I bought this Daytona new on April 27, 1991, from Tate Dodge of Annapolis. I specifically wanted an ES with the 2.5 4-cylinder and a five-speed. I would have preferred Electric Blue, but it was too late to order a '91 and the only 2.5/stick ones I could find were white (in March 2009 I learned they only made 817 1991 Daytona ES's with this engine/trans combination). MSRP was $13,666, and I got it for $13,400 including all the taxes and stuff. Traded my '86 Charger and put down a few grand.
Here's a photo taken within a few weeks of purchase, then a picture showing the odometer just turning over 100,000 miles on the way home from Englishtown seven years later:
I drove it daily, year-round, until April 2001 when I bought my 2000 Stratus. I figured I'd keep it and drive it every other day, since it was still running fine with 143,000 miles on it and delivering good mileage. The idea was to keep the mileage relatively low on the Stratus, since I have a long commute (54 miles round trip). If it held out until the Stratus was paid for, then I'd have a six-year-old car with only about 55,000 miles on it.
Well, the Stratus was paid off in 2006, and the Daytona has just kept on ticking. The timing belt was replaced for the first time at 164,000 miles. I put a fourth set of tires on it at 189,000 and I've lost track of how many exhaust systems it's been through.
In September, 2007, it hit this milestone:
I replaced the radiator in August 2008, saving a few hundred bucks over what it would have cost to have someone else do it. The fan shroud and A/C condensor did a great job of concealing just how bad the old one was--about a quarter of the fins were just gone .
The head has never been off the 2.5--that's right, over 200k on the original head gasket . The clutch is also original. The last two times I checked my gas mileage I got 34 and 33 mpg, which has me hoping it holds together for a long, long time to come. And that hatch still comes in real handy at times--I don't own a truck, and sometimes I need to carry stuff that won't fit in a trunk!
I took these the day it hit 200k:
The A/C no longer works, heat only comes out the defroster slits, the rubber moulding around the rear window has shrunk and flops around and the headliner is sagging. It's also got rust in both quarters (seventeen Maryland winters will do that) and the paint is peeling off the roof and hatch. But as long as it keeps running (and I can get it through Maryland emissions inspection), I'm gonna keep driving it.
210,500 miles as of 2/12/09. Somehow, it's managed to use or lose over 2 quarts of oil in the 1600 miles since the last oil change. And it's done this without blowing smoke or leaving stains anywhere. Weird!
I finally lost the sweet spot in the volume control on the original radio, meaning I got deafeningly-loud static whenever the radio was on. I scored a used one out of a '93 Shadow in a junkyard for $20. The tape deck on that one is bad, but at least I can listen to the radio again.
