We are not getting another Honda

[gsabc]

SIL took the car to get to some sort of appointment. Had a flat. Got the spare out. The rim has four bolt holes. The tires on the car have five. They gave us the wrong spare. He had to wait for someone to come out and tow him to a Honda dealer in order to replace the tire. Needless to say, he missed his appointment. The thought that they might have been stuck in the middle of nowhere during their cross-country trek is deeply troubling to me.

That's the last straw for us. The main reason we got the Civic for BD was their reputation, the nice head's-up display and the fact that the 2007 Corolla did not have an MP3 plug-in. It gets lower mileage than stated by a significant amount. Our older Hondas both had issues with the paint job (very fragile compared to our previous ones), but the 2007 is too new to determine if that's still the case. The 2001 Civic ate tires because of badly designed struts. While Honda's general reputation is still good, we've just had too many issues with their cars. If Toyota offers the 0% financing for longer than three years in the near future, we're getting the Corolla or Camry over the Civic or Accord.

[Jeemie]

The 2007 Corolla didn't have an mp3 plug-in, but the subcompact 2007 Yaris had one standard?

Wow- that's unreal!

[kayrharris]

Not knowing anything about selling cars, does the spare come with the car from the factory? Could this have happened to a whole assembly line of vehicles? Or is it the dealer's responsibility to see that the car has the correct spare? I'm just wondering out loud, I suppose.

[ghostjmf]

As you of course know, adapters to audio stuff are a dime a dozen these days.

The wrong tire is a way-bigger worry. It implies bad attention by whoever supplied it or, far worse, previous use of what you though was a new car when you bought it.

Also, bad mileage is not why people buy Hondas, so that's disappointing to hear too.

I like Hondas better than Toyotas on handling. I in general like low-to-the-ground cars. This is why rental places always try to put me in their largest SUV. This time around I was supposed to have an Accord, which even though not an econo-car I welcomed as a test-drive opportunity, but instead they put me in a Ford Taurus, which is way too high off the ground, & a boat to boot.

[gsabc]

To jeemie: yes, there was an MP3 plug in the 2007 Yaris, the Prius, and the Camry, but not in the Corolla. For BD, it was a deal breaker. I think Toyota was waiting for the general redesign, rather than add the plug to the older model.

To kay: I don't know whose responsibility it is to add the spare. Whatever the source, it was totally unacceptable, and I have told BD to complain loudly and ask for some form of compensation. SIL is good with cars, so there's no point in asking for free servicing or tune-ups. I told her to ask for an upgrade in some option, like a better radio or something.

To ghost: we had those adapters for MP3 players that play through short-distance FM transmission. Living as we do (and BD did) in the Boston area, it was hard to find a frequency empty enough to use it and not get interference. As for your Taurus rental, it was a Ford, which for my money was three strikes against it already. We've been spoiled by other makes which have gotten better than claimed MPG, the Corolla and a Dodge Intrepid (speaking of boats) among them. The Accord has been within its stated range but very consistent until recently. It's showing its age and mileage, and we no longer need the bigger car. This year's Toyotathon may gain a customer.

[ghostjmf]

What's scary to me is that I didn't even know there were short-range FM adapters. Figures that they wouldn't work in the Boston area, where half the time I can't even pull in one of my favorite college-station (WBRS, Brandeis) programs on the powerful car or house tuners because they've been jammed by a newer station bleeding over into the frequency.

Wouldn't work in my old car anyway; I've always used the kind of adapters that stick a "not really a tape" thing into your tape deck (shows how old my car is) & the other end into your portable player of some other kind of media. I generally use it for tapes too, as I never trust the car deck not to eat tapes, on general principle. If I had a car built-in CD/MP3 player, I'd not trust it not to eat CDs/MP3s, on general principle. I'd probably be getting a plug-in adapter for that, too.

This stuff can get annoying for somebody actually in the passenger seat, as that's where I sit my tape player, CD player, whatever, but I rarely have that. I know there are "fasten extra stuff to dash" attachments out there, but I've never bothered with them.

In about a week everything is going to be on flash cards anyway. Except for my stuff. (And the cars are going to have to have adapters for the 7,000 varieties of flash cards.)

[littleblueneon]

They just don't make 'em like they used to!

[Hello, Mini!]

They just don't make 'em like they used to!

I don't see a Downy Ball on the rearview mirror!

We had a CRX before the kids and an Accord when we only had two kids. The paint job on the Accord was a joke, so I'm happy to see we weren't the only ones punked. The AC was garbage, and we kept bringing it in when it was under warranty and they told us it just needed to be charged, but the second we were out of warranty they told us there was a pinhole leak in a hose. Ya think?!?!

So right before Child #3 made an appearance we got a Toyota minivan, which we still have today. The interior looks like we've hauled four kids up and down the East Coast numerous times (we have) and the paint has some scratches where a kid rammed a stroller into the side, but no rust or any major damage. You can't open the back sliding doors from the inside, but some people do that on purpose with the child locks anyway. I call it the Stinkmobile because it doesn't seem to like the ethanol components in the gas, and the Tackymobile because we now have a total of 7 windowclings, bumper stickers, and magnets on the back, plus a Sorcerer Mickey antenna doohickey. We're easy to find in a parking lot, though. That car is bulletproof.

