Total miles: 183,640.
Make: 1990 Mazda 323 3-door hatchback
Driven since: 1993
Cylinders: 4
Average MPG: 28
Smell: faint burning oil with a hint of
evaporating coolant
Monthly insurance cost: $16
Yearly registration fee: $12
0 to 60 mph in: 22 minutes (25 with Jon in car)
Kelly Blue Book Value: $655 (I was surprised it
was that much)
Number of colleges represented by stickers in
the back window: 5 (Iowa, Yale, Wisconsin,
UW-Milwaukee, and Medical College of
Wisconsin) - see photo
New things that are wrong with the car:
We're getting some serious rusting now. All of
the wheel wells are rusting out terribly.
The front seat is literally falling apart and is
held together by duct tape. Last summer I got
tears in the rear end of two pairs of my pants,
and I didn't know where it had come from.
Eventually I figured out that it was a spring
poking through the fabric of the front seat of
my car. Thus, the duct tape and several types
of seat covering apparati.
Other things wrong with car:
1) Crack across the windshield
2) R inner door handle broken off
3) L inner door handle loose, ready to fall off
4) Intermittent failure of windshield wipers
and heating system, although I think I figured
out that it was just a fuse
5) Alpine CD deck - installed for rocking
purposes in 1995 - CD player no longer works,
still rocks though
6) Front and back quarter panels with
different amounts of paint fading
7) Hatch lock mechanism only opens from
inside, necessitating elaborate speaker-cable
latch opening system from inside the car
8) Significant oil leak requiring an additional
quart of oil about once a month
9) Car seat is so thin from repeated
pounding by my rear end that a ride of more
than 30 minutes causes half a day of butt
numbness
10) 3rd set of CV joints in front end are
starting to click, may need repair by late 2006
11) Horn had to disconnected because the
steering wheel froze so hard that it locked the
horn into the ON position, killing my battery and
pissing off my neighbors as I was out of town,
winter 2000.
12) Inside dome lights haven't worked since
1998.
Things right with car:
1) Starts every single time
2) Haven't ever made a car payment
3) Alpine stereo rocks loud with my iPod
4) Hasn't needed a major repair since 2003
5) Yearly cost (insurance and registration
fees): roughly $160.
6) Air conditioning still works
7) I love it. It's my car.
