The other day, during our Connecticut trip, I passed the 1000 mile mark in my almost new car.
I was wondering when this was going to happen, since it’s been a while. I think I’m doing pretty well, considering I bought the car on January 3rd and hit 1000 miles on March 3rd. That’s about 500 miles per month. Not bad for saving gas.
If anyone remembers what I said back a few months ago about getting a new car, it was that I really wanted GPS navigation. Well, with the car I got, if I had added the GPS navigation, it would’ve raised the price around $5000. Now, I wanted the GPS, but I’m no fool.
Since I got the new car without the GPS, I still had this thing nagging me in the back of my mind. For the past few weeks, I have doing a little research. I found a pretty good GPS system for a good price. I bought the Magellan Maestro 4000 GPS Navigation. I initially found this model on Circuit City’s website for $399. It was on sale for $349 and then on sale again for $329. I thought that was a pretty good price, until I looked on Buy.com and found it for $229.88. That’s about $100 less. What is that about? Anyway, the GPS arrived yesterday.
I have to say, GPS is just about the coolest thing out there. I really didn’t think it was going to be this freakin’ cool. I did a little driving around with it yesterday. After I put an address in it, the little box on my dashboard would talk to me. Now, remember that I have never used one of these things before, so I am still in awe. I can’t wait to try to get lost…it won’t let you.
There are a few reasons why I decided to get this model. One was the price. For the 4.3″ screen, the price was lower than a bunch of other ones. Another was the way the maps look. I don’t like those “cartoony” maps that many other brands use. Also, the ratings were ok. The lower ratings came from those weird tech people who look into every feature something has. I usually use about two features out of one hundred. I think this model was a good choice.
I don’t know how many people I told this to in the past for weeks…”I got this car on January 3 and I still have a quarter tank.” I guess I met my goal of not driving much. It does feel good to not know what the gas prices are anymore.
Well, I have bad news. The two trips to Lowe’s today forced me to put some gas in the car for the first time. I think gas is around $3.17 per gallon for the cheap stuff, if you can call it that. There are about 450 miles on the car right now and it has an 18 gallon tank. If my math is correct, I am getting around 25 miles to the gallon. That’s not bad for a full sized V6, considering I have done very little highway driving.
They sure don’t make cars like they used to…thankfully.
Due to popular demand (actually, Paul was the only one who said there were no pictures), I am writing a post with some photos of the new car. Last night was just too dark when I got home to grab anything. I called the neighbor, Tim, to come out and look at the beast. The poor guy looked so cold, but he stood there like a trooper.
Ok, so again, this is a 2008 Honda Accord EX (v6). I guess I can’t write that enough. I took these photos about ten minutes ago. I was going to do some video, but it’s too cloudy out there. I will get some later when it’s nice.
This is the front view. It’s got nice fog lights and halogen headlamps. I like that. I think it has daylight running lights too. I don’t think that’s as much of a feature as it is the law.
Here is the front/side view. The reason I got the EX is because it’s more badass than the other models. The reason I got the V6 is because it’s more badass than the regular EX. I like the 17″ alloy wheels.
This is the side view. I don’t know what to write about that besides the fact that the EX comes with chrome door handles. Honda seems to talk about that a lot. It’s not something I would particularly brag about at parties.
This is the side/rear view. I am sure there is something nice to say about that, but it escapes me right now.
This is the rear view. I can’t believe my license plates got here so quickly. This model has the dual exhaust, so I can be sure it will cost twice as much when it comes time to replace it.
This is the interior view. One thing I haven’t gotten a picture of yet is the moon roof. I love that. Last night, when I was driving home, I opened the moonroof. It allows the air to circulate without blowing all over the place. With the heat on, it’s really nice.
This is the dashboard. There are some things I still have to figure out, like how to find out how many miles are on the car. That’s not readily available. Probably Honda’s way of getting money out of the people who lease. HAHA.
As I said above, I will get some video of it later…maybe when my new video camera comes tomorrow.
Love, peace and hair grease.
I gave the Honda dealer down in Middletown a call yesterday just to feel them out. I know I have been talking about getting a new car recently, but the fact of the matter is, my car runs great and I don’t really want to buy a new car. This is supposed to be the year of saving money.
