drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  522,645

Odometer (ILX):  47,274

Daily Distance:  788 Miles

Welcome back!

That Legend odometer seems stuck at 522,000 these days.  The car is resting up for its big trip to Asheville, North Carolina next month.  Meanwhile, I drove the wheels off my ILX (attempted to, anyway) in Colorado this weekend.

Rested up from a day of mountain-climbing, my third day of the Mount Evans trip this past weekend was entirely dedicated to my return trip to Arizona.  Many years ago, I rolled through Colorado Springs in my 1994 Legend coupe and I met up with my friend Adam who’s local to the area.  He owned a 1991 Legend coupe 5-speed at the time.

Now, Adam’s moved on to other automotive interests and he’s currently driving a 1995 BMW 540i.  Adam stopped by my hotel on Sunday morning for a reunion.

This car’s in amazing shape for having 210,000 miles on it.  Best of all, it’s a 6-speed manual.  Adam says it’s one of only 100 cars that were produced in its color / transmission configuration for the year.

I gave Adam the opportunity to take the ILX for a short cruise.

After that, I hit the highway and headed southbound toward home.  This was a sign along I-25 in northern New Mexico when I made my return trip:

It reads:

Report Drunk Drivers

Dial #DWI (#394)

I know I’ve been on Instagram too long because when I blew past the sign, I read it as “Hashtag DWI” instead of “Pound DWI.”  Why in the world would they want me to report a drunk driver by hashtagging?

I was on the road long enough (roughly 12 hours, with only short stops for fuel & bathroom breaks) to learn that XM radio stations DO repeat the same songs.  Frequently.  I spent most of the day on a country station, WSIX Channel 57.  I heard this song 4 times.  And I couldn’t bring myself to change the station each time.  It’s too dang catchy!

Storm clouds loomed in the distance as I neared Holbrook, Arizona.

Sure enough, the summer “monsoon” storms were in full force and I got very wet.  The ILX, even with 47,000 miles on the current Michelin Pilot tires, gets excellent grip and I was able to make it through the weather with confidence.

That concluded the 3-day Colorado adventure to the highest paved road in America.  I loved the drive and I’m glad you could all be a part of it!

Random Fun Mileage News:

The other day, I came across a “Trade In Quality Index” website that is a database of about 160,000 traded-in vehicles.  It illustrates the percentage of vehicles with over 180,000 miles on them on this chart.  Acura had 20%.  Geo was the highest at 27%.  I’m not sure how current this data is, but it’s fun to consider.  I have colleagues at work who get antsy to sell or trade their vehicles as soon as they close in on 100,000.  That’s barely past break-in.

Here’s a 1987 Chevy Celebrity with over 375,000 miles, found on Copart.com.  Impressive for an old tank!  The Celebrity model will also have a special place in my heart since it was my first car.

And here’s another Chevy with super LOW miles.  This is a 1950 model year with just 437 miles on it.  More on that here.

All original – of course!

Just look at that interior.

Lastly –

If you haven’t already watched it, check out this Acura “Advance” Commercial linked here.  Thanks Ryan for finding it!

Hope everyone has a great Friday tomorrow.

This entry was posted on July 25, 2013 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Colorado, ILX, 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.