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Guess I have 3 cars again....
May. 19th, 2021 05:36 amNormal people buy a new or newer car to replace one that's worn out or otherwise no longer suitable for their purposes. People like me buy a new car to enable continued ownership of the older car(s). See, the first rule of project cars is to make sure the daily driving is taken care of. And the first rule of daily drivers is that they should not qualify as project cars. Project cars can be daily drivers, but if they can't sustain that duty, then that's asking for trouble.
But I'm no stranger to mixing sentimentality and pragmaticism, and I'm aware the desire to keep old cars and the ability to get where I'm going is purely a First World problem. And First World problems call for First World solutions, which are all a variant of the same thing: Throw money at it.
What did I get? A 2021 Acura ILX. I have named her "Miharu". The ILX is a nice car. I think I got a lot of car for my money. What's different? Everything. Almost everything. As much as it pains me, I had to give up the idea of getting a car with a manual transmission, and give up getting a 2-door car. New cars with manuals are rare, new 2-door cars are rare, and new 2-door cars with manuals have all but gone extinct. By not trading either Ai or Nozomi, I'm not losing any hatchback capabilities, so I could accept getting a 4-door with an automatic.
An electric car was not an option. Electrics are more expensive than I'd like, and the charging infrastructure has a long way to go in terms of availability, speed, and compatibility. Maybe the charging issues will get sorted out and electrics will be a viable option 10 or 20 years from now. That's a rant for another day.
I had considered getting a Honda Civic, then gradually decided against it. While some trims of the Civic do come with a manual, there are other caveats and catches. Such as, my first choice would have been the Civic Si which would have all the extra features I want and the manual, but for some reason Honda didn't offer that this year. The other option was the Civic Type R, but that's a high-demand trim so dealers name their own price above and beyond the $36k MSRP. Oh, and except for the base models, they all use turbocharged engines, and for every one with a manual, there are 100 with CVTs. Now I figure if anyone can make turbocharged engines work with CVTs, it would be Honda, but I'm not interested in being part of that experiment.
Meanwhile, the ILX uses a naturally-aspirated 2.4L and pairs that with an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic, and it has paddle shifters on the steering wheel. That lets me override the automatic, to some extent. It won't let me do something stupid, like trying to get into 1st gear at highway speeds or start out in 7th gear from a stop.
The upper two gears (7th and 8th) are more for cruising on flat and level roads at high speed. Unless I'm absolutely flying, the RPMs never go above 2k in 8th gear. The car will not let me shift into 8th until I'm going at least 50, and even then it's almost lugging the engine. If I get to a hill, I have to click down a gear or two. At the same speed in their respective top gears, both Ai and Nozomi rev somewhat higher, almost 4k RPM. Flip side of that is they can climb most hills in that gear.
Therein lies the secret of Miharu's fuel economy: Revving the engine as low as possible for as long as possible. Fuel economy is much better than Nozomi, and slightly better than Ai. Ai can run on 87 octane gas, so the cost advantage goes back to Ai.
Buttons and screens and sensors all over. One screen for the radio, another screen for the navigation when I plug my phone in, and another small one embedded in the instrument cluster. There might be more buttons on the steering wheel than in the entirety of Ai's interior. A pleasant bonus: The radio recognizes my Ipod Classic, and can display Japanese characters. Having Android Auto functionality also means it works with Plex.
This is in stark contrast with the absolute analog minimalism that I've been accustomed to for the past... 20-ish years. See, Nozomi is slightly more modern than Ai, but not by much, and her interior is identical to Yamiko, from 2002. Given that the first RSX's were starting to roll off the assembly line in late 2001, and there's the 20 years.
The car seems kind of bossy, what with the lane-keep assist, pre-emptive braking, blind spot warnings, traction control, and so on. It's like she doesn't trust me on how to drive or something. On the plus side, all of that means my insurance premiums didn't go up much. In fact, if I had traded a car, my premiums would have actually gone down.
Trading Ai or Nozomi was not going to happen. It just wasn't. As Marie Kondo would ask, "does this spark joy?" The answer is an easy "yes". I don't mind doing the work, I don't mind their oddities, idiosyncrasies, peccadillos, quirks, imperfections. I know where they've been and what they're about.
Maybe I'm getting older but I wasn't as stoked about buying a car this time. I was stoked when I bought Ai back in '98, I was stoked when I bought Yamiko a few years later, and when I bought Nozomi. This time it was more of a "I guess I have to do this and might as well do it now" sort of thing. On the plus side, I think I gave off the vibe of "I don't have to buy a car right now" and the salesman must have picked up on that.
As much as I try to think about the future and how easy or not it'll be to service Miharu, it's too soon. The current version of the ILX has been in production for only a couple years, so it'll be at least 5 years before all the tips and tricks start filtering their way into the wild. While the car is under warranty, I'm going to have the oil changes done at the dealership. Once the warranty is up, all bets are off.
