Everything is good.There is one bad news about the car. Couple of weeks ago a short occured somewhere and since then the little digital clock on the dashboard doesnt go off. never. I thougt its no big deal, but hey...It really causes a tiny, but constant drain and after three weeks of not driving it killed the battery all the way to the point where nothing electrical would even pretend to work...Thos is the very first time the battery ever died on me so I better locate and fix the short when we get back to the little apple. Except that, the car is really good. It got 34 miles to the gallon on the way here and it was pretty loaded with all my shit. That was the best Iv ever got, probably because I changed the spark plugs before I left.
The only known problems are the cracked manifold, damaged or missing piston ring on the first cylinder by now(the oil consuption is about one quart per 1400 miles) and the short... (which also causes the cruise controll problem... it only works when the headlights are off).
Anyway... the cars performance is awesome despite all these minor problems, the odometer reading is now just under 159 000 miles(254 400km)...
Wish us good luck, we are leaving tmrw morning...
and remember... as my friend Flint said:-) Save the planet, drive toyota...
