It was limited production engine that has a problem of eating timing belts, cracking cylinder heads, and a/c failure. When the timing belt breaks, the engine immediately dies and there is a loss of all power assist including steering. Another one of these vehicles I own went through 5 cylinder heads and 7 timing belts in 83k miles, because of the small number of this special engine produced, there probably haven't been many complaints, but if the service records were pulled from daimler chrysler for all the cars...
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with engine vin code "a" the 2.2L 16v lotus dohc turbo iii, 90% will have had at lest one of these problems repaired under warranty and probably many more that which continued to occur after the factory warranty expired. An owners club on the internet at http://topica.Com/list/rt_mailing_list has over 300 people, some with multiple cars like myself and would be a good source to help document these problems. *Jb **dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12/12/02 cut-over to artemis****762546