I used to have a 91 Merc Tracer with the 1.9 SPI engine. Engine was very solid, always started up, always strong. The tranny had issues at around 120K mi. But all in all, if it is well taken care of it should be solid even with higher miles.
Babysho, have you even driven it that you're talking about engine swaps and such? If its an mtx with teh GT engine it should be fairly peppy, should make a very nice first car.
