Transportation Woes
I am the proud owner of a 1994 Mazda 626.
The car has over 165k miles, and is showing it.
I tend to view my vehicles as more of a tool to get a job done; I don't need to have the cleanest/newest/coolest vehicle.
So my car currently has several problems that need fixing, but are more costly than the worth of the vehicle.
I should sell it now to get the most $$ from the sale, but the engineer in me kind of wants to see how many things can break before the car completely quits.
Here is a fairly comprehensive list of the troubles with my Mazda.
- The clutch has been on the verge of quitting for over a year. If more than one person is in the car, the clutch pretty much refuses to engage, causing a very slow acceleration rate.
- Two months ago, the muffler acquired a leak, and is quite loud.
- The windshield has a crack running from the top to the bottom and from driver to passenger side near the bottom.
- When it rains, my car leaks from the ceiling onto the steering wheel and passenger seat.
- The 'check engine' light appears periodically, which I am told means an oxygen sensor is intermittently bad.
- The airbag light blinks constantly indicating that the passenger side airbag will not function in the event of a crash.
- The passenger side door lock has never worked, due to a bogus key copy, that multiplied and the original is gone for good.
- The driver's side door lock has a large end of a key stuck in it, which makes it impossible to lock my vehicle.
- If not locking the vehicle weren't enough, there is a part of the key stuck in the ignition. The key stub has always worked until last weekend. But last weekend what was left of the stub cracked off in the ignition, which made it difficult to turn the vehicle off. I finally got the car to shut down with a screwdriver. So now, my car must be started with a screwdriver.
- The tires are super bald, but I can't imagine sticking a couple hundred in tires for a vehicle that I am sure will be complete junk in a month or so.
Overall, the vehicle has shown to be quite tough. I wouldn't expect it to keep running as well as it does with the list of issues.
I really am quite curious how long it will go, and think I should start the official poll here.