>>2413138>How reliable was it, did it have problems very regularly? Very reliable. The only thing that broke was the transmission safety switch, which prevented the stick being moved out of park. It was $300 including mech's time.
The main problem I had was cold temperature starts. I'm in Canada, and in the winter, colder than -5'c it was tough to start without putting the block heater on. With the block heater warming up the engine for 3 hours, it would start on the first crank down to -30'c. Bottom line was that if I got an invitation out to the pub in the winter time, I had to wait 3 hours for the engine to get up to temp to start.
>How much did you pay for it and what did you have to put into it to make it reliable? I paid about 12k Leafbucks, and sold it for 12.5k 4 years later. I paid for the transmission safety switch as a repair. I bought a really good deep-cycle glass-mat battery when I first got it as it had the original factory battery in there and my Deli was a camper unit with interior lights and a space heater that ran off the battery.
>If you're US, which I am, was it uniquely difficult being on the opposite side as other cars? No. I lived in Japan for a few years and drove over there, so had experience driving on the opposite side. It was the reverse parking that was the most tricky to get down, and it'll take you 20 minutes in an empty parking lot before you've got a feel for where the corners are. No worries.
>Why did you get rid of it assuming you no longer have it.In descending order of importance: the cold starts in the winter meant having to wait a few hours before I could go out. I got spooked with the possibility of having to source and pay for replacement parts if anything major broke down. There were only two or three places in my city that would/could work on them.