Lousy pic of course (for the record, I did the driving while my GF took the pic) but you get the idea.
It's been a great car so far, and that's coming from a guy who is usually sick of his car after two years.
So far I've only had to put serpentine belts on it and replace about a half gallon of headlight bulbs. In fact minutes after the pic was taken I stopped at a rest stop to replace the left one. The plastic plug that holds the connectors was melted and fell apart in pieces when I tried to work it off the bulb.
The car had a fresh engine when I bought it because the previous one sucked a turbo, so my
engine is at 43,000 miles. It had both rear wheel bearings replaced under the service bulletin ($0 to me) and it's about to need brake pads.
We just went on a 1200 mile road trip this weekend to Montana from WA. Explored ghost towns and hauled serious a** down some gravel back roads. In Montana we typically cruised at 85 and I was getting 22.5 mpg tank after tank. Average for the entire trip was 22.5.
It seriously needs a wash, which it won't get, but it will get fresh lube and careful inspection of belts/hoses/etc.
Future upgrades I'm considering:
All gray body parts removed and sprayed with Rhino or Line-X
About an inch lift
More off road suitable tires. The triple treads are great tires but I'm chewing them up on rocky roads.