wrote in message
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[...]
Am I just having a run of bad luck, or is this normal for older (mid
70's well used airplanes. All of this really makes me want to buy my
own plane

An engine failure is certainly NOT normal, for any properly maintained
airplane.

The airplane you describe is certainly below the quality of any airplane
I've ever rented, and that includes a well-aged 1950's era 172 I ran into in
southwest Virginia ten or so years ago (actually, aside from being
cosmetically inferior, that plane was a pretty nice one to fly).

Seems to me that, at the very least, you need to find somewhere else to rent
from. Individually, the first two items on your list sound like reasonably
normal "could have happened to anyone" sorts of things, but the third and
fourth are just plain wrong. Taken together, they imply some significant
neglect of the airplane.

I fear that I will be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Depends on whether you have enough cash on hand to take care of problems.

How long does take to get the bugs and issues worked out of an
older plane once purchased...
a)Never,
b)Its always perfect
c)Somewhere in between?

Define "bugs". Any mechanical device, including an airplane, requires
maintenance. Things wear out and eventually fail. You will *always* be
fixing *something*.

However, it certainly is possible to get an airplane into a highly reliable
state. That is, you can't guarantee that things won't break, but you can
come pretty close to certainty that if something does break, it won't ruin
your day. You can never get to 100% -- even the most perfectly-maintained
plane can fail -- but you can get quite a bit better than what you've seen
in the plane you've been renting.

That said, you don't have to buy a plane to get one in that state. A large
proportion of the planes offered for sale will need some significant work
(and money) to get it up to snuff after purchase, since many planes are sold
because the owner lacked the time or funds to keep the airplane maintained
(or it became neglected simply because the sale of the plane was impending).
There ARE rentals available that have had this kind of maintenance done on
them regularly already. You can reap the benefits of good maintenance
without making yourself financially liable for that maintenance and without
putting down the capital investment in the airplane itself.

There are other aspects of ownership that provide benefits you can't get
from a rental situation, but quality maintenance isn't really one of them,
not if you find a good rental outfit.

Lastly in a case of an issue like #4 what do you do if the mechanic
doesn't find anything?

Don't fly the airplane until the mechanic does find something.

I suppose if you owned the airplane, AND the mechanic spend two days or so
looking at it and still could not find anything wrong with the engine, AND
the engine had been run on the ground (including at full power) for some
significant amount of time (30-60 minutes at a minimum, though probably not
all at the same time) without ANY sign of hesitation, then you might
consider spending a couple of hours or so test flying within gliding
distance of the airport (hopefully you've got a long runway, and use Vx
until you've got plenty of altitude) and eventually getting to a point where
you feel you can trust the airplane again.

After all, no one else is going to be your test pilot (well, actually...I
suppose you could find someone who might be willing to do it if you paid
them, but you'd better be sure you get them to sign a liability waiver so
it's clear everyone involved knows there's a larger than normal possibility
the engine could quit). And you might find it hard to sell an airplane when
the reason for selling is "unresolved engine failure".

But for a rental, you have no financial stake in the airplane. Why mess
around with it? Just find some place that rents airplanes that don't quit
on you just after takeoff.

Pete