Hey guys. Interesting story.. A buddy at work doesn't know anything about repairing cars and thought the clutch went out so he offered to sell me his old 1994 Mazda Protégé DX for $100. I of course accepted and went and checked it out. This was a complete steal. The clutch problem wasn't the clutch at all, it was a worn out shifter bushing, he couldn't find 1st gear and kept trying to take off in 3rd, assuming it was slipping really bad. I got under the car and put some washers in place and bolted it up, shifts crisp and smooth now until the OEM bushings come in. I cleaned the interior from head to toe and besides the normal wear on the driver seat, its cherry now. The headliner is falling apart but I bought some Loctite spray adhesive and about 2x2 yards of replacement material to fix it. The trunk is the best part. He had the trunk taped shut for almost 2 years and turns out, the latch on the body of the car was loose and needed to be put back in place and tightened. Literally 2 minutes with a 10mm wrench and it was fixed. It slams shut and pops open as it should. I topped off all of the fluids and drove it for about an hour and it ran perfectly. There's an obvious lifter tick but goes away once warm, meh. The AC even works?! The best part is, it only has 117,000 MILES!! So, $128 after the headliner and OEM bushing for a daily driver that gets 30+ MPG.. Sorry for the novel but I am just astonished with this thing. Its not exactly my style but I'm gonna grab some bigger OEM Mazda wheels off a newer protégé or Miata, throw a bike rack on the roof, the dog in the back seat and just enjoy it for what it is. My winter rally car lol. Here's the YouTube video of the original look at it. I'll add some pictures when I'm done cleaning it this weekend. What do you guys think?

 

Gotta love an old beater that still runs! Good catch.

 

wow, awesome deal! congrats.