An older guy's (me) perspective story: I had a 1994 Kick 2-door. It was really very cherry. I bought it in 1998. I always buy mine used and this one had about 28K on it. Anyway, I drove it for several thousand miles, then I let my daughter drive it. At about 60K the steering box went out of it. Suzuki wanted about $1,200 for a replacement box. I checked with Chevy for one for their 1994 "Geo" model. Chevy told me it wouldn't work. They wanted $850 for theirs. They also said there would be a 15% restock fee. Guess which one I bought? It fit fine, of course. Chevy dealers piss me off. They are in denial on their Geo and Tracker models. The only other major problem I had with this truck was the top hinge on the driver door rusted off, literally. The door was ready to fall off. It let go rather suddenly. There was no other rust on this truck, none, frame or anything, but the hinge rusted off. I decided this was just one out of a thousand trucks that was just going to continue to have wierd things go wrong with it so I traded him for a 2000 Ford Focus, which the daughter unit contiued to drive. It turned out to be a good car.
BUT, here's the important point, I have kicked my ass several times for trading that truck. It was still cherry and the ugly weld job used to repair the hinge was not noticable and worked great. I could have had a ton more fun with that truck, not to mention the engine had another 100K of life in it and it was a 5 spd too.
So... you may have bought a probelm child, but it won't last forever, so unless you have nightmares when you try to sleep about this truck and it is affecting your health, fix it and drive on. Time heals all wounds both physical and mental, if you allow it to. When you get old and gray and you look back on your life, you can come up with hundreds of ways you could have saved money, but money don't buy happiness nor does it give happiness. It's just money.
I stopped and counted how many vehicles I have bought and sold since I started driving. it came to 38!!! And NO I am not nor have I ever been an auto dealer. I know I must have kept a few in business though. I know damned well I could have drove half of them longer and never have purchased the other half. But I did. Now I have fond memories of all these clunkers. Yeah, it can be aggravating at times, but life goes on.
