You should enjoy the car a lot.
My brother had a Vista Colt he purchased new. After all was said and done he put over 300k miles on it. It got between 25 and 30 mpg.
It broke its first timing belt in front of my house late on a Sunday afternoon. We lucked out and found a timing belt local and had it back running in a few hours. It was a bit tricky getting the counter balancers in the right spot. After that he replaced it every 60 miles. He got it down to a hour and a half maint. job. Made him mad that I could replace the timing belt on my Festiva in 45 min.
My brother auto-x his Vista for years. Hauled his four kids around in it. And drove it all over the country. It went from west to east coast. Southern tip of Texas to Canada.
Its death was its dash and controls. Speedo, Climate controls and other subsystems under the dash started failing. The electrical system started shorting out. I was a hopeless fight to keep it going. The engine, tranny, brakes and suspension were still in good shape. All the glass was good also.
So he sought out another Vista with a blown engine and transfered the old cars running gear to it. Then used the new Vista to haul the old one to the scarp metal recycling bins at his work. He used a saws-all to cut the old one up. Chunk by chunk he hauled it away over the course of a week.
He drove his refurb Vista for another two years before selling it and buying a new Lancer Rally-Art.
If the new rig is anything at all like the first gen Vista. It should last for years. He and I both think that auto-xing is what took his first Vista to a early grave. It ran close to full seasons for five or six years and earned him invitations to other meets in other states.
When chasing down electric shorts and other things we started seeing scared and stretched wires. Also in these ares we started seeing inner body panels and such with flex ripples and buckles. And some very stress out welds. With him being a tool and die maker,,, well both of us being around tool and die all of our life's. We knew what we were seeing wasn't from die strikes. The poor car had been flexed to death.
OOO his was a AT. He beat that poor tranny like a spinster would have beat rugs. Not once did it fail.
Anyway,,,, I bet its going to be a great car for you...
psy
(intermit. no spark) I replaced the coil on the Festiva and have the same concern. I believe the ECM may be at fault.
Thanks, see you around town.
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