Faults:

Ignition Control Module failure at 227,000 miles.

General Comments:

Excellent performing car. Very quick and great gas mileage at highway speeds. The manual transmission is great and chirps in second gear. No problems with it minus the ignition control module. Cabin is very roomy and accommodating. Gotta love the door handles. Almost at a quarter million miles! Bought for only 900 dollars and have only put in 20 dollars and 51,000 miles!

Faults:

Transmission Pump Blew: replaced transmission (left me stranded).

Leaky transmission lines (believe to be mechanic's fault).

Leaky vacuum tubes (believe to be mechanic's fault).

Heater Core went (was able to make it close enough to home without overheating).

Alternator went twice (left me stranded both times).

Insulation on spark plug was burnt through after it was left leaning against hot manifold (failed emissions test).

Car would stall sometimes when first started up, would often stall in stop-and-go traffic, especially during the summer.

In winter, brake lights would stay on much longer after I had stopped breaking.

Cruise Control buttons fell off, then metal contact fell off too.

Dashboard was warped and cracked.

Ceiling cloth fell down (dangling from its corners-very annoying for someone who is 6'3").

Radio played fine, but cassette deck played very unbalanced right and left-side tracks (one would cut in and out, but the other was much quieter-sometimes mashing the player's buttons would solve the problem temporarily).

Developed a quite serious oil leak.

During snow storm, wiper motors were damaged, causing wipers to slide much too far, sometimes even ending up on my side window.

Replaced muffler twice.

Hood was damaged before I purchased it (couldn't use regular hood prop). There was some other minor body damage to the vehicle (both before and while I was driving).

Accelerator and brakes were mushy.

Brakes blew out while on highway-no accident, thank God.

General Comments:

I liked the power, handing, quick acceleration. Could only get it to 105 mph. Started shaking at around 70 mph.

Fortunately I knew the guy who sold me the car, and he helped me fix everything that went wrong for free.

Got frustrated with so many failures (in only four years and reasonable miles) and the difficulty I would have to get it inspect-able. I gave it away for parts.

I had a lot of fun with the car-could have taken better care of it. Miss it, but not sure if I would get another one.

Faults:

Dash was cracked and peeling back from the windshield at purchase (100K). Grew steadily worse with age.

Headliner has always sagged, now it hangs from corners.

Numerous issues with fascia: dome light lens broke, center console lid came off, lighters broke, vent grilles in dash cracked and snapped, chrome wore off the window roller handles, dash lighting flickered and died if setting was changed by dimmer, overheating issues in stopped traffic on the freeway, etc...

BIG-TIME problem: when the engine first starts in the morning, cold or warm, it takes a good 15-60 seconds to drop into gear. Once it is in gear, and has warmed up (read: 20 minutes of driving or more), there are no further issues. Get out of car, run errands, etc., it drops right into gear and away you go. But that first engagement takes a while, plan accordingly.

Other side of the coin:

A/C is so cold it'll give you a headache when driving though Palm Springs in August.

Engine runs very strong, the warmer the better... though only if traffic is moving! Made a number of long-distance trips, very happy with performance.

General Comments:

Great little car. I bought it for $1200 four years ago; even if I scrap it for $50 tomorrow (and quite likely I will, as I am shopping for a new car today), then I will feel as if I have had a very satisfactory experience with this car.

All in all, good feelings.