To be fair, when I first bought Ai in 1998, I remember looking under the hood and marvelling at the complexity of everything. These days I'm confident I can pull the engine out if I had to. Everything about the Integras in general are well-documented; there are no secrets or puzzles left. Just a lot of rusty fasteners.
But I'm no stranger to mixing sentimentality and pragmaticism, and I'm aware the desire to keep old cars and the ability to get where I'm going is purely a First World problem. And First World problems call for First World solutions, which are all a variant of the same thing: Throw money at it.
What did I get? A 2021 Acura ILX. I have named her "Miharu". The ILX is a nice car. I think I got a lot of car for my money. What's different? Everything. Almost everything. As much as it pains me, I had to give up the idea of getting a car with a manual transmission, and give up getting a 2-door car. New cars with manuals are rare, new 2-door cars are rare, and new 2-door cars with manuals have all but gone extinct. By not trading either Ai or Nozomi, I'm not losing any hatchback capabilities, so I could accept getting a 4-door with an automatic.
An electric car was not an option. Electrics are more expensive than I'd like, and the charging infrastructure has a long way to go in terms of availability, speed, and compatibility. Maybe the charging issues will get sorted out and electrics will be a viable option 10 or 20 years from now. That's a rant for another day.
I had considered getting a Honda Civic, then gradually decided against it. While some trims of the Civic do come with a manual, there are other caveats and catches. Such as, my first choice would have been the Civic Si which would have all the extra features I want and the manual, but for some reason Honda didn't offer that this year. The other option was the Civic Type R, but that's a high-demand trim so dealers name their own price above and beyond the $36k MSRP. Oh, and except for the base models, they all use turbocharged engines, and for every one with a manual, there are 100 with CVTs. Now I figure if anyone can make turbocharged engines work with CVTs, it would be Honda, but I'm not interested in being part of that experiment.
Meanwhile, the ILX uses a naturally-aspirated 2.4L and pairs that with an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic, and it has paddle shifters on the steering wheel. That lets me override the automatic, to some extent. It won't let me do something stupid, like trying to get into 1st gear at highway speeds or start out in 7th gear from a stop.
The upper two gears (7th and 8th) are more for cruising on flat and level roads at high speed. Unless I'm absolutely flying, the RPMs never go above 2k in 8th gear. The car will not let me shift into 8th until I'm going at least 50, and even then it's almost lugging the engine. If I get to a hill, I have to click down a gear or two. At the same speed in their respective top gears, both Ai and Nozomi rev somewhat higher, almost 4k RPM. Flip side of that is they can climb most hills in that gear.
Therein lies the secret of Miharu's fuel economy: Revving the engine as low as possible for as long as possible. Fuel economy is much better than Nozomi, and slightly better than Ai. Ai can run on 87 octane gas, so the cost advantage goes back to Ai.
Buttons and screens and sensors all over. One screen for the radio, another screen for the navigation when I plug my phone in, and another small one embedded in the instrument cluster. There might be more buttons on the steering wheel than in the entirety of Ai's interior. A pleasant bonus: The radio recognizes my Ipod Classic, and can display Japanese characters. Having Android Auto functionality also means it works with Plex.
This is in stark contrast with the absolute analog minimalism that I've been accustomed to for the past... 20-ish years. See, Nozomi is slightly more modern than Ai, but not by much, and her interior is identical to Yamiko, from 2002. Given that the first RSX's were starting to roll off the assembly line in late 2001, and there's the 20 years.
The car seems kind of bossy, what with the lane-keep assist, pre-emptive braking, blind spot warnings, traction control, and so on. It's like she doesn't trust me on how to drive or something. On the plus side, all of that means my insurance premiums didn't go up much. In fact, if I had traded a car, my premiums would have actually gone down.
Trading Ai or Nozomi was not going to happen. It just wasn't. As Marie Kondo would ask, "does this spark joy?" The answer is an easy "yes". I don't mind doing the work, I don't mind their oddities, idiosyncrasies, peccadillos, quirks, imperfections. I know where they've been and what they're about.
Maybe I'm getting older but I wasn't as stoked about buying a car this time. I was stoked when I bought Ai back in '98, I was stoked when I bought Yamiko a few years later, and when I bought Nozomi. This time it was more of a "I guess I have to do this and might as well do it now" sort of thing. On the plus side, I think I gave off the vibe of "I don't have to buy a car right now" and the salesman must have picked up on that.
As much as I try to think about the future and how easy or not it'll be to service Miharu, it's too soon. The current version of the ILX has been in production for only a couple years, so it'll be at least 5 years before all the tips and tricks start filtering their way into the wild. While the car is under warranty, I'm going to have the oil changes done at the dealership. Once the warranty is up, all bets are off.
To be fair, when I first bought Ai in 1998, I remember looking under the hood and marvelling at the complexity of everything. These days I'm confident I can pull the engine out if I had to. Everything about the Integras in general are well-documented; there are no secrets or puzzles left. Just a lot of rusty fasteners.
