Our beloved, go anywhere, do anything 2004 Mazda MPV has bitten the dust. She went in for state inspection, running perfectly and fully functional but when our mechanic put it up on the rack, he found significant rust on the frame; a golf ball-sized hole in front of the rear tire on the driver's side and one behind it as well.
A trusted body shop proclaimed the damage unsafe to fix and the death bell rang. DOA. Sayonara. This one is quite dead yet. It is no more.
With nothing discernibly wrong visually and while driving and our goal of at least 200K miles, we're crushed that it's the end of the road. But the safety of the vehicle is severely compromised and it won't pass inspection.
The irony of the situation hasn't passed us by. For years, we've been hawking that rust isn't much of an issue here in the Northeast these days, but here we are with a vehicle that has been laid waste by it. Why that's happened to this particular vehicle after all of the other vehicles that were significantly older and not affected is beyond us. And why our mechanic didn't catch it earlier is probably not something we'd rather dwell on.
And yet...this is just the sort of conundrum that we absolutely love and we're already having a ball researching the replacement. So come with us now on a journey of cheapskate obsession...it's gonna be fun!
Devastating news. Sorry to hear. Great van that died before its time.
ReplyDeleteOh noooooooooo.....not the MPV!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh man that sucks. What a great car that was for you guys.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer.
ReplyDeleteCondolences. I know what that car meant to you guys.
ReplyDelete