Hyundai Alpha

Hyundai's first independently designed petrol engine family, in 1.3, 1.4 and 1.6 litre forms — the engine of the Accent, Getz and the early Kia Rio, and the Gamma family's direct predecessor.

It is a belt-driven, port-injected, cast-iron-block design from before the group moved to chains and direct injection, and that is the useful summary: none of the carbon or high-pressure-fuel faults of its successors apply, and the maintenance item that actually matters is the timing belt. On an interference engine, a neglected belt is a destroyed engine, and these cars are now old enough that belt history is frequently unknown.

The faults that do recur are the ordinary ones of an ageing simple engine — crankshaft and camshaft position sensors, the idle air control valve on earlier versions, and ignition coils. A running complaint here is much more likely to be a worn sensor or a vacuum leak than anything internal.