Purchase in an American XM desert - am I brave enough?

[bump_drft]

Ha, I think that's the car I bought.

It is indeed very basic, I'm a bit sad about the lack of hydractive, but I do like that there's very little to go wrong.

I just drove it across the country. JAX to New Orleans, where it stayed for 8 or 9 months, I did some very basic refreshing (I'm not mechanically inclined). I just finished a drive across the country and now it's in Los Angeles, CA for a visit to a specialist, whenever he gets back to me.

Car is fine other than some weird starting issues and an exhaust leak that I can't seem to fix. It needs an accumulator sphere but always stands up fine and levels.

It's a superb car for New Orleans, but less at home in the wide open desert freeways--the engine is buzzy and busy at 85+, so your speed is limited.

[Dieselman]

The exhaust leak might be the manifold is cracked, 2.0 Atmo engines do tend to do that.

The engine may be revving relatively high at 85 mph, but is well within it's operating range. The car is capable of about 125mph, so at 100mph is using 50% of its power output...~65Bhp.
New engine mounts may make engine noise less intrusive.

Good to hear you are stretching it's legs. Do you find it comfortable?

[bump_drft]

It is lovely, lazy, and comfortable, perfect for New Orleans' destroyed roads. I put a new (used) header on it, but it is still noisy and getting worse. I suspect the shop did something wrong on the install. I did give them new bolts and gaskets. I have a really great shop here in Los Angeles that's going to go over it top to bottom.