the right way to think about this. I voted Accent due to low miles and less evidence of rust, but that may have just doomed me to potential YEARS of going out every day to the damn thing starting up and getting me to my destination.
Hyundai, it’s smaller.
Wow. Having lived in Minnesota and watched a friend’s Lancer rust away in real time, I can only imagine how little of that car is left underneath it. But that Accent is a mess, and probably not a whole lot better in the rust department. Somehow, the Lancer gets the vote, but only because you can’t see the holes in it that you can with the Accent.
It sucks to be poor if you have to choose between these two car
When I was in college, I worked in a warehouse in a theme park. That Lancer was the aspirational car of my colleagues, some of whom bought one. I quickly learned the cars were as ephemeral as their status, rusting pretty quickly in mild (by Minnesota standards) PA winters. That Accent has gone to war, but I would trust it more than the compromised Lancer today.
I believe the old saying is “beauty is skin deep, but ugliness goes to the bone.”
These two certainly aren’t beautiful, but it would be a bit unfair to call them ugly. Let’s go with “prettiness challenged”.
Mitsu, for the most acceptable compromise.
The Hyundai has a HOLE in the side, and they didn’t even attempt to make it look good.
Lancer all day on this one.
If I absolutely needed a vehicle for a season and these were my only two options, I’m going with the Mitsubishi. It was a better car originally than the Hyundai, and even with the rust & mileage, it’d probably last until my next purchase.
These are both junk, so I will take the red one, I think with some elbow grease and a good rattle can the exterior could be made presentable and the interior actually looks decent, so we just need the drivetrain to hang in there.
A trashed econobox from Chicago?
I’ll take the Lancer, CEL and all.
I believe the saying is beauty is only skin deep but ugly goes to the bone. That Accent may be a one owner car but I’m thinking the owner might have been Stevie Wonder. I prefer a two door but have to go Lancer
At least the tape matches the paint color.