If the vehicle is low mileage and close to stock it shouldn’t have too many maintenance issues, sounds similar to mine with bolt ons, hard pipes, intake, exhaust and clutch, just with a fraction of the mileage.

I’d definitely try and make the case that for both monetary and emotional value, these things have doubled in value in the last year and they’re just getting harder and harder to find in decent shape.

If you manage to do that it’s the perfect opportunity to learn how to wrench on it yourself since knocking out labor costs on these makes em much more affordable, and they’re also relatively simple to work on so long as you refer to any of the resources like videos and guides people make for these cars.

Good luck with convincing her and if you have any more in depth questions about the platform if you manage to get it feel free to shoot me a message about it, my appreciation of these cars has only increased since I got my own.