The wrecker came this morning and took what was once my beautiful '97 GL MTX. It was one of the most heavily SVTized Zetecs (suspension, wheels, seats, steering wheel - all but the exhaust), and I feel I'll never have such a car again.
I bought the car March 2001 with 50K on it for $5k, and it got hit by a drunken bastard 2004 Christmas night at 180K mi, at $1800 insurance value.
During this 3.5 yrs sure I spent a lots of time maintaining and modding (y'all know the 'tour feeling: when it runs, it's the best car on earth, but...) it has always been a reliable car and left me stranded only once (when the Autozone replacement water pump plain and simple fell apart). Talking about lasting and reliability, not a single drop of at the engine at 180k and I've replaced the 1st clutch at 170k with plenty of life still left.
I've truly enjoyed working on this car (well, ahem... even the IAC and PCV
) and learned a lot by doing it, and driving... y'all know it is such a thrill throwing the car into a curve marked at 35mph (that's for other cars
) at speeds I cannot comfortably mention
In the afternoon I wrote a check for a 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage with 80k on it. It has a few little problems and I'm gonna make it into a really fun little car... plans have been laid already
With my $3K budget this was the best car I could get now
I've looked at a few 'tours, but for this kind of money I couldn't find any I really liked. Anyways, time to learn something new.
I'm going to troll the forums for a while - this is one of the greatest internet communities I've ever known. I've learnt a lot about cars, and even more about respecting people with opinions and povs remarkably different from mines.
Thank you everybody... keep posting!
Tiv