My sister has one of those iPod adapter thingies, but they are really only good on a road trip because we have too many local stations. Plus it tends to wiggle loose when you hit a bump doing however miles over the speed limit her default speed is....

[littlebeast13]

They just don't make 'em like they used to!

I don't see a Downy Ball on the rearview mirror!

That's because I don't have any garbage hanging off my rearview mirror. If I wanted something whacking me in the head while I was driving down the road, I'd have had kids.....

Plus, that ain't my car. One of these days before it hits the junkyard I'll have a picture of it taken....

lb13

[Hello, Mini!]

They just don't make 'em like they used to!

I don't see a Downy Ball on the rearview mirror!

That's because I don't have any garbage hanging off my rearview mirror. If I wanted something whacking me in the head while I was driving down the road, I'd have had kids.....

Plus, that ain't my car. One of these days before it hits the junkyard I'll have a picture of it taken....

lb13

I didn't think it was really your car--no silver flecks in the paint!

I forgot--the Tackymobile also has a soft Mets ball dangling from the mirror....

[littlebeast13]

I don't see a Downy Ball on the rearview mirror!

That's because I don't have any garbage hanging off my rearview mirror. If I wanted something whacking me in the head while I was driving down the road, I'd have had kids.....

Plus, that ain't my car. One of these days before it hits the junkyard I'll have a picture of it taken....

lb13

I didn't think it was really your car--no silver flecks in the paint!

I forgot--the Tackymobile also has a soft Mets ball dangling from the mirror....

So what happened to your charge up the rankings? Am I gonna have to start counting these Hello Mini posts.....?

lb13

[Hello, Mini!]

That's because I don't have any garbage hanging off my rearview mirror. If I wanted something whacking me in the head while I was driving down the road, I'd have had kids.....

Plus, that ain't my car. One of these days before it hits the junkyard I'll have a picture of it taken....

lb13

I didn't think it was really your car--no silver flecks in the paint!

I forgot--the Tackymobile also has a soft Mets ball dangling from the mirror....

So what happened to your charge up the rankings? Am I gonna have to start counting these Hello Mini posts.....?

lb13

I'm just sprinkling pink sparkly pixie dust in the political threads. Maybe this can be labelled an Alter Ego rather than a Merry Man. And I've never been one who WANTED to move up in the rankings, anyway!

[dimmzy]

I hate to ask this, but where was the Honda made?

I have a 1997 Honda Accord with 121,000 miles on it and it's still running and WOULD have looked great if my nephew at Cornell hadn't kept running into deer (that's his story and he's sticking to it).

This one was made in Japan.

[gsabc]

I hate to ask this, but where was the Honda made?

I have a 1997 Honda Accord with 121,000 miles on it and it's still running and WOULD have looked great if my nephew at Cornell hadn't kept running into deer (that's his story and he's sticking to it).

This one was made in Japan.

The 2007 Civic was made in Japan, according to the dealer out there who replaced the spare. No idea on the 2000 Accord with the crappy paint job and the 2001 Civic with the crappy struts.

We loved our 1991 Civic, which is why we went to Honda after that. We only got rid of it when it started leaving pieces of itself behind as we drove. The 2000 Accord had more "road damage" on the paint after one season than the 1991 had after ten.

[ghostjmf]

1987 Acura Integra is only now rusting in the usual places (wheel rims, gas inlet). And whatever anti-snow stuff those Colorado people I bought it from put on the undercarriage when they bought it new really, really worked.

I really wish they still made this car. They do not still make anything like this car.

If you want to be just a little bit sporty, low to the ground, easy to maneuver, & with a little more oomph to your engine than the average bear (well, it used to have it) but not break the bank, what the heck do you get? Oh, yeah, & 37mpg in its prime, 33mpg even now in its dotage.

I do not want anything 21st century beyond airbags all over, anti-lock breaks, & AC. Seriously. I do not even want electric windows.

[Rexer25]

Seriously. I do not even want electric windows.

My daughters don't want them either. With electric windows, the driver can lock the controls at each door. I had a rental a couple years ago with manual windows. It was the first time either one could remember such a luxury. I hard a hard time getting them to keep the windows up. They loved it.

[ghostjmf]

As a buyer-of-used-cars (2 Civics, the current perilously old Integra which you apparently can't find the needed computer for any more) I am very leery of any high-tech stuff that doesn't actually make the car run better. Inevitably, stuff breaks, & you decide whether to have it fixed based on "whether you really need it". Well, you really do need windows to go up & down. Even if you have & use AC constantly, you need to roll down the window to pay the toll-booth people. Opening the door does work for that too, but its a time-consuming pain. On a friend's new used car, the electric windows went almost instantly.

And yeah, my manual roll-down window did eventually stop rolling down, so I had to have the whole inside-door thingy replaced, but it happenned at 220,000 miles, which I guess is pretty good. And it didn't cost nearly as much as replacing an electric window mechanism, I bet.