One of the brake lines burst 5 days after I bought it. I had to replace the brake lines and the brake pads as they were also worn very badly.
The shocks and struts were beyond repair. This caused the car to bounce horribly - but that's my own fault for not fixing them, although I didn't really feel like paying for new shocks and struts for a $500 car.
I replaced the front driver's side drive axle and a month later the passenger one went.
There were slight problems with the electrical components of ignition which were easily fixed.
The clear coat was peeling/chipping off very badly, even though it was a 15 year old car, most other vehicles of its age still had decent paint jobs.
This car is very fuel efficient. I used it to drive to school and to work and I usually only had to put $20 gas in it every two weeks - and the tank wasn't empty yet.
The seats are very comfortable and the power features and air conditioning spoiled me.
The engine is pretty good. It's got a decent amount of power, it's no muscle car - but it's not a dog either. The engine itself is probably worth twice what the car itself is.
I imagine that most of the problems this car had were due to it's previous owners negligence. I do know other owners of the same car (same model, trim line and year) that have good paint and very few problems with their car. So I would definitely recommend this car to someone who needs the passenger room and likes the looks of late 80's sedans - just make sure the previous owner looked after this car.
I have the same problem with my light not turning on when I open the driver door, I also changed my head gasket twice and I got a new transmission on it too, my car has 100 k, and maintainance has not been that much, it does waste a lot of gas, maybe I have a leak somewhere? but I do travel a lot. Its been great on road trips top speed is 135 km/h, and the only problems I have right now is it over heating, so I might have do something about that, but as long as I put in coolant once a week I'm fine. the car has enough power, and its fun to drive I find, the 6 seater is awesome too.
I have a dodge 600 se and it is a great little car the paint job on it when I got it was not too bad, but I fixed it up a little beter than it was. and I got a sound system put in it witch is a perty decent car to have a sound system in it sounds great I use the car to get me and some of my friends around town and it is a all around great car.