[Chucksta]

A couple of observations / suggestions for you..

A hard shift, first to second, is borderline normal for a stock transmission. So is shifting a bit earlier than would seem appropriate. A rebuilt transmission, however, will almost always shift harsher than stock, as the friction material on the internals is grippier.

Straight up, I'm not a fan of additives to solve an issue, but sometimes.... well, if they don't work, you're only out a few bucks..

Power steering... try the stop leak from Lucas.. 2 years ago, I was leaving puddles in the driveway.. Haven't left a drop since.. it took about a week to stop.

Oil leaks? Hmmm.. well, that depends what's leaking? Gasket or seal? seals can be treated with an additive, gaskets pretty much can't.


Coolant leaks? I couldn't find my coolant leak, but I was still losing about 8 ounces a month, 1/8 of a bottle of copper based stop leak, and it never lost a drop after that. An interesting side effect of the stop leak, was that the temp gauge no longer just sat in the middle of the gauge, but accurately moved up and down as the fans went on and off..

One of my favorite arguments about keeping a classic car crisp. is that, no matter what you drive, you either pay maintenance and repairs, or you pay depreciation..

Really, could you own anything for less than $200.00 a month, for depreciation, maintenance and repairs? If you could, would you really want to drive it?

Would your SVX tough out the next 4 years, if you blew $10,000.00 on it?

What's the difference? What would the residual value be? Would it still slap a smile on your face every time you drove it?

Don't look at it as what it will cost, look at it as what would it cost MORE than driving some soulless snot box POS. Personally, I don't think that there's much difference in actual cost, over an extended period of time.