she really ran that car into the ground and we replaced it in feb 2014 with a 2003 protege esgt. awesome car that was for $2700 i paid for it.
I personally own a 2003 Mazdaspeed protege which is my main car. I love that thing but I didnt really spend much time and money on it in the time i was paying it off. that came back to bite me a little bit as my transmission started to develop issues ultimately needing a new dif and some bearings.
not a really big deal money wise, but it co-insides with some other projects i have on the go with it; a new turbo manifold made by pope530 which is delayed some 10 months lol... new downpipe, exhaust, new brakes, arms, struts/springs. basically all the stuff conneced to the wheels is getting refreshed and rather than make a mad dash on the weekends to get a few little things done, im just leaving it parked until its all done.
so.. i needed something to drive.. wifes mx3 needed a full engine rebuild.. i started to attempt that rebuild sometime in may/june and was on track to get it finished.
replaced the head gasket, all valve stem seals, resurfaced it and basically redid the whole top side.
unnnfortunately, the disty went out.. cheapest one i could find locally, or near was like $250.. plus shipping.. plus not knowing if this was the problem to begin with..
so the better option came up by fluke..
I picked this 1994 Mx-3 GS for $500 locally. the previous owner had rear ended someone and messed up the front end.. though.. conveniently enough i had a green one already.. so thats all in the works as my first mod to the car.
this car wont be getting any major money spent on it. the idea was a cheap daily driver while the msp is down. of course, the $500 price tag didnt really set me up for what a find this car would turn out to be.. it was filthy, full of straw and farm dirt but its runs perfectly. everything works and there is very little rust. the ride is kinda wallowy, so prob messed struts but overall a very nice car for the money.
first projects will be paint related. ill follow up with that on the next post. on the short list otherwise is to fix the exhaust which was hacksawed and ghettod. it farts a lot.. i dont like it.
will probably replace the axleback with a magnaflow sport muffler and try to keep most of the piping. but if it comes to it, ill mock up a replacement in my garage and drop it off at a muffler shop to seal up/put hangers on.
I will lower it. investigating adapting Bj chassis struts/springs to work on it. as well as a bj chassis 5 bolt swap. the msp isnt going anywhere for a while so it will likely be the donor for this and as its closer to completion ill just source replacments/upgrades for those parts.
