| My Old Car - End of the
Road |
 |
By August, 2002, the Prelude which
served me so well was pretty much done. I had known for a while it was too
far gone to salvage and that once the next major part failed that would be the end.
That part turned out to be the clutch. It had been acting up for a
while, so the car hadn't been running much, but I had to get it out of the apartment parking garage so we could
move. With fingers crossed, I gave it a test. The clutch (and car) held together for
one last spirited ride down the highway before breaking down for good right in
the driveway of my parents' house. It was donated for salvage to the Clean
Air fund.
This isn't really a shot of my car,
but it is a dead match for what my car would have looked like when new.
This car even came from the same dealership and has the same stickers.
When I got the Prelude, it was 11
years old and had 224,400 km on it. The car ran fabulously, but had had a
very suspect body job done on it (I only really figured this out after spending
a LOT of time with a grinder). In some spots, they had used paper and
cardboard as a backing for bondo (why not just use a sponge?). The paint
hadn't been prepped properly, either. I fought the body for four years and
was holding my own, but the second year I was in Buffalo, it sat out and the rust just consumed
it. By the end, the only good, straight panels were the
passenger-side rocker, the passenger-side headlight assembly and the
trunk. That engine, though, never quit. Always started on the
first turn of the key, blew clean (the last emissions test almost passed the
requirements for a 1997 model) and got 30 mpg. The car always shifted smooth as glass,
too. Pity Honda was still making biodegradable cars in 1985....
Poor beast. I would have loved
to have fixed it up, but really, the only way to have done it would have been to
have bought a second one, switched license plates and called it a job. I
have a lot of pictures taken on the last couple of days, but the only one I will
put up is of the odometer. Best to remember it as it was.
My car also had nice summer rims taken
off a BMW. Changed the look and was pretty cool. I kept those, along
with the spare, jack, floor mats and various other salvageable parts. Thanks go out to
Scott Maclean, who is the owner of this picture, and who I artfully removed from
the driver's seat.
