Friday, November 2, 2012

What's going on with the Honda

151,515 miles.
As of today, I've driven the Honda 16,430 miles in just under a year, which puts me at nearly 2000 over the average American's 12-15,000 mile range in a given year.  For the most part the time with this car has been (as expected) completely trouble free.  At this rate, I'll be hitting 200,000 miles in this vehicle at some point in September of 2015.

There is, however, a very good chance this car will not be in my possession when that happens.

Don't get me wrong.  The car still works.  It gets me from point A to point B like a champ.  In nearly 17,000 miles of driving it has yet to leave me stranded, but with that in mind there are a few repairs that are going to be needed in the very, VERY near future.

First, the Air Conditioning is gone.  Shot.  Kaput.  According to my mechanic, a simple re-charge is out of the question, I need an entire new compressor.  The cost for this compressor is roughly $1000 that I'm just not willing to spend on this particular vehicle.  As we're heading into winter, this isn't a HUGE issue, as I don't need the AC to keep the car cool, but I do need the AC to keep the interior of the car dry; that in and of itself is huge.

During Sandy, I got cabin fever, and decided to head to the gym for a quick workout before it got too horrible to drive.  Because there is no AC in the car, the moisture is not pulled from the air when the defrost is on, as such, every window in the car fogs to a point you just can't see out when it's humid outside.  That is downright dangerous.

Second, the front suspension is having issues.  The car handles wonderfully.  Significantly better than my 1999 Accord V6, but that's primarily due to the fact that it's a manual rather than an automatic.  That being said, however, when I hit the speed bumps on the way into my townhouse complex tonight, I heard the tell-tale grinding that let me know it's time for new front axles/cv joints/cv boots.  Total cost?  About $500.

Finally, Honda paint.  You can see my complaints about Honda's crappy paint in a post on the 1999 Accord here.  Unfortunately Honda did not improve their paint quality between 1999 and 2001.  And from the looks of the Civic that parks next to me at school, they didn't bother messing with it for the 2006 model year either. 

There are many other issues that could end up convincing me to sell.  Overall it's just not a car I'm happy with.  Mechanically it's been wonderful (despite the impending repairs).  Unfortunately the car just has no soul.  It never complains when I ask it to do something, but it also never tells me what it wants to do.  It's far more content being used as an appliance running errands around town than being pushed through corners, or even taking a nice, long highway trip.  After two hours in the car, I usually can't wait to get out.

As of today I'm scheduled to drive one of the 2013 Accord's for a new feature that's coming. I'll be looking for a car that is a bit more energetic.  Hopefully they figured out a way to jazz it up a bit.

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