164 questions/shopping

[Glenn Wasserman <glennwa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, on Monday I had a close encounter with a Grand Cherokee. The woman who
was driving was apparently not paying attention and rear-ended me on an
on-ramp.

The car is fixable, I'm pretty aware fo the options (the CPI guide is my
friend :) but odds are the car will be considered a total loss and I will
settle with my insurance company. If they can give me what I consider to be
fair marked value for the car, I would accept that and move into a 164.

So now I'm shopping for 164's and decided that I REALLY want an S- primarily
for the body work. Which leads me to an obvious question: how hard
(expensive) would it be to add the extra body bits to an 'L?

I've driven a well-tuned L and (so far) one S (both '93s) and I've concluded
that the difference in acceleration is subtle enough that I can't detect it
in the course of a short test drive.

But I love the seats and other upgrades. So that leads me to another
question: if I leave the suspsension in Sport mode, will that help the
shocks last longer? Is the switching that wears them out, or just driving on
them?

If I leave the HVAC controls on manual and don't play with them a lot, will
the stepper motor last longer?
(In other words, if I buy a car with a good original stepper motor, is it a
given that it will go?)

I appreciate any advice - thanks!
- -Glenn

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