My new ride (from the passenger side)
Kelvin decided to get a new (used) car today. We drove into the dealership with a red ’97 Honda Civic EX and left with a red ’06 Acura RSX. He’s been wanting an Acura RSX Type-S, and the local Acura dealership had a 2006 one with low mileage. Apparently it’s not easy to find one with low mileage or one that hasn’t been modded to death. As far as I can tell, we left with the same car, except newer and slightly fancier. Kelvin did a trade-in, so the switcheroo was fairly painless. Also, the folks we dealt with at Autowest Acura were nice and non-pushy; I was impressed with the service.
It makes the same Honda sounds and doesn’t have any bells and whistles. Three noticeable upgrades are the leather seats (yay, no more zappy zappy), the trunk (it’s a hatchback with pushdown backseats and a trunk tray, so a lot more space) and super nice climate control (no more retarded manual switching with all options blowing overly hot or cold air in your face). Kelvin says the clutch is a lot smoother and it handles better, but as a passenger, all I notice is that the engine makes angrier sounds than his old car.
This was taken on the cul-de-sac where Avery lives, and Avery was looking for his jumper cables to jump Kelvin’s new car. No, Kelvin did not get a lemon. He was just dumb in showing off his new just-been-sitting-on-the-lot-for-a-while car to Avery with his lights on, subsequently draining the battery in front of Avery’s place. Anyway, Kelvin managed get his car started again and look less like a tool before Avery could find his jumper cables.
Other than that minor mishap, Kelvin seems pretty happy with his purchase. It’s the first time he’s gotten a car he’s really wanted; all the previous ones were hand-me-downs of convenience. As long as we can still pay rent, it doesn’t matter to me much.
New thing I learned today: The Acura RSX is called the Honda Integra DC5 in Japan, where there wasn’t an Acura brand name at the time.
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Such a /facepalm moment when you guys were pulling out to leave with your fancy new car and it didn’t start. Hope Kelvin drove it onto the freeway for a while like I told you to, otherwise it might not start tomorrow.
1It starts fine now that it’s all charged up. Also, the tires were improperly inflated (5psi in back right, 45psi in back left?!) so it’s performing a lot better now that I’ve fixed that too.
2