Cars

What follows is my complete car history, up to the present day...


It all started with a 1990 Oldsmobile Silhouette.

While driving, it had 17 enormous blind spots, stopped like an elephant, and turned like a battleship.
Then there the problems with the brakes and the coolant.

So in the Spring of 1998, I cashed in my Bar Mitzvah money,

along with some parental funding, and purchased a 1996 Honda Civic Hatchback. It had power locks, alloy wheels, a moonroof, and a keyless entry system.
It was a bit underpowered (it’s a Honda after all), but it maneuvered like a go-cart.

Skip ahead to Summer 2000, when I negotiated with my Dad to get his 1998 Honda Civic LX Sedan. My sister got the hatchback, painted it purple, and bumped it into many stationary objects. This Civic is the car I drive today, now 8 years old and at 105,000 miles. It’s a fun car to drive, but the automatic transmission has been grating on me the last few years, and the hills in OC challenge my poor 116 HP 4 cylinder engine.

This leads me to the great car search.

I began in late 2004, considering everything from another Honda Civic to a BMW 330i.

Then I sat in one of these.

An Acura RSX. It was perfect, except that it lacked some doors.

So I looked at Acura’s 4 door model, the TSX.

200 HP, 6 speed manual, dual zone climate control, power seats, leather interior, race-car style handling, etc. I had found what I was looking for. In early 2005, I began saving, with a purchase date around August ‘05.

However, in August, the 2006 specs came out, which included more power, an auxiliary input jack for MP3 players, a Bluetooth connection for cellphones, and a new color, Royal Blue Pearl.

So I decided to wait. The 06s were released in November, and I began dealing on December 1^st.
But much to my disappointment, Royal Blue 6MT TSXs were just not to be found. There was one in the entire state of CA, up in the Bay area, 400 miles away. I tried to deal on that car, but they were only selling for MSRP.

I took another look at the Carbon Gray,

and I was just about to deal on new CG TSX, when I started looking at the money. A new TSX out the door would cost me about $29,300. That’s a lot of cash. My frugality kicked in, and I started to consider other cars.

A 2006 Honda Civic: Won Car+Driver’s "Car of the Year" award.

A new EX 5MT would cost about $19K OTD.
A practical choice, good mileage, fun to drive, reliable, cheap to maintain, and incredible unexciting vehicle.

A 2006 Honda CRV: A mini-suv perfect for camping trips to places where Civics fear to tread.

I had this idea because it’s fairly inexpensive (about $22K), and it would be most useful for outdoor trips, but still functional on OC freeways.