Long Beach

Odometer: 513,434

Time to escape the heat! The old trusty Legend took me and a friend (Brock, who my readers may remember from a previous post) to the southern California coast over the weekend. This was a 391-mile each-way trip through the barren deserts of western Arizona. Smooth sailing all the way! It took us roughly 6 hours travel time each direction. When Brock wasn’t passed out sleeping in a fully reclined passenger seat, he had DJ responsibilities and we rocked out to some catchy tunes like Metallica since I’m gearing up to see them in concert next month.

En route via Interstate 10 westbound, Saturday morning. Whole lotta nothin’ out there. This is the type of roadway where you can basically set your cruise control at 78 mph, zone out for a couple hours, and not miss much!

Met with our friends Brett and Jeremy near the Long Beach Marina once we arrived. 72 degree weather! Most perfect.

Sunset from Seal Beach on Saturday night – spectacular.

And a similar sunset, on Sunday night back in Tempe, Arizona during the solar eclipse (which my phone obviously failed to capture clearly).

The coupe got an oil change today courtesy of Acura North Scottsdale during my lunch hour at work. Summer and the rest of the Service team took good care of me and of my car.

Do you think it was adequately noted on the work order that I requested “no wash”? I’ve always preferred handling that on my own!

ILX Update: As many know, I’ve been actively involved with Acura in the launch of the all-new 2013 sedan called the ILX. As of today, the car is officially on sale! Starting at $25,900 and a lot of bang for the buck. There’s also a new post in the ILX Experience tab of the Acura Facebook page, under “Tyson’s Blog.” You can read all about my experience at the National Press Launch event here in Scottsdale that was held in March for the 2013 RDX and ILX models. Check it out!

During my visit to Acura North Scottsdale today, I learned that they had just one ILX on the premises – and it wasn’t even yet ready for showing to customers. Crystal Black Pearl, tan interior, 2.0 liter automatic with the Technology package! The odometer showed only 4 miles when my service advisor let me fire it up. Still had the plastic on the interior & over the 17″ wheels.

Exciting to see the ILX finally up for sale!

As a continuation of some of the other stories I’ve shared in recent weeks, here’s Marc’s Honda story. I met my friend Marc from New Jersey via the Acura Legend forums several years ago. I was even privileged to stay at his beautiful home in November 2008 when I road-tripped out there from Arizona for a Legend meet. Pictured left to right: Ken, Tyson, Marc

Well, Marc has a pretty extensive story of Honda ownership.

Here’s his account, in his own words:

Here is my rundown of the main Honda products I have had which does not include the many 90-93 Accords I had bought and fixed and sold.

1987 Acura Integra 5 speed- First Honda product I bought. Fun car to drive! Bought it in 1993 I believe
1990 Honda Accord EX coupe- purchased for my wife in 1994 with about 30k miles on it and kept for about 6 years and sold with 150k.
Liked the 1990 Accord so much that in 1995 I traded in my Integra when a 1993 Accord SE coupe in Acadia Blue caught my eye on a Honda dealer’s lot. It had about 30k miles on it and I kept it until 2008 with 106k miles. Pampered it and never drove it in snow and hardly in the rain.

Some daily drivers along the way:

1993 Acura Vigor 5 speed- Owned that for about 1 year
1993 Accord EX sedan- owned about 1 year
1998 Acura 2.5TL- Bought with approx 230k miles and drove it for about 1 year
1992 Honda Accord EX sedan 5 speed
1992 Acura Legend LS sedan- owned for about 1.5 years
2002 TL type S. Bought at 1 yr old in 2003 and kept for about 3 years.

Also along the way found the following for relatives:

1992 Acura Vigor- brother
1997 Acura 2.5TL for parents in mint cond with 36k miles
2002 Acura RL for parents
1993 Accord EX wagon for Inlaws, 1993 Accord EX coupe for Inlaws, 1992 Accord EX wagon, and most recently a ’99 Acura TL

Currently:

After years of casually looking for a mint example:

1994 Acura Legend LS pearl white coupe bought in Jan 2007 and transported back from AZ with 53k miles. Currently has 60k miles
1995 Acura Legend LS black coupe 6MT- bought in March 2008 locally from orig owner with just under 30k miles. Currently has 36k miles
1999 Acura TL with 173k miles as DD

Here are some pictures of Marc’s immaculate LS coupe Legends.

How many 17 year old cars do you know of that have only 36,000 miles on them? Here’s one!

Keep the Acura enthusiasm stoked, Marc!

This entry was posted on May 23, 2012 at 1:54 am and is filed under California, Legend, Road Trip. 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.

7 Responses to “Long Beach”

Tia Says:
May 23, 2012 at 2:47 am

Your clock on your blog is ahead of schedule again. It will be fun following the ILX sales. When is your next road trip? I am still putting you up to borrowing Tony Stark’s wheels and taking me shotgun for a spin…… Wink.

Reply
- tysonhugie Says:
  May 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
  
  I’m not sure how to update the block clock. Guess it’s trying to be forward-thinking! Next road trip – potentially St. George this weekend. I’ll let you know when I get ahold of Tony’s NSX! 🙂
  
  Reply
dave Says:
May 23, 2012 at 3:55 am

“NO WASH” is my only request at my local Acura dealership! A good interior vacuum sure, but no wash. Marc’s cars are woooonderful! *smiley face with hearts for eyes* emote.

So how much longer do you think Acura will have you covering the ILX?

Reply
- tysonhugie Says:
  May 23, 2012 at 1:06 pm
  
  Haha, love the visual of the smiley face with hearts for eyes. Marc’s fleet is delicious as always. I’ll be talking about the ILX for awhile yet – more to come on that front. Hope that sales for it are off to a good start!
  
  Reply
Marc Says:
May 25, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Hey Tyson- thanks for sharing my Honda ‘experience’ on your blog! I certainly appreciate the mention. And you test drove my ’94 Legend before it was even for sale. Small world… Looking over the post, I think I will have to drop what I am doing and take one of the Legends out for a spin!

Reply
- tysonhugie Says:
  May 25, 2012 at 7:31 pm
  
  You bet, Marc. Definitely try and find some time to get the coupes out this weekend. Hope it’s gorgeous weather for the holiday weekend for you guys.
  
  Reply
Jeremy Stoker Says:
May 27, 2012 at 1:04 am

Loved this post! I can’t believe those Legends in that condition. I have always enjoyed these older cars with low limes. I have owned at least one variation of every Honda or Acura product pretty much ever to exist. I used to love the 1994 generation of the Integra GS-R with four doors. I had several 1993 Honda Accord models with the SE package. Though the Lexus V8 stole my heart so many years ago, I am reminded of how much I love the crisp six-speed manual transmissions in these Honda products. With all of the new technology and high-end features being introduced in the Acura lineup, I hope they can retain (and remember) the simple essential elements that we love so much about their products. While the fast-paced world we live in is constantly changing and evolving, some human characteristics never change, like the satisfaction of feeling that crisp notch (in the palm of my right hand) as I throw the gear knob from first to second gear… continuing up until I finish in sixth place.

Reply