We'll See How Long This Lasts…

You always suspected I thought it. Now you know it’s true.

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Just recently, my Honda CR-V’s odometer rolled through it’s 100,000th mile! What, you might ask, did I do to celebrate the occasion? Well, that’s not a short answer.

First, let me praise Honda Motor Company. They make well built vehicles that some find pricey, but almost always are a good buy. They tend to hold onto a high resale value. Sure, every car can be expected to need some repairs by the time it’s a decade old. Rarely do they leave their drivers stranded on the side of the road. Mine has served me well in the years I have had it, needing few minor fixes. Plus, I really like their colors – it always privately pleased me that my and MissyG’s car’s colors were identical, too. All in all, kudos to the big H.

So, 100K rolled around. Honestly, I confess to missing the actual event. I saw it would be coming, one day on the way home from somewhere, and made a mental note to watch for it in the next few days. I promptly forgot that and the Big Event came and went right under my nose. C’est la vie. Anyway, I decided that it was time for a Professional Detailing. She was due one, since before katrina, and lord knows she certainly served well during that multi-thousand-mile period, carrying all sorts of things she normally wouldn’t, collecting all manner of smells and funk my normal commute would not incur. MissyG promised that she would get me one, but bills being what they are for her, well, it just never happened. So, I took it upon myself to go pay for a good detailing. I was excited – I have always done this sort of thing, myself. Detailing is a luxury that I have avoided paying for, in order to hold onto my money to spend it on more important things. Narrow-minded folk who have never had to worry about such frugality would, I’m sure, call that “Jewish”, meaning cheap. To those who think along those lines: how lucky for you that for both of us to be as generous and indulgent as we are, only one of us didn’t have to keep his eye on the bottom line. Back to the detailing… they did an alright job and the interior looked pretty clean, and I was feeling good about it. Nice!

Next, Honda had issued an emissions recall for a list of cars that invluded mine. It was nothing serious, and it had the positive upshot of providing me with the following for free: oil change, oil filter, rotor, ditributor cap, spark plugs, plug wires, and emissions check. Awesome!! My car had just that month started to simply kill after a few minutes of driving, and I expected that the tune-up would take care of that nicely. It seemed no big deal. When it would happen, I would simply click my transmission into Neutral, turn the key, the motor would start, I would pop it back in Drive, and I’d be on my way. Still, I expected that to be remedied by the free tune-up. So, I left my car at the Honda Dealership to handle those adjustments, and picked it up later that day. Feeling good!

And then the engine killed like it had been doing, while on my way home, the next day. “OK,” I thought, “No prob, Bob. I’ll just pop it into N, crank it, and be on my way without even stopping. I’ll take it back to Honda and get it checked later.”

*WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG WITH A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT*
No matter how badly you may be tempted, even in a fit of MISEARBLY BAD judgement, DO NOT EVER PUT YOUR TRANSMISSION INTO REVERSE WHILE ROLLING FORWARD. Never. Not even just a little.

Yeah, I slipped on past N right into R and, can you imagine, the drivetrain did not like that one bit. “KUH-CHUNCKK!!!,” my car said. “Sonofabitch,” I replied. I coasted to a stop, put the thing in Park, and turned the key. After a couple of sweaty, nervous seconds, it revved to life and I was back on my way. However, that wasn’t all my car had to say. “Click-click-click…” it now repeated, over and over, faster and faster matching my mph, just faint enough to miss, just loud enough to let me know I had broken something expensive. “Crap,” was all I replied. I made it home and went inside, feeling yucky on my gut.

I made an appointment to get it checked by Honda. I had to wait two days. Once they got it, they took two days to investigate. All they could say was that SOMETHING was wrong with the transmission (they didn’t know what), and they would sell me a new one, installed, for ~$4000. Wow. I needed a second opinion. I drove it straight home, fearing every mile I drove could be making it worse. Come Monday, I was able to make an appointment for the next day to bring it to a transmission specialist near work. They went for a test drive with me, and their initial guess-timate was that it might be axels, which might cost as little as $500. The next day, they decided it was a problem inside the transmission, after all, and that it may come to $1500-1800.

To make a long story short, I got the car back Friday and the bill had grown to $2525.00. Wow. I feel they were straight with me and they aren’t crooks. And I suppose the price is fair, but it sucks to watch the massive hit to my bank account, which is now much lower than I prefer to feel safe. Still, it’s good to be back in control of where I go, at my own convenience. MissyG knows how that is.

It seems that selecting Reverse while rolling forward can break your 4th gear really well. Also, at 100k miles, I needed new all new belts and a new motor mount, too. In the end, it means two things: 1) I’m down two-and-a-half large. Ouch. and 2) Hey, I have a freshly rebuilt transmission and all new belts! And now, the only conversations my car and I have are about the hotties we spot while tooling around town. Not to worry – those conversations are always one-sided.

Many thanks go out to my good friend Mikey, who repeatedly insisted that I didn’t have to keep buying him lunches when he drove me to lunch (and to home) every day. And while I agreed that giving rides IS what friends do, I certainly aimed to make him happier to do so whenever I “greased the wheels of Indusrty” by picking up the tab most of the time. Thanks, again.

One last thing… while we are on the subject of cars, I should mention that MnR and I went to see Pixar’s CARS. It was fun. You should catch it before it drives off…