It seems that around every corner I swing myself, there is someone standing there with their hand out looking for thousands of dollars. I don’t like to give out thousands of dollars. I just don’t like it. Over the Summer was the porch, last month and this month is the kitchen. Am I supposed to pay for a new car this month too? As my father used to say, (as well as every other father out there, I’m sure) “Money doesn’t grow on trees. Now get out there and split some wood.”
Let me tell you the reason why I feel like I am being pushed into buying a new car. The first nudge was by the accountant. Accountants don’t like getting yelled at by their clients for the client having to pay lots of money in taxes. The accountant would rather the client spend lots of money for write-offs. The second nudge is the mileage of the car. I think I have over 150,000 miles on it. I got the timing belt changed at about 80,000, which means it needs to be changed again. That’s a bit more than $600 (because of the V6 and no room to work). The final thing that may put me over the edge is the fact that I have to get the car inspected by the end of the month. That wouldn’t be so bad if the “check engine” light wasn’t on. They won’t inspect the car if the “check engine” light is on. That whole thing really stinks, because so many cars always run great (including mine), but because of the check engine light, people can’t get them inspected.
The light went on over the summer and I brought the car to AutoZone. They will plug the engine light thingy into the car to get the error codes for free. There was nothing wrong with the car. A cylinder “missed,” which tripped the light. I took off one the battery terminals to reset the light and it stayed off for a good long time. When the light went back on, I tried the same thing. This time, the light turned off for a much shorter time and then went back on. This may be something as simple as a spark plug wire arcing or something with a spark plug itself. Who knows. The fact that it’s 3 degrees outside doesn’t help any.
I guess I could go out there later in the week to fool around with it. I am going to give the dealer another call today, just to see what they have in stock, but make no mistake, I don’t like it.
Earlier this week, I bought two new car stereos…one for Laura and one for me. The Sirius satellite receiver I got for her a few years ago is pooping out, so I decided to upgrade her with a satellite ready deck and a new satellite tuner. I still need to order the tuner, so she will get the install next week.
I needed to get a new radio because I got some audio books and “learn Spanish” CDs for my birthday. My car radio only had a tape deck. The stereo I chose to purchase was a great deal at $109 from Circuit City. It is a Pioneer DEH-P2900MP. I read the reveiws and they were good. Everyone agreed that the sound is great, but the stereo is hard to figure out. When Laura learns how to work it, she can teach me. I’m no dummy.
Anyway, as I sat in my car this morning, looking at the job at hand, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. I found two little screws underneath the big plastic thing and took them out. Boy, that didn’t do much. Everything was still firmly in place. I ran inside and jumped on the internet and found this great webpage called, “Honda Accord installation of a Car radio Pioneer DEHP835.” This, my friends, helped.
Strangely enough, the fact that I took those screws out was correct, but the secret was behind the clock. I had to pull the clock out (which was tight) and take out the screw behind it. There is no way to do this without a little bit of damage to the plastic. I have a few minor marks. With that out, I pulled off the entire plastic piece.
I was pretty proud of myself. I sat there and thought about how good of a job I was doing. I even bought the correct wiring harness for this car and stereo. Back in the day, I would’ve just cut the old harness plug off and used a lot of electrical tape. What a mess. These days, I am much more refined.
I mounted the stereo in it’s holder and looked at the new wiring harness. “Boy, that’s weird,” I said. “It doesn’t look like the correct plug.” I got on the phone with Circuit City and discovered that there was one more piece I needed for my specific car. I thought I had already taken care of that. Guess not.
I drove down to Circuit City in Middletown and picked up the plug. Gee, $40 for the two harnesses. That’s just to get the damn thing hooked up to the car. They really know how to get you. Oh well. They only had one in stock and didn’t have the tuner for Laura, so I was out of luck there. Still have to order them online.
So yes, there are two pieces to the wiring harness. Once they were plugged in and the antenna was set, mounting the stereo was easy. I did that and then plugged the rest of the electrical stuff back into the big plastic piece. I snapped that back into place and things looked pretty good.
I turned the stereo on to see how it sounded. Wow, I was impressed. Great sound, but I still don’t know how it works. That’s ok, I suppose I will learn soon enough.
