drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  528,429

Odometer (ILX):  64,275

Congrats, mom, on hitting 120,000 miles today in your 2003 Lexus GS430.  Making me proud.

How’s everyone holding up in those frigid temperatures?  Acura Legend enthusiast Brad Hespe posted this picture on Facebook of his 1994 GS sedan that survived negative-17 degree temperatures in Chicago.

Now that looks cold.  Meanwhile, those of us in the Phoenix, Arizona area haven’t dipped below about 40.  I took this picture on my commute yesterday afternoon in the ILX, driving through the Salt River – Pima Indian Community.

On Saturday morning, my friends Paul and Jack joined me on a pilgrimage to Tempe Acura, also referred to by Paul as the “Temple of Acura.”  Adorned in our finest robes, we were greeted upon arrival by the polished floors and glistening steel idols.  Okay, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far – but we did enjoy the amenities while waiting for some basic maintenance on my 1994 Acura Legend GS sedan.

Bit o’ history:  My sedan had 132,555 miles on it when I took delivery on May 24, 2008 in northern Utah.  Since then, it’s undergone quite a bit of maintenance which I highlighted in this post.  As of today, under my ownership it’s had 11 oil changes with 5W20 conventional oil and I’ve driven it 11,848 miles over the past 6 years.  That comes out to just 1,974 miles per year.  My service advisor, Dana, said after I pulled into the Service driveway, “You need to sell this one.” I rolled my eyes and grinned.

In she goes!

Luis Sofre is one of my blog followers who works at the dealership.

The good stuff.  Fresh baked cookies, every day.  My favorite are the oatmeal raisin.

Paul, Jack, and I walked around outside to see what kind of cars were on the lot.  There was a Bellanova White Pearl ILX 6-speed parked on the raised platform just outside the front doors.

This Silver Moon automatic had the bodyside moldings which I opted out of when I ordered my ILX.

Waiting for the oil change and entertaining ourselves.

And ready to roll again after an oil change and NO WASH.  I always specify that I don’t want them to wash my car when I drop it off for service.

Clean bill of health received.  The only note the technician made was that the Michelin Primacy tires (manufactured in 2007) are getting old.

Ending mileage when she went back into storage.

Later that afternoon, I took the NSX to a meet at Science of Speed.  SOS is a performance shop in Chandler, Arizona that specializes in the 1991-2005 Acura NSX and the 2000-2009 Honda S2000.

In attendance were a few very special and rare S2000 “CR” models, including these two in Apex Blue Pearl and Rio Yellow Pearl.  CR stands for Club Racer, and fewer than 2,000 S2000s were made in this trim.  Shigeru Uehara was the man behind the S2000 design, and some of you may remember him as the man who signed my Legend’s dashboard.  The S2000 CR has a lower ratio steering rack, stiffer suspension, and a body kit / spoiler that allegedly reduces the coefficient of lift by 70% compared to a stock S2000.

Finally, I wanted to share a few pictures from a recent trip to the local pick-n-pull junkyard with friends.  For $2, the “Ecology” facility in South Phoenix will let you enter the yard with your own tools and scavenge for anything you might need.  Here was the lineup of our vehicles in the parking lot – Nissan (x2), Lexus (x2), Acura (x2), Mitsubishi and Mini Cooper.  My friends have pretty good taste in cars.

There were a few Legend sightings inside, including this Granada Black Pearl 1994 L coupe.

The guys pulled a few parts that Nick needed off an older Infiniti Q45.

It’s always entertaining to walk through the car graveyard and contemplate all the stories the vehicles would tell if they could talk.  Some lived very short lives, while others appeared very used up.

If you haven’t already, swing by the Drive to Five Facebook page and give it a thumbs up.

Thanks for following along!

This entry was posted on January 8, 2014 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Legend, Maintenance. 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.