I bought a '96 Hyundai Accent (1.5L SOHC) and am now looking to brighten it up a little. Any Ideas? I'm looking to do Exterior, Interior, Performance, whatever.  

I think you have a good car for a daily driver, but no offense to it or any other of Hyundai's fine products, but unless you got some money to blow, I wouldnt even invest in it.

As far as speed goes, theres nothing wrong with making a car a bit faster than stock, but there are certain qualities you do not want in a car, if your trying to go fast and want a good HP to dollar ratio, or ET to dollar ratio. These things you wouldnt want in a car would be like, small displacement (1.5Liters) SOHC, Naturally aspirated, Frontwheel drive etc.

Another thing, is whats the going price on a 96 Hyundai Accent? 4,000 dollars? Ok so supose you blow 6000 dollars giving it a  bodykit, a nice sound system, and a couple of engine mods. How much is it worth after all that? 4500 dollars maybe? Its pretty much like throwing ur cash into the wind when it comes to resale time.

Bodykits, ah, I use to be a fan of these. But then I started noticing, that unless the car is trailered everywhere, or only driven on weekends, or you actually spent a lot of money on a quality bodykit instead of some cheap ebay bodykit, its going to look like crap after about 6 months. Rocks in the road will crack the front end in not time, or the front end will be so low it will scrape bumps or if it sticks out real far, crumple when you get to a dip in the road or leaving a steep driveway.

Look, you have a great daily driver, and probably want to have a cool car or something. I use to have a miata, and I wanted to do a turbo setup really bad, but if I knew I waited for a car that was actually built from the factory to go fast, I would get so much more out of my money.

I now own an MR2 Turbo, it has about 2hp for every 1hp the miata had, it gets a lot more respect than the miata ever could have, I dont have to worry about a lot of the parts breaking because the car was built to go fast. Its actually worth some money after modding because they are sought after cars because they are known for being great performers, the stock body looks cool enough that just rims, exhaust and lowering, it attracts more attention than any civic or hyundai with a bodykit ever will. Whats nice about it, is the engine is what really attracts attention and respect from people, the bov, the hiss of the turbo and the growl of the exhaust, You can draw a lot more attention and respect from people if the engine sounds mean than underglows and a bodykit. Thats another thing, when you mod a car, reliability is usually first to go, so expect to lose a lot of OEM quality when you mod a car. Things will stop working right, the bodykit wont have a nice OEM fit to it,etc.

If I were you, I would hold onto the car, keep it stock, and in the mean time, save your pennies and dimes til you can save for a *ahem* "real car". If you have to mod, just do a sound system and call it a day, any1 can have a nice sound system in any old car.

Edit: If you want to remain loyal to the Hyundai brand, and are looking for one worth tuning, there is one, cheap, fast option. Certain Hyundai Excels came with 4g64's from the factory if Im not mistaken. This is a naturally aspirated version of the 4g63, and has no potential to being what its brother engine is. You can however find a 4g63 for relatively cheap, and swap it in, the car weighs like 2300lbs, if u strip it down u can get it down to 2200lbs with driver, port and polish the engine,Intercooler, intake, exhaust and put a 16g turbo on it and turn up the boost, well then you might have something there. I know there is one video of a hyundai excel with 4000 dollars total investment with car, smoking a 500hp Dodge Ram SRT10, with a similar setup as I described. Perfect sleeper.  

^^^ i agree with everyting exept miatas make great track cars, since the car is sooo light you dont need as much hp as the heavyer cars. its like saying a bike is slow because it only has 120hp, but then again you have an mr2 which is a fun car too and light, really it all depends on tunning, not to highjack the thread dont get a body kit, please dont get one, unless done right they look really bad, just put some good coilovers on the car and take it to the track, you'll have planty of fun there  

In my opinion i dont know why people put body kits on their cars. Its just pointless. I would rather lower it and do some other performace mods, rather than spend money on a useless body kit, which will just gain you ricer points. You should just save your money like they said, and get a car that you dont have to do anything to to make it look good, then spend your money on performace parts. I realize people have different opinions about show and go, and i have no reason to say why not to do it. But it just seems... well gay...  

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^^^ i agree with everyting exept miatas make great track cars, since the car is sooo light you dont need as much hp as the heavyer cars. its like saying a bike is slow because it only has 120hp, but then again you have an mr2 which is a fun car too and light, really it all depends on tunning, not to highjack the thread dont get a body kit, please dont get one, unless done right they look really bad, just put some good coilovers on the car and take it to the track, you'll have planty of fun there

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yeha i got an idea trade that POS in unless u have no choice  

Just because it isnt fast, or isnt a tuner car, doesnt make it a POS. I ran with a miata for 3 years, a lot of people told me it was a POS because it also wasnt fast or a tuner car, and it was in a hell of a lot better condition and stayed together better than the mr2.

Some people cant afford there dream cars, and have to have there current Hyundai Accent, so IMO, its wrong of you to make fun of there car and call it a peice of [censored].

Id say he has a great daily driver, because I still see plenty of old hyundais on the road. And there are plenty of 4g63 Hyundai Excels that would mop the floors with either of our cars.  

true, but he could still sell it and get a far better platform ot start with.  

Well, I was thinking about a Hyundai Tiburon. But, not sure.  

well lets start with this man i didnt mean any disrespect to  anyone and that a miata is a tuner car its just made of fun of cause its kinda girlie and yes a tiburon would be alot better  

ya go with the tibron if thats the car you want.  

Thanks for all your posts. I'm not driving the Accent anymore or a Tiburon either. I went and bought a 2006 Scion Tc(5-Speed).  

If you really dont know how to work on an engine or bealy know much about it, I would try to learn some or just get a juat buy a faster car.
.For me, Knowing and working on car is great, I bought an accent for SOHC for $400 cause he thought the car had no potential. some may think its a waste because I know those cars come with a 1.5L starting with 92 hp. But I worked on it with only $500 and got it up to 137 hp with no turbo and she looks great. Like they said, dont waste money on a body kit, just 15 size rims and lower your car will make it look nice..
So if I got a turbo,  Imagine the increase of hp then, lol, I'd only spend at least $2000 total of the whole car besides high grade fluids need for overhall. I also Have a formula fire bird classic I bought for $2500 with a 6.6L engine. she needed a lot work but its running like a beauty, I love imports but I know those little cars in the streets wont stand a chance, lol.
most Muscle cars if tuned up right, get 8-12 secs in a 1/2 mile. the funny thing is I'v seen a Hyundai accent get 9.7 sec in a 1/2 mile and it was a 1.6L DOHC, lol, look it up sometime. Im an oldies fan, new cars to me seem kinda to much in computers and with the gov chip in them, hate high tech electronical cars now days ><, If ya know how to work on older models there way better, lol, I like to control and feel my own car manually thank you very much, lol.
Right now Im going for a 1986 MR2 for around 900$-1000$ and just tune it up from there. No offence to young racer or so called street racers today, they forget that all cars have potential, she just needs alittle work , just dont dis a car. Most people dont even know whats under there hood of there own car, lol. One more thing is the old sayings, "its not the car the makes a person, its the person who makes the car". "Its not the car that drives a person, its the person that drives the car". Am I wrong?  

FYI Tedd, this thread has not been posted in over a year, so its probably dead  and the person your trying to post to isnt on anymore.  

Sorry, havent noticed the date, this is my first time using this type of thing, Import tuners seems like an interesting site.