I was the proud owner of a red, 3-door 1986 GLS. It was my first car - I was 17. No one in Southern California had heard of Hyundai in 1986, so it got a lot of looks.
It was a cute little car. Five speed, stock stereo, no air conditioning (which was the bane of my existence the eight years I drove her). Her name was Betty.
Betty and I went through a lot together. I nearly totaled her late one night coming home from a friend's house in about February of 1987. I was playing the stereo loud, and speeding through a residential neighborhood. I hit a dip in the road and got at least two wheels in the air. Her rear started fishtailing, and I fought to keep control as I saw myself careening towards a parked VW Beetle. I wrenched the wheel and did about 3/4 of a spin, which was ended by my right front fender hitting a tree, which swung the back end of the car around, taking out a short retaining wall in the front yard of a house. The car stalled out, and, in shock, I started it up again and drove forward. When I felt myself drive off the sidewalk into the street, I knew it was bad. By then, the entire neighborhood was streaming out of their houses. I got out of the car, and it was then I saw the damage: the hood was all buckled up, and the left front fender was smashed beyond recognition.
I remember what it cost to make Betty whole again: exactly $3001.00. Considering my folks got her new for $7500, she was dangerously close to being junked. Which probably should have happened.
Instead, I drove that car seven more years. In the interim, she was stolen once and broken into at least twice. After the accident, every component wore weird - everything was off by a couple millimeters, but if we enough to mess everything up.
I learned how to pack wheel bearings on that car. I learned that after my ungreased bearings made quick work of the rear axle. Seriously.
Just about anything that could go wrong on that car, did. Still, I loved that silly thing.