So I'm guilty of a quick reply and taking a more in depth read later..
Wow..
@ SVX95.. An amazing amount of record keeping, combined with goal focused spending to slowly, but surely take a $1000.00 car into a custom keeper. Can't say I've ever seen the better part of 6K been better spent.. One kickin ride, upgraded and kept crisp for less than half of the monthly lease of a Hyundai Accent.. Kudos!!
@ Conn SVX.. $26.00 a month? LOl.. You are either the luckiest SVX owner on the planet, or, you really should budget her for some maybe not necessary, but totally deserved TLC in the near future
.. And yup, it's a hell of a battery, it'd probably start a Mack truck at 30 below, and it's rated for 1700 cranking amps ( for the first five seconds ) and over 800 deep discharge cycles, these specs called for courtesy of the SVXs' penchant to discharge on the idle.. Only battery that the retailer would warrantee for the vehicle. So far, it's been brilliant, spins it over like you wouldn't believe. But seriously, as much as ten out of ten people will post about what went wrong with a vehicle, and only one out of ten will post what didn't go wrong .... Your track record with yours shows, that in spite of all the problems that are posted for help on this site, the SVX is actually a pretty bullet proof piece of kit. My WRX ( an 02 ) had broken a few things, well, actually, I've broken a few things. But, it's never left me on the side of the road. My SVX came with every piece of service record since day 1.. it left it's previous owner on the side of the road once. It's never done it again. Not bad for a seventeen year old vehicle. I think we need a new thread called " This month, I didn't spend squat"
@ sean 486.. brilliant response! no, seriously.. made me snort!
@ redlightning svx.. yeah.. but how many years? If it's over 5 years, it's a freekin' bargain...
@ Conn SVX... So, it seems that you're like me, you landed up with somebody's "baby".. Between what the original and second owner spent on mine before I got it ( probably more than it originally cost ), the comment by the mechanic when I got the safety check done to transfer the ownership was " it's like it's brand new"... part of what has given me ( at least ) relatively trouble free ownership of a well taken care of vehicle. I definitely got the lucky position of simply having to keep up a well maintained SVX, not having to deal with a decade and a half of abuse and neglect, and i'm thankful that mine came from the other side of Canada that doesn't use salt . ..
Thanks to all others who posted, and elucidated the concept that, on a long term basis, keeping an eclectic classic reliable, enjoyable, viable, etc., is an achievable goal.
Too cool...