[Rick Lee]

My wife bought an '06 non-S new and has 55k miles on it. It's been trouble free except for a leaky t-stat o-ring and wiper fluid reservoir which were covered under warranty. Battery died just before warranty expired, but that's common in the desert climate. I drive the car a lot and sort of like it, though it's woefully underpowered, especially when you're used to bikes and 911's. Working on it is a cinch. It's at least as DIY-friendly as the E46. Eric Coffey and I changed the belts out a while back without using the factory tool. And the fuel filter R&R wasn't a lot of fun, but then the kit Pelican sells has an O-ring which is way too large, so all was well when we reused the original one. I haven't heard of any catastrophic failures in these cars, but I guess anything can happen. Maint. is very easy.