“Old Greenie”

“Old Greenie.” (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100 camera.)

Our Honda CR-V (pictured below) is due for its 45,000 mile service.

Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100 camera.

I’ve installed alloy wheels since — and better tires.

Actually, it’s at 52,000 miles.
52,000 miles over six years isn’t much. That’s almost 8,700 per year.
We’re both retired, so it isn’t being used to commute to work.
Before the CR-V was the Faithful Hunda.
That got totaled at 161,000 miles over 13 years.
That’s over 12,000 miles per year.
When Linda was working in faraway Webster, was a 30-mile commute each way — 60 miles per day — about 15,000 miles per year.
We weren’t sure we wanted to buy the CR-V; still aren’t sure about it.
Compared to the Faithful Hunda it’s a truck. Rides high, and is unbalanced.
Drives like a car, but rides like a truck.
I hit the brakes hard once, and it locked up the rear-end. The Bathtub doesn’t do that; nor did the Faithful Hunda.

Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the Pentax Spotmatic camera.

A sorry end to the BEST car we’ve ever owned.

We almost fixed the Faithful Hunda; we liked it that much.
It wasn’t that damaged (see picture), but at 13 years the insurance company totaled it.
Plus the shop thought the chassis might be bent.
We were planning to replace it soon anyway, so we started looking around.
I wanted All-Wheel-Drive (the Faithful Hunda had that), so I could avoid shoveling out the driveway of snow.
An alternative was the Subaru (“SUE-buh-RUE”); but they were cramped and un dog-friendly.
The Faithful Hunda was FABULOUS. It was capacious with a low flat floor.
The rear seats folded to make the floor, and also filled the dog-swallowing gap behind the front seats.
It also got 29 miles-per-gallon — I kept track.
It was so small and light, it did quite well despite being an All-Wheel-Drive stationwagon.
I remember the Honda salesman bragging about the mileage of the CR-V: “26 highway,” he said.
“Old car got 29,” I snapped.
Working in the CR-V’s favor was that it was a Honda.
The Faithful Hunda had never been in the shop.
Honda Civics, which our Faithful Hunda was, were still being made, and were still pretty small; but not All-Wheel-Drive or stationwagons.
Subaru was a car, but we had to go to largest made, the “Forester” — I called it the Breadvan.
-A) It didn’t have a flat floor; -B) the floor was high; and -C) a dog-swallowing gap was behind the front seats.
And at 2.5 liters the engine was HUGE.
The Faithful Hunda was only 1.6 liters, which partially explains the 29 mpg.
The CR-V is 2.4 liters, and gets 24 mpg. I figured 25 or so for the Sube.
Plus a gigantic breadvan to get the roominess of our Faithful Hunda seemed kind of silly.
Tilt CR-V. Not a choice we were happy with, but it was an All-Wheel-Drive Honda.

So now every time I have to leave the CR-V at the dealer for longer than I can wait, I get a loaner and leave the CR-V all night.
Ontario Honda, where we bought it, has at least two loaners; one of which is “Old Greenie” (pictured) a 2000 Special-Edition Honda Accord.
I’ve driven “Old Greenie” many times; every time I’ve got a loaner except the last time — when I was loaned the other loaner.
“Old Greenie” has over 125,000 miles, and the tires are beyond-the-pale.
“Old Greenie” gave me trouble only once. It has electric windows, and the driver’s window stalled at a mail-drop during a blizzard.
I thought I was gonna have to drive it all the way back to Ontario Honda with the window open, but for some reason it shut.
“Old Greenie” is probably just an Accord they purloined from stock to be a loaner. —Who knows how many drivers it’s had.
To my mind, that model Accord is the best looking ever.
There has been at least one model upgrade since; perhaps (and probably) two.
So more up-to-date Accords are now available, but to my mind, that model Accord was the best looking ever.
125,000 miles, and still in excellent shape.
—Is it any wonder I prefer Hondas.

• RE: “‘Old guy’ with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). I also am loudly excoriated by all my siblings for preferring a professional camera (like the Nikon D100) instead of a point-and-shoot. This is because I long ago sold photos to nationally published magazines. —The “Spotmatic” is my old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by a Nikon D100 digital camera.
• The “CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV. —“The Faithful Hunda” is our 1989 Honda Civic All-Wheel-Drive stationwagon, by far the BEST car we’ve ever owned, now departed (replaced by our 2003 Honda CR-V). (Called a “Hunda” because that was how a fellow bus-driver at Transit [Regional-Transit-Service in Rochester, where I once worked] pronounced it.)
• “Linda” is my wife of 41+ years.
• “Webster” is a rural suburb of Rochester — originally a farming-town. Linda’s employer had a large printing-plant there.
• The “Bathtub” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van; called that because it’s white and like sitting in a bathtub.
• Our current dog is “Scarlett;” a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s almost four, and is our sixth Irish-Setter. At least four dogs (all Irish-Setters, but two at a time) have passed since the Faithful Hunda — the most dog-friendly car we’ve ever had.
• “Sube” is the nickname for Subaru.