Since buying this car, I've found it has the potential to get me into considerable trouble!

I've never before owned a vehicle in which I can roll around an on-ramp to a freeeway in a liesurely manner, look in the LH mirror, see a huge semi-truck heading very quickly toward me in the right lane, plant my foot on the gas, and as quickly as I can recover from having my body jammed back into the seat, I look back in the rearview, and the semi is shrinking quickly!

Reading through some messages I've seen suggestions that variable valve timing may have begun in the 5-cylinder engines earlier than the 2003 I thought. What's the truth?

Best mileage has been on a long, cruise-controlled trip from the Niagara area to Philadelpia and back at 120 KPH..the equivalent of 26 MPG.

I too have a soft-edged groove..probably about .06" deep in the drivers' side front rotor.. no degradation in performance but what causes this?..a stone wedged in there? By the way, with these 304mm vented rotors front and rear on the 2000, the braking is, as the youthful crowd would say, "awesome".

A private mechanic recently suggested I consider changing the timing belt much earlier than the factory-required 168,000KM. Suggestions? By the way, the underside of the serpentine belt is looking pretty cracked-up! Just replaced the top engine-mount..the one that links to the firewall, with the blue urethane one from IPD. Suddenly on starting up I find every little jerk of the engine assy is telegraphed through to the steering wheel. Not a problem, just a new sensation!

Anyone else out there really pissed - off by the lack of variable intermittent wipers on these beasts? Seems to me I had a 1990 Ford Probe LX that had them..a ten-year older car!! And the IPD kit doesn't fit..It was one of the first things I was going to retrofit..and it doesn't fit!!

Anyone else suffered a strange driveshaft-like sound ..especially noticeable in winter months..a bad-bearing kind of sound that starts off slowly as the car moves slowly, but speeds up as the car does? Dealer replaced the entire prop shaft in order to replace the center bearing which had gone bad around 90,000KM. Fortunately this was under the VIP warranty to 160,000 KM. Any advice or warnings gratefully accepted!

Hisself.