UPDATE 6/27/23: My wife is way too good to me. One of my neighbors had a little red '97 Type SH (all of the Type SH had the 5MT) out in front of his house. 251,000 miles (honestly not bad for a 25+ year old car). No rust, everything ran well. I honestly don’t remember the last time I drove stick but I was very rusty. Nearly stalled it at the first stop sign. Car drove pretty good. Everything looked good. Aside from the paint being in pretty bad shape from its age and being out in the sun, everything was in pretty good working order. It’s not as clean as my car was, but hey, you can’t win them all.
As for my garage-kept 9th gen Civic…well, I’m afraid that’s going to have to give up its spot in the garage. Now, the real question is on where to park it. I think I’ll still daily my Civic because it’s a damn good car and has half the miles of my to-be Prelude.
Owner seemed like a really cool dude. He clearly loved his car. Life seems to have got in the way for him. I feel like I paid a pretty fair price. The problems the car has seem mostly cosmetic. Now that I finally have a decent income, I think I can do work to this car.
I won’t be too bummed if it doesn’t last another ten years, but I think it will barring some kind of natural disaster. I want to do some work to it, but I owe my wife a lot of house projects she wants done first. If the Lude is a touch sketchy, my 9th gen is proving itself extremely dependable. This was always going to be my weekend car anyway. Doesn’t mean I’ll be passing on the opportunity to take it out for a spin every once in a while.
Guess I need to get familiar with driving stick again.
Anyway, that’s it for the update. I’ll post a pic tomorrow. Just didn’t want to make a second post about it.
UPDATE OVER
I don’t have this car anymore, but this is my car as it was December 15, 2013. It probably had about 175,000 miles on it at the time. I drove the absolute shit out of this car. It took beatings and chugged along like a champ. Imagine that I got this car as a teenager and drove it like a teenager would.
I had to park the thing on the street once I graduated, moved to the city, and got my first big boy job. In 2015, someone backed into it and never left a note. Messed up the fender on the driver’s side pretty good. People suck.
I had myself a little accident too. If you zoom into the car’s right side, you’ll notice the fog light blanking plate is missing. That’s from spinning the car into a ditch at 45 miles an hour. The bumper sagged in that area too because some of the clips broke off. I drove it right out and home.
The drivetrain was perfectly fine. Ran smooth and shifted just good. Reverse was a little clunky when the car was cold (yes, it was the four speed). I had a fan motor go out at one point and it was regularly overheating. Took a while to save the money to fix it. Then the radiator cracked after the fan motor issue was solved. The car just ended up in the shop for something else every few weeks. Essentially, it was the rest of the car that was falling apart.
In a practical sense, it was like having a car payment, except sometimes I didn’t have the car for a couple days.
I traded it for $1,200 and bought a Honda HR-V at the behest of my parents. At that point, the odometer read about 197,000. It was the worst thing. I felt no connection to that car. I tried to love it, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t what I wanted to drive.
Looking back, I would have been better served taking out a chunky personal loan and overhauling my little car. I wish I could have a do over on that.
Drive what you love. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should drive. I’m in a 2012 Civic LX now and I couldn’t be happier. It’s actually just a little zippy and tossable. Plus, it seats 4 (5 if everyone’s skinny), does 40 to the gallon, doesn’t run the engine at three grand doing highway speed, and there’s a million of them like it out there. If I wrap this thing around a tree, whatever, I can just go buy another.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading a post by some dude approaching middle age pining for the car of his youth lol I really miss how driving this car made me feel. Wonderful machine this thing was. I constantly think about buying another and treating it right this time now that I’ve got a few more bucks in my pocket than I did in college.
Bonus points if you recognized the Del Sol next to it.
Found a couple more pics from around then.
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Reading this post almost felt like reading a story about losing a loved one. If you have the money and space, I would be the influence urging you to get another one and reconnect with that feeling.
I probably will one day. Wife and I are thinking we’ll have kiddos in the next couple of years so we’re putting her in a Pilot next. I test drove one. I have hated SUVs all my life but holy hell…that '23 Pilot was cool to drive. I really like how they’re going back to more straight, level lines in their design language. It’s kinda 80s. I dig it. And that V6 is just awesome.
But there’s just no way I’m putting a kid in the back of a 5th gen Prelude. Not just from the logistical “how do I even do it,” but also from the safety standpoint. I couldn’t imagine hauling a baby in this car when giant trucks are all the rave. An unmodded F150 would just drive up and over the thing like it was a ramp.
I have considered the new 2.0 Civic hatchback. I want to drive stick again. I just hope I can get my hands on one before Honda ONLY puts it in the Si and Type R and then you have to spend at least 40 grand after markups to get a manual. I think I’d just go buy a Mazda 3.
But you’re right. I’ve never moved on from this car. It was the first thing I truly loved in life. And I allowed myself to be parted from it for so little. It really felt like losing a piece of myself. That said, I do absolutely adore my 9th gen. So it did work out some in the end.
God this post really unlocked memories about my Ford Probe. Really felt like a close friend to me. Thanks for sharing this story
I had a college buddy who had a black '91 Probe! That was a fun little car. He was daily driving it because it used a lot less gas than his mid 80s F150 when gas was $4 for the first time in our lives lol
@spicytuna62 my first (at 16) was a ‘96 Acura Integra, 5-speed, coupe. In black, so it was the temperature of lava in the Georgia heat. But god, I loved that car. It was zippy and drove like a dream. It was light enough that I could pull in my parents’ driveway at 3am with the ignition (and consequently, the power steering) shut off so they wouldn’t wake up. It fit 4 people, but usually only needed my seat and a seat for my CD catalog. I could drive it with my knees while eating Taco Bell on the way home from school. I traded it in for a 4-runner, and never felt the same love until I recently bought a MINI Cooper Clubman.
Really liked that generation of Prelude, on the bright side you can always get another someday!
White Hondas and Acuras just hit different. I don’t think I like white on any car except on Hondas/Acuras
You learn to like white cars in the south because they aren’t a trillion degrees when you touch them after they’ve sat in the sun for a half hour lol
I’ve recently met someone who had a prelude and he had only good things to say about it.
Your story reminds me of my Corolla Altis that is getting a bit costlier to maintain, but is still being held onto by my mom for sentimental reasons. Even now I still enjoy driving it from time to time.
There’s a clean one next to me in my condo garage. Flat tires, dust, and the plate registration is 2008. Modern day barn find.
Nice story.
Even when it’s not that much you can still love it for what it is - even if it has some issues. A car with a “persona” feels definitely better than a bland A-to-B box - you just can’t make the connection with that.
