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I've had my red '99 ATR for 9 years now - it replaced a much loved 4th gen Prelude VTEC when the kids came along. I have not driven it much the past few years as my wife uses it as a family bus and I've been driving a Mk1 MR2 and subsequently a Panda 100HP instead.
It's a great car though and like the MR2 (now a restoration project) I can't see myself ever selling it unless I can suddenly afford a Maser QP! I only feed it Shell V-Power (formerly Optimax) and it has been monumentally relaible, needing only service items in all that time apart from a couple of replacement front fog lights (they seem to rust up ASAP), a new drive shaft gaiter and new front brake calipers. A couple of minor scrapes have been repaired over the years too to keep it looking nice.
However, over the past 12 months it has cost us a small fortune: It got hit by a piece of debris on the M1 necessitating a bonnet repair and respray last November; in August a breeze block on the A3(M) resulted in 3 new alloys and a set of tyres (alloys came from various ebay sellers and all were dire so had to be refurbished); and last month it cost £1100 to have a grunching noise from the front end tackled and a chronic interior steaming problem that rendered the car almost unusable in winter addressed (we'd get ice inside the car!). I traced that to water constantly accumulating in the spare wheel well but I couldn't work out how it was getting in. Anyway, it's had a new front driveshaft and carrier bearing fitted and various worn suspension components replaced. A new boot latch has been fitted because the original latch had worn to the point the boot lid was loose allowing water in.
Anyway, it's looking great now and driving fantastically again so my newfound enthusiasm has prompted me to start using it again and join up! Just need to sort a couple of niggles now - we still get an occasional grunching from the front suspension despite all the work, the digital clock bulb has failed and a headlight has clouded up so I will be delving into the serch engine for advice.
Cheers
This post has been edited by Polypedates: 06 December 2011 - 08:46 PM
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Gearbox is fine, typically epic - shift speed only limited by how fast you can move your hand and how mechanically sympathetic you are feeling! Suspension work may not have fully addressed the issue but it definitely feels sharper to drive now which is why I've been re-discovering it recently.
