9th Jun 2017, 12:38

OMG, is this the longest review on Carsurvey?

9th Jun 2017, 21:10

It's much preferable to a few sentence fragments.

10th Jun 2017, 23:00

No, it's just an honest review with a lot of detail about how good these cars really are.

13th Jun 2017, 12:28

With a young family in the late 90s, these were nice cars. A great trunk to lock up things out of view. Great for grocery shopping. In many ways better than minivans and even our crossover we have today. Rode great on long trips vs vans and minimal issues. Quiet inside vs van noise and items sliding around. And no odors with a trunk like bringing home gas for a mower etc. You are right it's not getting a style award. But with 2 child seats in the car, it's a very safe vehicle to own. And used it's a great buy. The savings bought us a nice house instead of high car payments and heavy repairs. Very reliable year round vehicle. Even in winter with rear wheel drive. It did pretty well.

26th Sep 2018, 04:20

Folks, I wrote this review, and this is my car. An update, after 2 years and 40,000 km.

I replaced the steering box because the pitman shaft bearings became loose and started knocking. I replaced the sway bar links and both front shocks. The car handles much better now.

The MAF sensor went bad and overheated both catalytic converters, which had to be replaced. The remaining 3 window regulators needed repair, due to the classic broken plastic gear problem that affects all these cars. I did all the work myself. At least this car is pretty easy to work on; I think paying someone for this work would be more money than the car is worth.

Unfortunately the clockspring in the steering wheel broke, which means the horn, airbag and cruise control features do not work. Unfortunately this part is not available anywhere, not even the dealer. It's possible to disassemble them and repair the wires, if one is lucky. I will do this at some point.

I'm still happy with the car, but I hope I can get a lot of use from it to make up for all the repairs and money I've put in it.