11 years and still loving it!

Where do I start? I've owned my 1994 Protégé base model since it was new. Yes I said base. 1994 was the only year they made a trim line lower than the DX. (1.8L SOHC, 5 speed manual, more basic inside trim, black bumpers, no stereo (but strangely, the speaker are there.) The dealership in Orlando Florida took advantage of my inexperienced self and made a killing off of me. Despite the horrid taste the deal left in my mouth I learned to love the car. You can't kill it! It has 101,130 miles on it. It has never left me stranded. EVER! Do not buy an automatic version of the car. 103 HP is not enough to mate to an auto tranny. My stick shift does great! I've had it up to 120MPH on the roads of Montana. That was back when the speed limit was "Reasonable and Prudent" during the day and 65MPH at night. It gets great mileage. 36 on the highway. 28 in the city. (28 when you are doing 120MPH on the highway.) It rides great. It has good pick-up.
My only complaints are that the CV joints went out too soon (70,000 for one and 80,000 for the other), that my wife burnt up the clutch at 80,000 by using it to hold the car still at stop signs on hills in Seattle instead of using the brake, and the driver's mad-mouse seatbelt sometimes stays in the drive position when you open the door. Back in 2002 my mom wrecked it for me and I parked it in a field for 3 years. The day I parked it in the field I put Stable brand fuel treatment in the gas tank, put the fold out sunscreen up in the window, and disconnected the battery.
A couple of months ago when I went to tow it to the repair shot I hooked up the battery, jumpered from my truck to the battery. Then I disconnected the primary ignition cable to keep the engine from starting. I cranked the car over for about 10 seconds, let it rest for 10 seconds, and then cranked it over for another 10 seconds. Then I hooked the primary cable back up. It started on the 3rd crank the first time I turned the key. It ran a little rough for 2 minutes, but then got itself straightened out. I drove it up on the tow trailer and was off. I bought a used 1993DX with 180,000 miles on it off of eBay for $50, and used it to fix up the old car. Before I gave it to the shop to chop up I spent 1/2 hour abusing it on the back roads. The AC was ICE COLD. It had great pickup and let out no smoke at all. It rolled a little too much in the corners (180,000 miles. Come on!) The driver's seat was worn out, the front bumper was held on by bailing wire, and it leaked at the water pump. You could tell it had been ridden hard and put away wet a few times by the college kids who owned it.
Today is the first time the old car has driven in 3 years. I had the radiator and the whole AC system moved from the donor car. He moved both quarter panels, the hood, and the bumper from the donor car. He sanded, primed, painted, and pinstriped the car back to how we bought it. It was kind of creepy in a cool way to see a new 11-year-old car sitting there. Today I changed the coolant, oil, oil filter, transmission gear oil, had a screw removed from a tire and the tire patched, put fuel injector cleaner and water remover in the gas tank, topped off the 3 year old gas in the tank with 2 gallons of premium, and topped off the brake fluid. Tomorrow we are getting the AC system recharged. Then soon after that it is getting a new radio. I now have more money in the car than it is worth. But I KNOW everything that has ever happened to that car, and I know that it has at least another 100,000 miles in it!
ADVICE: Use the rough service maintenance list no matter how you drive. I change the oil every 5,000 miles. Every 25,000 miles before I change the oil I put in either a quart of kerosene, a quart of automatic transmission fluid, or a quart of off the shelf "pre-oil change flush compound" (Kerosene and ATF mixed and marked up). Then I run it for 5 minutes. This helps to dissolve all of the junk/sludge/carbon in the engine and carry it away with the oil. This is especially important since the car had hydraulic lifters and they made the passages a little too small. If the car you are looking at has chattering valves, then the oil system needs a really good flush, and take a look at the heads to see if there is any oil starvation damage. Anyway, I'm done rambling on. I love the car. It has been a good car. So good that when the gas prices doubled in a year, it was time to bring it back from the dead. I can't wait to get it out and really run it again! Maybe it's time for some speed mods.....