drivetofive

Odometer:  497,660

My 50th blog entry!  Thanks for sticking with me as I’ve taken you along the ride from my first blog post on March 22nd of this year at 467,276 miles until today.  It was time for the archive-o’-maintenance records on the 1994 Legend LS to be split between two, 2 1/2 inch 3-ring binders today.

As I was cleaning things out and organizing a little, I realize just how extensive of records I’ve kept on this car!  A receipt from Walmart from a fuel system treatment I ran through at 138,000 miles.  Receipt printouts from Ebay for sets of wheels that I don’t even own anymore.  I made sense of the mess of paperwork and divided the books into a few sections:

• 1) Records.  First oil change at 4,096 miles from 9/24/1994 through some recent suspension work on the control arms at 497,487 on 10/4/2011. The first binder (Volume I) goes from new to around 400,000 miles.  The second binder (Volume II) goes from 401,000 miles to current, and then includes paperwork on a bunch of other stuff.

• 2) Miscellaneous receipts.  The receipt on the clear bra that installed on my headlights a few years ago, receipts for audio equipment, extra quarts of oil (no, I’ve never needed them though!), spare coolant, my rear trunk lid lip spoiler, the chrome exhaust tips other grab-bag stuff.

• 3) Most recent Carfax and Autocheck reports (totally clean, not a scratch or dent on the car’s history according to these background checks).

Interesting to note that according to the most recent Carfax, dated 7/22/11, my Legend is actually worth $470 ABOVE retail book value!  This I’m assuming is due to the extensive dealership maintenance showing up on the report.  There are 54 Acura dealership maintenance items listed on the printout.  The dealerships range geographically from Power Acura of South Bay (southern California) to Princeton Acura of New Jersey, and scattered locations in between.  For kicks, I decided to see what blue book says about my car as of today.

Assuming “excellent” condition (which is the only option that Kelley Blue Book allows you to pick when you’re looking for retail values), my car’s worth $3,795.

But remember, Carfax just told me I can tack on an additional $470.  So the question is, would you pay $4,265 for a vehicle with nearly 498,000 miles on it?  Perhaps the almighty blue book isn’t intended to be used for a vehicle this used up!

• 4) Estimates for repairs and/or bodywork or anything else.  One example:  Because it gave me such a laugh, I kept a copy of a handwritten estimate from a couple of years ago when I priced out a new OEM clutch for my Legend sedan.  $2,279 for the clutch assembly and $1,375 for labor.  So $3,654 for a new clutch in a car that at the time wasn’t even worth that much.  Yikes.  I ended up going a different route with the repairs needless to say.
• 5) Articles.  I’ve kept printouts of some of the feature stories my car has made it into, including last week’s Jalopnik “Commenter of the Day” fame with the piece on “I would drive 500,000 miles.“
• 6) Traffic tickets and other fun stuff.  For having traveled over 400,000 miles personally in this car over the last just over 8 years, I’ve been (knock on wood) pretty lucky about avoiding run-ins with the police.  Four speeding violations, one “failure to obey traffic control device,” a couple of warnings for dark window tint.  I snagged a picture when I got pulled over by an officer on the Kaibab Paiute Indian land in southern Utah in April 2009.

I also have a Consent to Search from the Arizona Department of Public Safety dated 2/21/10 from when I was pulled over on Interstate 10 near Quartzsite, Arizona and the Legend was strip searched because I was suspected as a drug trafficker.  For some reason the officer got suspicious when I told him I was driving to Los Angeles from Phoenix – and back in the same day – just to have lunch with friends in Santa Monica.  Apparently normal people don’t drive 12 hours round trip for a lunch appointment?  But I do.  And yes, I somehow managed to discreetly take a couple of “spy” photos while the officer went through my belongings.

Brings back memories!

• 7)  Finally, I have a section for car show related paperwork and other trip memories.  The Legend has been entered in the Hurricane Valley Easter Car Show at least half a dozen times and has brought home a few trophies in the Import class.  I have my original entry forms from my participation in the NOPI Nationals Motorsports Supershow in 2005 and 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia, my “Longest Drive Award” from the 2008 National Acura Legend Meet in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  That was one of seven NALMs I’ve attended across the country.  I also have an entry form from when I entered the car in the Lakeland Hills Rockin’ Auto Show in Seattle, Washington in 2005 (at a mere 182,000 miles).

My friend snagged this picture while sitting next to me at a stoplight at Camelback Rd & Scottsdale Rd this afternoon.  I was blasting Metallica’s “Sad But True” as loud as my aftermarket Pioneer sound system would pump it!  I’m planning a little road trip tomorrow so I’ll update again with something more exciting, but today was very productive in non-odometer-rolling ways.

This entry was posted on October 9, 2011 at 12:15 am and is filed under Brochures, Legend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.