My Hooptie!

James here. This is gonna be another long post...

So let me just get right to the point...

I need a "new" car!

I have had my 1988 prelude since 1999 when I was just home from my mission in New Zealand. It has served me well ever since and has rarely let me down. I have no ill feelings toward it. But like all good things, this too however, must pass.

I've wanted to replace it for years but it was always a case of, "If it ain't broke..." Well now it IS broke...in a few dozen ways. The problem is, none of the issues it has are fatal flaws...just annoyances. But there are many and they are very annoying...

So let's explore all of the things that are wrong with this otherwise beautiful machine...

EXTERIOR - The paint that used to be black is now badly oxidized and white or gray in many areas. In many places the paint is cracking and falling off. The hood was spray painted by myself after I had to replace it many years ago. Not long after I replaced it, it was damaged again (as seen in the image below). I didn't feel like buying yet another new hood (I already had to repair the radiator as a result of that collision) and so it still has a nice dent in the front.

One of the front turn signals is slightly loose. You can see where I used a zip tie to keep it from falling completely out.


Here is the keyhole on the passenger side where someone used a screwdriver to try to break in. I'm not sure what they thought they would find inside but they were unsuccessful.


This side-view mirror looks fine enough until you get up to freeway speeds and it vibrates so much that you can't see anything out of it anyway.


INTERIOR - Just a little wear and tear.


Apparently my left arm is really heavy or something because this is what it looks like on the door where I rest it. Honestly, is that a bit ridiculous?


This is a fun one. Right above the rear-view mirror there is a small alarm that warns you when you start the car that your seat belt is not fastened. Now originally there was a cover over this noise-maker to bring it down to a reasonable volume level. That cover was gone long before I bought the car. As a result I have to hear obnoxiously loud beeps every time I get in the car, every time a passenger has trouble getting their seat-belt on (frequently), every time someone undoes their seat belt, and sometimes it will just decide to go off for no apparent reason while I am driving down the road. I have turn the ignition off and start the car again for it to stop. It's a great feature. The noise doesn't bother me that much because after 9 years of driving this thing I guess I've tuned it out. But anytime someone is in the car with me they act like a bomb is about to go off or something. I used to try to explain what the noise was...I don't even bother anymore.

WINTER DRIVING - Any of our readers spent a winter in Utah? I have a feeling some of you have. Imagine this if you will. No heat/defrost and no wipers. When I say "no heat" it does produce heat, but the fan that gets that heat from the engine to the inside of the vehicle is kaput. It used to be that only settings 3 and 4 of the fan worked, until last winter when they all died. It really wasn't too bad when I had to drive 2 miles on small roads to get to work. I could stick my head out the window and pretty much see whatever I needed to see. Now that I am 25 minutes from work it is really going to be a different story once the weather turns this year. And yes I said the wipers don't work. The wiper motor is fine but the arms that control them busted apart. I "rain-x"ed the windshield so that is not too big of a deal until you get a nice snowfall. There were a couple of times last year when I had to pull over a few times and wipe the snow off. It was a long 2 miles on those days.


Oh yeah, did I mention that the power steering leaks? I used to just re-fill it every couple of weeks but now it needs it far more often than that so I don't even bother anymore. Did you know that the power steering has to work to pass a Utah safety inspection? Did you also know that it's about a $600 repair to get that particular item fixed on my car? Could I even get $600 if I sold this thing? Surely not (in good conscience).

Also, during the summer months, this car has about a 90% start rate. That sounds pretty high until you realize that if you try to start it twice a day, it's not going to start at least once a week or so. Sometimes if you wait 15 minutes and try again it will start right up as if nothing was ever wrong...sometimes you have to wait hours for it to do that. But rest assured it will always start back up again. Ive never had it to wait more than 24 hours.

During the winter, one of the battery cables has a frayed end doesn't like the cold weather and will decide not to conduct electricity thus leaving me stranded until I find some one to give me a jump. I've cleaned the cable and stripped it back several times to the point where it now barely reaches the battery. That always works for a while but now I am literally at the end of my rope (or cable I guess).

Perhaps all of this ca be explained by the following image. This car has a lot of miles on it. I didn't know how many until I did a check on the Vin # a few years ago and found that the odometer had been rolled back at some point before I ever owned it. It probably has at least 250k miles on it now. I suppose it makes sense that it is falling apart.


If you are still reading this, let me just say thanks. But you are probably wondering to yourself, "why is he still driving that car?" or perhaps, "why doesn't he just fix some of those problems?"

Like I said before, none of these problems have been enough to actually keep the car from working (for very long at least). Up until now I never had to drive it more than a few miles at a time. I could never bring myself to put money into a car that was on it's last legs when I could just put that same money toward an actual fully working car. I've really just been waiting for this thing to die, secretly hoping that some catastrophic problem would arise and I would be forced to get a different car. After years of waiting for that, it just keeps on running. Even with all of these annoying problems, it still gets me where I need to go (most of the time).

But I think it might be time to take the old dog behind the shed metaphorically speaking and put it out of it's misery. Especially with safety and emissions coming due next month which I know I can't pass without dumping money into this thing that could better be used in purchasing a new one.

So the search is one for a replacement. I'm really not asking for much; a heater, wipers that move,( is AC too much to ask for?), power steering, you know, just the basics.

So wish me luck! And speaking of "good luck"...as I was taking pictures for this post I came across this Sai Baba pin (in the ash tray) that was given to me in New Zealand by a Hindu man turned Mormon. He said it was believed to be good luck and he wanted me to have it. How could I refuse?

Maybe that is what has been keeping this thing running all these years.