1997 Ford Probe Base review from North America

I bought this car for $3000 in November of 2004 from an old man who just drove it to work and back for 7 years. With only 22k miles it was barely even broken in. The man said he was selling it because he had knee problems and couldn't drive with the manual transmission anymore. One of my friends drove the car when I first got it and said the clutch was shot. I didn't believe him and just let it go. About 10,000 miles later it started driving weird and wasn't shifting right. I replaced the clutch and it's been almost 20,000 miles and it's running great. The only other thing I've replaced is the starter. I did this because when it was very cold out it wouldn't start and would make a weird noise and then after fooling with it for awhile it would make a louder weird noise then start on the next turnover. When this was replaced my dad did it and I got a check engine light afterwards because some part didn't get put back on right and caused the check engine light to come on for an oxygen sensor. All together I've put less than $500 into this car. I hope this car lasts me until I can afford to buy a new car and the insurance for it which is probably about 3 or 4 years down the road.

Overall as long as you keep up with regular maitenance this is a great car. It gets awesome gas mileage with it's mazda engine. It has an awful lot of pep for a four banger. I don't drive with people in the car that often, but my probe's tiny back seat does the trick if I'm taking a couple people somewhere. As long as you scoot the front seats up a little it's really not too bad. With it's sporty looks when I bought this car I got 4 tickets in 5 months which really sucked and I'm paying for that in my insurance now.