Dude, these cars are less than $10,000 NEW. They don't even come with Cruise Control for pete's sake.So I'd figure a 2 year old model would run about $6,000.

I'd consider them as "disposable" (good American attitude there), and if I blew the engine after four years, I'd probably just drop another one in pretty cheap. A 1.6L 4banger is not too expensive. And being that small and simplistic, I don't imagine they'd be too tough to work on.

I agree that any modification would most certainly void the warranty. But how good are warranties anyway these days? I haven't read the fine print on any lately.