A piece of my life just drove away yesterday, never to return, and I'm a bit nostalgic, not really melancholy, but my wife and I definitely took a trip down memory lane for a bit.
The reason for the nostalgia is pretty simple I think: I'm past the point of getting excited about cars anymore. We decided to not buy a new car anymore after this one due the huge depreciation encountered in the first several years. My goal and ideals are more practical: reliability, low maintenance, lower total cost of ownership, and practicality.
This car may well be the last new car we will ever own. We owned this car for 18 years so it becomes a part of your life, albeit minor, but always there, nonetheless.
I know...I know...it's a piece of sheet metal -- but --it used to be a gorgeous piece of sheet metal when my wife and I purchased this Honda Accord brand new back in 1992. Shiny red paint, a moon roof, and that classic tight steering that Honda is known for.
It's funny how one's priorities change over time. When we bought this car, that was BK <before kids>. So, we would wash, wax, and detail this car regularly. We lived in the Washington, D.C. area so it really wasn't exposed to salt on the roads, and it was garage kept.
I tracked the model changes of the Accord over the years and I never found a body style I like as much as this one.
We brought our first child home from the hospital in the backseat <backwards..that was so disconcerting not being able to see her on the trip home> in her little car seat.
We also brought our son home from the hospital in this car. By this time, our daughter had time to smash goldfish into every conceivable place, sippy cups being spilled, bottles being dumped upside down, and graham cracker crust was everywhere. The time sticky fruit rolls entered the picture, I knew this car was no longer our shiny new baby, but a fairly cool way and still decent looking way to get from point A to point B.
By the time this car was 10 years old and we were living in Ohio with salt on the roads, more harsh winters, I struggled to keep this keep this still very fine looking car looking almost brand new.
Our daughter's equestrian activities made this car smell like a barn <thanks goodness for Pure Ayre, an organic product that dissolves smells, odors, etc., naturally>.
I coached my daughter's soccer team for three years and many a game she would hop in the backseat after a wet, cold, muddy game and being the proactive, common sense parent, I forgot a towel so she could both dry off as well as sit on in the car.
Then...as the miles poured on...227,000 miles to be exact, I really wanted to see this car to the 300K milestone, like running a marathon, I was determined to do it, but my wife had her sights set on a used Honda Minivan for it's ability to transport 7 kids as well as large things from Lowes, so I got overruled and we found a 5-year old minivan (also on Craigslist) with 50K miles on it to get us hopefully through the next 10 years.
Luckily, we found a great owner (thanks to Craigslist) and we hope our old baby that was with us for 18 years will give this new owner another 100K and another 10 years of reliable transportation the way it has us.
Good bye my longtime friend...18 years is a long time...and you were very good to us and I will miss seeing you in my garage every morning, always ready to go.
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