I'm not sure if it was actually a 1997 model, because I traded it in in 2005. I traded it in because it hurt my hip so much to push down that tight spring on the clutch. I asked a local repair place if they could loosen the spring some and the guy said he couldn't do that. He said his daughter had the same kind of car and she complained about it all of the time too, but there wasn't any way to loosen it.

I have checked for recalls from time to time over the years because I still have problems with sciatica in that hip and leg. I had all kinds of MRI's at that time and found nothing. The only thing I could conclude was that it was tendonitis from pushing that darned clutch.