Ownership Verified: An Italian from Illinois

Interesting, thank you. I did my own confirmation and found that a couple alternatives are now available, but not at brick and mortar stores and still with some expense. Quite punctual that they posted that, as my car is about 5,000 miles away from the spark plug service, so I'll be ordering them end of this month at the latest.

I still laugh at their mileage, though. If they're using their loaner for long road trips and can only manage 29mpg, they're either going into the mountains to ski or driving at nearly a hundred mph.
 
It's Car and Driver - I tend to buy the "driving at nearly a hundred mph" theory.
 
CAPT_Howdy said:
It's Car and Driver - I tend to buy the "driving at nearly a hundred mph" theory.
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This, their MPG's have always been super low compared to other measures.
 
Man, I looked back at the pictures when I bought this car and it was so shiny. Nowadays....

It's definitely showing the wear of a daily. It's been in two accidents since I last posted. The first one was a single-vehicle. Slid on ice and into a concrete barrier exiting the interstate by my house. Screwed up the front left corner so bad I could only limp it out of the roadway and then had to get it towed to the shop. Paid for that one on my insurance rates for a few years...

Second accident was in a parking lot. Backing out of a spot when the lady directly across the lane from me backed up fast without looking. Had time to stop and blow the horn before it hit, which wound up being in my favor since I could provide the dashcam footage with audio proving what I said so I didn't take a rate hit. The car remained driveable with damage to the trunklid that looked unsightly but didn't prevent it from closing, so I tooled around like that until the shop had the parts in to minimize my time without it.

Amusingly enough, shortly after that the car was sidelined from doing as much driving as when I originally bought it, since my work pays for a bus pass and I live within a 5 minute walk of the bus stop. So it went from a 40+ mile daily commute to zero as I only need it for errands and weekend trips, and not even all of those as I do have the Ranger still for when it's better to have a bed.

Some other faults it's developed:
  • Bluetooth failed a few months after warranty ended. Costs too much to replace for a feature I rarely used so it's remaining unfixed.
  • I was less than diligent about washing salt off it, so I had to have the rear wheels fixed after corrosion in the valve stems caused a 5-psi-per-day leak in both.
  • At some point, one winter when I was still street parking it, something that I can only guess at happened to dent in the sill below the driver's door.
  • It has an electrical gremlin now. Something sometimes doesn't switch off right and drains the battery while it's parked in about 3 days. It's not consistent, and I don't know when it developed, since after the aforementioned sidelining from daily driving I bought a battery tender since it can sometimes sit in the garage for 3 weeks between uses.
 
More necro!

The Dart is approaching 10 years old and is collecting its various quirks going along with being a beater, along with maintenance items:

  • Electrical gremlin is still there, but less noticeable since a shift in my commuting habits means it's no longer sitting long enough to impact the battery
  • One wheel keeps mysteriously leaking even after getting it fixed by a shop. It's not consistent, though, sometimes it loses pressure every other day, other times it can go a week being fine. Doesn't fully deflate the tire, just triggers the TPMS.
  • Clutch will need replaced sooner rather than later, sitting at 91k miles and change
  • Parking brake no longer works. The handle and wire are fine, but the mechanism on the rear calipers is jammed. The left one failed last year and I kept deferring the maintenance until now the right one failed, so no more parking brake
  • Engine may be starting to eat some oil. It was at about the halfway mark on the dipstick when I changed the oil, and during a check last weekend it was below the lower mark. Added some more and will monitor.
It's still serving me well, even if it's beginning to show its age. As it is, though, I'm starting to put some thought on whether I want to put the money into rehabbing it for another ~5 years of service or to put in less money to fix the more pressing issues and then use the rest to start researching for a replacement...
 
Neat! The tire leak probably is a valve stem leak. If your wheels are still in good shape and there’s no corrosion along where the tire seats.
 
93Flareside said:
Neat! The tire leak probably is a valve stem leak. If your wheels are still in good shape and there’s no corrosion along where the tire seats.
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I changed all the valve stems in the spring, which fixed another tire's small leak but left one still leaking. The wheels did have some corrosion so when I had a shop looking at other stuff they cleaned the corrosion off and confirmed a good seal. That leak remains mysterious and elusive.

On another note, I wish the car market would stop its insanity. I went looking for options on used cars since every small hatchback I'd been keeping eyes on stopped being offered new and found that Volvo V90s are edging on affordable for me...
 
It's been a minute, good to know you're doin good!

PelicanHazard said:
Engine may be starting to eat some oil. It was at about the halfway mark on the dipstick when I changed the oil, and during a check last weekend it was below the lower mark. Added some more and will monitor.
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You prob already know but just in case you don't know, there's a oil consumption TSB for cars with the 2.4L engine - I forget if you have the 1.4 though....


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jujZs1Gugw
 
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