Hyundai Stellar

The Hyundai Stellar is a large family car produced by the South Korean Hyundai Motor Company from July 1983 until the 1992 model year. It succeeded the Ford Cortina, which Hyundai had built under license. The Stellar was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro using a rear-wheel drive chassis from the Cortina Mark V.
The engine and transmission were licensed by Mitsubishi Motors. Engines available were 1. 4 L and 1. 6 L inline-fours until 1986, using either a KM119 4- or 5-speed manual or a Borg-Warner 03-55L 3-speed automatic and a 2. 0 L engine in 1987. Trim levels included L , GL/CL/SL, and CXL/GSL. The CXL/GSL featured power windows, locks and mirrors, remote fuel door, remote boot, premium sound system, full instrumentation , headlamp washers, and available air conditioning. The Stellar's Ford genes and conventional design led many British observers to compare it with the then recently discontinued Cortina - where conservative buyers were scared off by the Sierra's radical styling, a fact played upon by Hyundai's advertising agency with print advertisements depicting a jelly mould shaped like the Sierra above a picture of the Stellar. Like the Cortina, the Stellar also has wishbone suspension up front with a coil-sprung live rear axle. As well as being comparable to the Cortina, which had been Britain's best-selling car, it also found favour with buyers due to its competitive asking price, which meant that it was priced comparably to a smaller Escort rather than a Sierra. It was sold in the UK from June 1984 until the arrival of the Lantra in 1991. It was the second Hyundai model to be imported to Europe, two years after the launch of the smaller Pony....