More updates - Demio continues to be perfectly okay. I've had to do some car checking for friends, and I'm still using the Ioniq lightly for the rest of the month to bring the km accumulation back in line. It costs something ridiculous to take the Demio to work, like 20 eur per day (150 km, two euro gas, 6.5l to 7l/100km at highway speeds), but maybe I'm doing it for the
enjoyment.
But it drives well. It sits happily at highway speeds, warms up quickly, it's not painful to sit in for an hour at a time and it doesn't feel like it's about to expire. The foglights are actually good, too. This weekend I again changed the floppy aero wipers to classic metal backed ones like I like to do on used cars, and in the crappy, slushy, salty weather of this week they perform expectedly properly. I also finally got around to fitting the used, nearly unobtanium OEM mudflaps so the rockers can survive a bit longer. The old, non-original ones just crumbled in my hands when I removed their remnants.
It feels good to be in a 1.3-liter shitbox again. I've always felt like this is the class of cars that feels closest to my heart, and I'd definitely say the Demio, no matter how surplus to my needs, was a purchase that feels right. What more do I need from a hobby car? It works, it's sort of clean, it passes MOT easily, the dash lights work, the body isn't hopeless and I can use some of my wheels on it.
The latest oil change was done 5000km ago a year ago and the oil is still pretty damn clear. Or maybe driving a diesel has changed my perspective about what oil looks good in a dipstick