I know what you mean about abandoning cars:

A brief history: my 544- bought for 250 dollars cash at an office Christams party. The original owner had rolled it going off the road in a snow storm. He bought a Ford Maverick (this was in '77) that had 6 cyl, 4 doors and an auto trans- he thought he was really advancing in life...

My 142 GL bought from someone who had bought it for his petite 16 yr old daughter, who had problems with the heavy steering, and the fact that it was standard trans (he paid huge $'s to put a new clutch in). It went up for sale when the brake failure light lit up and wouldn't go out when a local grage tried to bleed the brakes. If you know the circuits you know why...($399 purchase)