drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  514,705

Odometer (ILX): 2,729

Cosmetic surgery time!  While in pictures it my appear that my old Legend has found the fountain of youth, in real life it’s very evident that this car has circled the globe more than 20 times in the distance it’s driven.  The car has its share of bruises and bumps, but each one has a special memory attached to it:

• The scrapes on the front right hand corner of the bumper when I side-swiped the garage on Valentine’s Day 2010.
• The chipping paint from when I rear-ended a lady in a Volvo in Fort Smith, Arkansas in summer 2011.
• The passenger side turn signal light that’s held in the bumper by duct tape.
• And the headlights that will forever be out of alignment since I hit those deer in Texas in 2008.

Well, it’s time to give this old ride a fresh look.  My brother has arranged for some paint work on the old car to get it looking showroom fresh, so I drove the Legend to St. George, Utah this weekend to leave it with him for a few weeks.  Here are the pictures from my 400-mile trip to Utah last weekend.

The old “Legends West Inn” in Wickenburg, Arizona has seen better days.  Wickenburg has about 6,300 residents.  Not much going on out there!

113 degrees outside and still purring along.  This shot taken just south of Hoover Dam on Arizona Highway 93 which was recently greatly improved with widening and resurfacing.

Now, how about capturing some of those battle scars.  For once, I’ll try and magnify them instead of hide them for pictures:

Believe it or not, the paint on this front end is only 4 years (but 215,000 miles) old.  When I hit those two deer in Austin, Texas in 2008 it was repainted.  Guess I should’ve been using that nose mask more often since then!

Clear’s been failing on the trunk lid for awhile now.

It’s easy to be accepting of these types of cosmetic flaws on a car with about 515,000 miles on it.  The real eye opener is when you see a car with only 92,000 miles on it that looks like the below.  Anybody else see this Brooklyn beauty low mileage Legend GS sedan on Ebay right now?  Yikes.

That’s been a rough 92,000 miles!

Sides on the coupe look decent, though.  And those 16″ wheels have been refinished before, by a place called Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists here in Phoenix.

By dusk, I was passing through Las Vegas Nevada and getting on Interstate 15 northbound, with just 100 miles left to go.

A visit over the weekend to a place that has worked on my Legend a number of times:  Jody Wilkinson Acura.  Pictured here with two core members of the service team there:  Alex and Allen.  The Jody Wilkinson dealership in Salt Lake City, Utah hosted the National Acura Legend meet in 2008.  Great people and great service, always.  Thanks guys for playing a key role in the drive to five and beyond.

On the ILX front:

• I finally spent some time getting my phone paired with the audio system so I am bluetooth enabled now!  Cool feature!
• I really like the blue accent lighting at night that shines down from the overhead console.  Creates a nice glow in the cabin.
• “Oil life” indicator on the maintenance minder display says 70%.  I asked when I should bring the car in for its first oil change and was told to simply follow the oil life indicator as a guideline.  Quite a change from my standard ritual 3,000 mile service visits.
• I learned that the sound system maxes out at “level 40” volume and I still haven’t managed to blow out a speaker.  This Premium Audio System sounds awesome.
• June sales figures show ILX sales ramping up steadily – I can’t wait until I see my first fellow ILX driver on the road and can give him or her an enthusiastic thumbs up.

I visited my local friend Woody who just recently picked up a sporty 2012 Civic Si.  Woody’s “Rallye Red” 6-speed ride has been named Rosie.  She’s got 700 miles on the odometer.

Finally:  What’s the max payload on this thing?

I’ll be taking the ILX to northern Utah tomorrow to spend the holiday with my family.  A friend in Salt Lake needed a huge favor – transport from Phoenix of four 18″ Lexus SUV tires & wheels.  The gentleman who I picked them up from took one look at the ILX when I pulled up and said, “There’s no way you’re getting these tires in that car.”  As it turns out, he was wrong!

One in the trunk, three in the back seat.  Snug as a bug (and carefully covered so they can’t scuff my perfect interior).

Take THAT!

Next up – over the next five days, the ILX will travel about 1,600 miles round-trip from Phoenix all the way to the Utah / Idaho border.  Cooler temperatures?  Yes, please.  You can bet there will be plenty of pictures to accompany the story.

Happy Independence Day!  Enjoy a 90’s Acura flashback with me.

This entry was posted on July 3, 2012 at 5:24 pm and is filed under ILX, 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.