Hillary Honda My dad, who passed away three years ago at age 92, bought a Honda Accord in 1993. Had a sun roof, had that new fancy cruise control, power windows, “loaded” as we used to say.
My guess is he never rolled back the sun roof and never used the cruise control. Twenty years later, I’m driving that car having taken over ownership when my parents moved into assisted living. I leave her (I call her Hillary Honda) stored in a garage over the colder months, rescue her in the summer and use her as our summer car at our retirement-destination in Massachusetts.
A few weeks ago, when I took Hillary out of storage the battery needed a major recharging, not having survived, as it has the past few winters, with the aid of The Tickler, a device that keeps the battery charged. Took it to my local mechanic who replaced what I think was the ORIGINAL battery in the car. That battery survived TWENTY YEARS without dying. It was a battery with the Honda logo on it, which is why I think it was the original. My dad, an accountant by education, kept meticulous records and had the oil changed every 3,000 – 4,000 miles like clockwork. When I took ownership of the car, it had about 87,000 miles on it. Today, it has 91,000 (I repeat, it is 20 years old. That’s an average of 4,550 miles a year).
Today, I took it to the Honda dealer because, when we replaced the battery, the anti-theft device on the radio killed the code and the only place I knew it to be was on the radio, so it had to be pulled out of the dashboard. (You're thinking my dad wasn’t as meticulous as I thought but my guess is he did write the code down, I just couldn’t find it.)
“When we got it up on the lift (it also had a flat), we couldn’t believe what good shape it’s in,” the guy at the dealer told me today. “The technician wants to buy it, and so do I, if you want to sell it.” My local mechanic offered to buy it, also.
Good feeling when you’re driving a 20-year-old car and the experts want to buy it.
I’m debating selling it after this summer since it’s getting close to the time I’ll retire and move to Massachusetts, and we already have two cars (my nearly 10-year-old Beetle convertible and my wife’s 20-year old Ford pickup, also in
excellent shape).
I’m starting to think about selling the Honda now because it will take me a long time to get myself prepared to give it up. Not just because it’s in great shape, but because every time I drive it, I picture my father behind the wheel.
And how is that not a keeper?
My guess is he never rolled back the sun roof and never used the cruise control. Twenty years later, I’m driving that car having taken over ownership when my parents moved into assisted living. I leave her (I call her Hillary Honda) stored in a garage over the colder months, rescue her in the summer and use her as our summer car at our retirement-destination in Massachusetts.
A few weeks ago, when I took Hillary out of storage the battery needed a major recharging, not having survived, as it has the past few winters, with the aid of The Tickler, a device that keeps the battery charged. Took it to my local mechanic who replaced what I think was the ORIGINAL battery in the car. That battery survived TWENTY YEARS without dying. It was a battery with the Honda logo on it, which is why I think it was the original. My dad, an accountant by education, kept meticulous records and had the oil changed every 3,000 – 4,000 miles like clockwork. When I took ownership of the car, it had about 87,000 miles on it. Today, it has 91,000 (I repeat, it is 20 years old. That’s an average of 4,550 miles a year).
Today, I took it to the Honda dealer because, when we replaced the battery, the anti-theft device on the radio killed the code and the only place I knew it to be was on the radio, so it had to be pulled out of the dashboard. (You're thinking my dad wasn’t as meticulous as I thought but my guess is he did write the code down, I just couldn’t find it.)
“When we got it up on the lift (it also had a flat), we couldn’t believe what good shape it’s in,” the guy at the dealer told me today. “The technician wants to buy it, and so do I, if you want to sell it.” My local mechanic offered to buy it, also.
Good feeling when you’re driving a 20-year-old car and the experts want to buy it.
I’m debating selling it after this summer since it’s getting close to the time I’ll retire and move to Massachusetts, and we already have two cars (my nearly 10-year-old Beetle convertible and my wife’s 20-year old Ford pickup, also in
excellent shape).
I’m starting to think about selling the Honda now because it will take me a long time to get myself prepared to give it up. Not just because it’s in great shape, but because every time I drive it, I picture my father behind the wheel.
And how is that not a keeper?
RSS Feed