[Ron Mummert]

January 20th marked my 3rd anniversary of SVX ownership. I posted my experiences with the beast at year one & two. Now I'll review the '03 to '04 time frame. With all the good times & bad times many of you diehards have lived through, I do this to show that when driven as an "ordinary" day-to-day vehicle, the SVX can survive without constant life support from your over-loaded credit cards.

A quick review - '92 LS-L purchased with 76.8K from private owner. Had a Suby rebuilt tranny installed at 60K-ish. I installed a B&M cooler two months after the purchase. At 100K, before the 10th annual Lafayette sweatfest, I had all belts, cam seals, plugs & one wheel bearing replaced. Got tranny power flushed & did Yoko AVS dbs at the corners.

The car began '03 at around 110K, & now has 128K on it. We replaced two front rotors & pads, & the behind the battery resistor this summer. I replaced the infamous power steering "O" ring three days ago due to a vibration in the steering when turning at parking lot speeds. The replacement seems to have cured the problem. Cost of part, $1.40. My labor, 45 minutes at minimum wage. Other than Mobile 1 at 3-4K intervals, that was it.

I drive the car as if it were as old as I am. Well, not really, but it commutes 25 miles daily with rural/city sales calls thrown in. It got me through last year's record snows, the Baltimore Crab Meet autocross (5 runs) & the Oak Ridge, TN jaunt highlighted with a spirited trip through the Dragon.
Top speed attained this year - 115mph on Rt 81 in Virginia.
All other accessories, A/C, stock tuner/CD, antenna, sunroof etc. still function 100%. Yes, I could use a few new dash light bulbs.

So, for what it's worth, I just like to point out that when serviced regularly & not totally run into the ground, or racing ricers at every light, the car CAN return a lot of pleasure at minimal expense.

Now that I've cursed the car for this year, I hope to see everyone at Reading, gremlins willing.

Ron.