Thinking about buying a 93 Protege

[Infinitrium]

I'm thinking about buying a 93 Protege SE to replace my piece of crap 88 Corolla. The protege is 500 bucks Canadian, with a parts car to go with it. It's a 4 door auto with the little trunk spoiler. It's got a power sunroof, power mirrors, remote start and not much else. The owner put a brand new radiator in it, new gastank, new front exhaust pipe and a new caliper. The tires have a fair bit of tread left. I took it for a little scoot down the road and it seems pretty nice. Suspension seems good and steering feels tight. The hold button works too. The car does need a front wheel bearing repaired and the brakes need to be bled. The car is in good shape, and in my opinion is worth more than the 500 bucks he's asking for it. What do you people think? Is it worth it? How reliable are these cars? I've heard some unpleasent things about the transmissions, but the B8 engine is supposedly pretty bulletproof. What kind of fuel mileage can I expect to get from this car? Here's a few pictures of the car.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Protege002.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Protege005.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...Protege004.jpg

[Doug Tatham]

It sounds like a good deal. It's a shame the car isn't in Florida, or I might go after it. I have a 99, which is fairly different from the 93 so I can't give you an opinion from actual experience. I have 193,000 miles on my car and it's still running as good as new. Frequent transmission fluid changes are a must. The front wheel bearing is a difficult do it yourself task. They make it very hard to disassemble. I wanted to repack my bearings a few years ago and had a difficult time. I don't remember what made it difficult, I think it may have been an especially large socket was required and I couldn't find the right size in pneumatic. It seems to me I exploded a 1/2 inch universal joint adapter on the job.