Quote Originally Posted by eternal21 View Post
I'm going to have to disagree w/that statement. I've owned my VX for over 50k miles and 3.5 yrs. In that time, there have only been 2 sources of consternation:
a) the overheating - finally determined it was a pulley, and it has been replaced, and truck has been converted to electric cooling
b) tranny leak - replacing w/a 5MT to remove that altogether.

Now, the fan and controller were $300 combined, and the 5MT setup cost me nothing (bought the complete wrecked trooper and sold off misc parts to cover my purchase price).

Outside of those 2 things, the truck has been rock solid, and I've spent less than $500 on req'd maintenance items during that time. This year, I plan on spending another $500ish (ball joints, new plugs, new PS rack, new axle boots), but to me, having a rare vehicle for 4yrs with required expenditures of $1k or less is a steal.

I feel that I should also point out that my VX spent its life in TX, so it isn't susceptible to rust like a lot of the northern VXs.
so the 5 speed swap was free? great deal! (in other words you sidestepped a $2000 rebuild)

and like i said - if you love to work on cars, which you obviously do since you converted everything stock to different operating systems, then there is no problem