1st big repair on the 14 year old Firefly. Advice: buy a used car with low miles

[MetroMPG]

So this weekend, the original 14 year-old front exhaust pipe on the Flea disintegrated.

Finally, something broke on this car!



Unfortunately, that meant the car sounded like a pack of rabid straight pipe Harleys on my trip to visit friends at a cottage (for what we assumed would be a late winter gathering around the fire, but instead was spent entirely outdoors in summer like conditions - but that's another story).

This is significant because it's the first real repair I will have had to do to the car since I got it six and a half years ago (Nov 2005).

I'm not counting replacing the brake rotors which were rusted from lack of use (both from driving without brakes [DWB] and generally not driving the car much), corrosive conditions and poor preventive maintenance on my part. (http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...only-9127.html)

I think it's fair to say that this car is the most reliable and least expensive (cost to own) I've owned, out of about a fleet of 20.

And I am going to reward it by taking it off the road today and putting the UFO back in service! http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...eed-16905.html

The Firefly is also the most expensive car I've ever bought ($4500). But the moral of the story seems to be: it's worth it to pay for an older car with really low miles.

Just passed the 31,000 km mark (~19k miles) on this weekend's trip.

[gone-ot]

...the back-sliding has begun?

[MetroMPG]

Yup. Time to get rid of it!

[gone-ot]

...I was just wondering if they made METAL DUCK TAPE™ (wink,wink)?

[MetroMPG]

If they made some that stuck to a mass of flaking corrosion, I'd probably be all over it!

[Cd]

Well now you might get points with the kids in your neighborhood.
People pay good money to make their car sound like yours .

[larrybuck]

Several years ago, JC Whitney was still selling MUFFLER TAPE!!!