My now retired powder blue 88 Tercel sits out front, 310,000 km on the clicker. I could throw a battery into it today and head for the west coast tomorrow. Closest thing to a sports car I'll probably ever own, (2 door) including non-existent suspension, semi-non-existent floors and sadly deficient unibody frame.

Amos, I fear, is deluded in his praise of the VW cult deathtrap. True engineering marvels do not:

1. have air-cooled engines that routinely blow up at the (premature) end of a hot day's drive. (VW bus/bug owners accepted this as normal and it's part of their usual vacation stories, how the engine blew in the middle of nowhere and they camped behind a garage in Oklahoma for six days while some grease monkey named Elvis came by daily with 6-packs and promises that the "rebuilt" engine would be there tomorrow.) That's what they mean by "dependable".
2. have a high centre of gravity that causes a terrifying and impossible-seeming careening-from-side-to-side-on-the-road action to occur when you hit, say, a little patch of snow. (Been there)
3. take half a day to change sparkplugs cause they're imPOSSible to access
4. have the one and only virtue that it's easy and low-tech to remove and reinstall engines, a good thing considering point 1. (Same cannot be said for transmissions, which are actually failure -prone transaxles which include the differential unit, and unlike in-line trannies need the engine removed and the unit to be dissassembled from the axles when they fail, which they do)
5. have winter heat only as an optional, directly and hazardously gas-guzzling accessory
6. max out at 55 mph on a highway where everyone else does 70 and is likely to rear end you, because they can't see your puny little taillights.
7. I _could_ go on but...
8. overkill is not my style
9. try a Voyager/Caravan

Willie-O
Objective Information Since 1956