[michael]

Hi SvXchica and welcome to the site. Sorry to hear about your recent troubles. The SVX really is a commitment, it's all or nothing. If you really love it you have to be in for the long haul, they are expensive to keep up. Once you decide to keep it forever, spending money on it doesn't really bother you as much. Other people will call you crazy and your mechanic will hate you. As for the transmission a rebuilt automatic will run you between 2-3k. Some one here can point you to a place who might install a 5 speed for you for around 1.5-2k if you would be interested in a manual transmission. Your speedometer proably isn't working because your spedometer sensor broke, this requires removing the transmisssion. So get a new tranny before thinking of getting that fixed. That would also explain the check engine light, it knows the spedometer sensor is bad. These cars need a lot of love and patience. Once you get to a certain point the repairs will become further and further apart. Be patient, read up (the experienced members of this site can save you a ton of $$$ and regret) and welcome.