Exactly 10 years ago on this day (Jan. 20), 2001 I drove 25 miles in the snow to meet with the owner of one black '92 SVX whose FOR SALE ad was run in the Baltimore Sun classifieds. A few months earlier, I'd been reminded of this car by a couple of SVXen with FOR SALE signs parked in a local mall parking lot. By the time I called, they were sold. "Must be in demand!" I muttered to myself.
Why did I zero in on this car with goofy windows? Ten years prior I remembered my trip to an auto show, & saw this beast, a pearlie, displayed on a revolving platter. I figgered it was a concept car. Surprise! T'was a Subaru,
a mud car; & it cost over 30 grand!!! I quickly forgot this image, & trotted over to the Honda booth.
I gave no thought to these cars again for many years. Then, somewhere in the late 90s I spotted another pearlie parked at a supermarket. I remember eyeballing it, & saying, "Hmmmm...I wonder what these things are going for now?". "Holy crap - is that suede I see plastered all over the place!?" "Cool!"
(Hook was set).
Over the months following I saw more of these cars, & even flagged a few down to talk to the owners. Consensus - "I love this car" (Beware of tranny).
I got on the Yahoo club site. Insanity abounds in here. (Beware of tranny, bearings, & rotors).
Nonetheless, my addiction to suede, & funny windows overcame any concerns of catastrophic mechanical failure. AND....it'll go over 150mph!!!!!!!
(Hook firmly set).
So back to January 20, 2001 at Mickey Dee's in the snow, where I offered $6,800 CASH (owner wanted $7,200) for the batmobile.I'd be the third owner. It had 68K on the clock, a perfect interior, a few minor scratches, & everything worked. ME - "I don't want to insult you with my offer, but the tranny's likely to grenade on the way home". OWNER - " I had the tranny replaced 6 months ago with a factory rebuilt one"
(shows paperwork). ME - "But bearings & rotors, & blah, blah, blah".
OWNER - "Cash today, ya' say?"...............SOLD.
So we drove back to my place for the official transaction. Tranny remained intact. In fact, it's still there doin' its thing 80K later.
There was another reason I bought the car when I did. Two months prior to the purchase, my wife of 30 years succumbed to cancer. While this outcome was not unexpected, I found myself in a depressed funk, especially so, given the holiday season was in full bloom. I needed a diversion for my grief.
The SVX took my mind out of the doldrums. See....it's more to me than just a "car".
I got to thinking - 10 years earlier this thing was spinning around on a platter with strobe lights & mirrors trained on it. Now it's sitting in my unkempt garage. I just stared at it. Day-umm. It's mine!.
The first thing I did to the beast was add a tranny cooler. It was my daily driver, & being in outside sales, it was driven a lot. In April 2001 I joined the Network. I took it to the Oak Ridge TN meet where I was a total noob, but met up with a lot the nuts who seemed to share my passion for suede (I mean Escaine). Randy, Matt, Huck, Don, Bill (anyone remember Bill Moore?), & others who may still be around. John H. & Larry III - were you there? The highlight of the Oak Ridge show was the SVX Spam sculpture. I then drove to Houston, TX to visit long lost reletives, then back to Baltimore.
More meets at Canaan Valley, WV, & Reading (Number 2, I think), plus every Reading meet since. Got a $2,800 paint job, & 2 days later took it to Anniversary X in Lafayette for the Indiana Sweat Fest, (Yeah, but it's a DRY heat), then headed north through Michigan, into Canada, eh?, took the ferry across Georgian Bay (Lake Huron), up through Toronto to upstate NY, & back down through the Finger Lakes, & New England. Also did the Dragon (Gawd, when was that?) Throw a couple of auto-crosses into this mix.
The point of this travelogue is that I racked up over 70K miles, both bidness, pleasure & mild abuse over a sixish year span 'til it became a garage queen four years ago (Thank you 240SX). At 102K I did the pre-emptive thing with belts, hoses, cam seals, plugs, water pump, tranny flush, & one bearing to the tune of 18 hunnert bucks. Since then, just one more bearing, a used MAF, front rotors, a CV boot, & a set of plugs that I probably didn't need. I didn't count brakes, tires & batteries, but nothing was out of the ordinary in this department. Yeah, the Great Altantic Jersey Shore Near Drowning Incident set me back over a grand for a wiring harness, but we can't blame the car for this one.
So now the ebony beast shares a carport with an '01 Miata, my latest guilty pleasure. It's 50 miles shy of 150K, & still runs 100%. It leaks oil, but I find adding more oil solves this problem. I try to exercise it once a week. It still loves the twisties here in the Blue Ridge.
Bottom line - With all the bad press these machines seem to get, & I realize "good" news doesn't sell papers, I've found that the SVX is as reliable as any other set of wheels out there, as long as they're properly maintained, & not thrashed to death. The car NEVER left me stranded in my decade of ownership. I'm convinced, despite the naysaying crowd in here, that in 10 more years, it'll be worth the original price of 30K. OK - maybe the 6.8K I paid for her. OK - in 10 years a loaf of bread will cost 20 bucks.
It's nice to dream, ain't it.
Ron.
PS - See related thread - "Who's driving with original parts?"