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Dave’s Visit, Vigor Registration, & Upcoming Events

Posted in ILX, Legend, NSX, Vigor on August 9, 2015 by tysonhugie

Descending order mileage update time!

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 534,345

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 147,000

Odometer (ILX): 136,629

Odometer (Vigor): 104,540

Odometer (NSX): 100,859

My buddy Dave flew in for a visit this week from the Seattle area, so I had to roll out the ‘Formula’ Red carpet for him. We took this car to get drinks at Tempe Marketplace.

Dave is a long-time friend of mine who I originally met via the Acura Legend enthusiast community. This was the airport shuttle.

On Tuesday night, we took a ride in the Legend coupe for some BBQ dinner at “Bobby-Q’s” off Interstate 17 & Northern Avenue in Phoenix.

Cruising to dinner.

The pulled pork was indeed delicious.

Dave also borrowed the ILX for a bit. He sent me a text message later on: “This clutch is 180 degrees different than your coupe’s!” Thanks, my friend, for making time for me in your vacation travel schedule!

Huge thanks are going out to my friend Beau who snagged me some snazzy new profile photos a week or so ago. I used the pictures for my Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts. For laughs, we took this one too. I couldn’t resist getting the car in just one shot!

That Vigor is now officially an Arizona resident. First order of business was an emissions test on Tuesday morning at the facility on Evans Rd in Scottsdale, not far from my office. That test ran me $20. Results are here:

Summary: It passed with flying colors!

Hydrocarbons in grams/mile: Standard = .8; my Vigor = .36
Carbon Monoxide in grams/mile: Standard = 12; my Vigor = 4.25
Oxides of Nitrogen in grams/mile: Standard = 2; my Vigor = .78

I then spent two hours at the Tempe DMV office near my house. Luckily I’d taken my work laptop so I could multi-task while dozens of other people made their way through the process. For $92.28 I was issued new tags with a 2-year registration, good until August 2017. So cheap! And it would have been even cheaper, but $50 of that total was for my personalized tags which are on order. I won’t spill the beans, but I’m excited for what they’ll say. In the meantime, I’m riding around on a generic looking one.

As all of you know, I’m big on “car history.” I like to know where my vehicles have been – and what they’ve been through – down to every little detail. That’s the whole reason I track my vehicle maintenance on Excel spreadsheets. When I purchased my Vigor from an AutoNation dealership in Denver, it came with its owner’s manual inside the glove compartment.

The original owner’s name was handwritten on the inside of the manual’s front cover. It only took a quick Google search to locate her current whereabouts and contact information. I sent her over a quick note. Within 12 hours, she’d responded – gratefully – and was glad to hear that the car she’d driven for 21 years is still in good hands! Check out her email:

That made my day. I’ll keep Kathy in the loop as things progress.

It’s been a super busy time here. I’m still actively engaged in NSXPO planning activities, in preparation for our 250-car NSX celebration the weekend of October 8-11 in Palm Springs, California. I’m taking a “practice” drive through that area soon. Here are a few coming attractions.

Aug 22 – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Aug 29 – Palm Springs & Idyllwild, CA
Sep 23-27 – National Acura Legend Meet – Houston, TX

A few final pics to close out the week. I test-drove a coworker’s 2005 Porsche Carrera S. Loved it!

Rainbow!

Drive to Five reader Joe saw this in the local paper. Someone stole my tagline.

Legends out on Saturday

And the Vigor out on Sunday

The end of the road, and the end of this epistle! Until next time.

18 Comments »

Quick Pics in Tempe, Arizona & Vigor Maintenance Update

Posted in Legend, Vigor on July 30, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 534,153

Odometer (ILX): 135,367

I took a little lap around Lakeshore Drive at Tempe Town Lake on Wednesday after work. Nobody was out (it was a little too hot).

In the background here is the Mill Avenue Bridge which dates back to 1931 and continues to carry traffic across the Salt River.

As a “road history” fan, I learned something during my research about the Mill Avenue Bridge. It was preceded by an even earlier structure – the Ash Avenue Bridge – just to the west. This photo shows the Mill (left) and Ash (right) bridges in the 1920s.

The Ash Avenue Bridge, built in 1911, offered a critical first link across the Salt River but was short-lived. It was far too narrow to accommodate two lanes for automobiles, and it was irreparably damaged by a flood in 1919. The bridge was finally closed in 1933, two years after the Mill Avenue Bridge was finished, and eventually was demolished in 1991, except for just this tiny piece on the south bank which now has a pedestrian patio/viewpoint on top of it.

This October 2013 article by Jay Mark shares more about the very interesting history of this important piece of road. It was built by convict labor! During the two years it was under construction, 15 inmates escaped. What a grand plan that was. Haha.

I’ve enjoyed showing off my ‘new’ Acura Vigor to friends in the 4 weeks that have gone by since I picked it up on the 4th of July in Denver and drove it home to Phoenix. This past Sunday, I met up with my friends Chuck & Patty who have a custom 1988 Legend L convertible. It was warm weather for top-down cruising, but that didn’t stop them from getting brunch at Pier54 in Tempe!

Later that same day, my friend Jason from New Mexico rolled through town so we got some Hawaiian BBQ.

The Vigor already undergone quite a bit of transformation both mechanically and cosmetically. This week, it received a fresh tint job thanks to Desert Shield in Tempe, Arizona. The purple, bubbled, hazy film on the windows has been professionally replaced with a charcoal 30% all the way around. I’m very happy with the results.

From a maintenance perspective, since I had purchased this car knowing little (read: nothing) about its prior history, I pretty much had to start from scratch. Tait Johnson, otherwise known as “Hon-Man,” has operated a repair shop in Tempe since the late 1990’s that specializes exclusively in Honda & Acura automobiles. One glance at the parking lot upon arrival and I knew that I’d found Honda Mecca. There were at least two dozen Honda or Acura cars in the parking lot.

I had Tait’s team go through the Vigor with a fine-toothed comb to see what they felt needed addressing. In the end, they did identify a few things.

Blockage in Evap Drain Hose: This was causing the A/C condensation water to drip on my feet / floor mats rather than underneath the car. Fixed free of charge.
Valve Adjustment: This Vigor had a nagging “tick” that left me a little concerned. Tait’s team got it purring like a kitten.
Distributor Shaft Seal, O-Rings, Cap & Rotor: Per recommendation, this fixed a leak.
Timing Belt Inspection: Any Honda lover knows that timing belt maintenance is one of the most critical part things to keep in mind for long-lasting engine life. In most cases, the interval is every 90,000 miles. I once had a 1991 Honda Prelude Si that broke its old/original timing belt and bent some valves in the process. That engine was toast afterward. Tait found that the Vigor’s belt has in fact already been changed, though there was a concerning aspect of the install – one “guide” is installed backwards and the water pump that was used is a low quality unit. At some point in the coming weeks, I may do a full timing belt package with Tait for peace of mind.

At 104,392 miles, I got the car back after these items had been addressed and cruised home happily. Thanks to my friend Hy for recommending such a great shop.

On the upcoming list of items to address, though somewhat back-burner:

Exhaust System: From the get-go, the Vigor has been a little louder than I think it should be. I suspect that even though the body doesn’t show any signs of rust-through, the car’s exhaust system probably has some wear & tear from spending 20+ years in Colorado where winters are fairly brutal. Midas quoted me around $500 to get it back to new.
Leather Re-Do: My friend Donald works for a high-end upholstery shop in Scottsdale and said he’s confident he could easily replace the panel of my driver side seat bolster that is worn out. And not to worry – he’ll match that “Cognac” colored interior to perfection!

So, in coming attractions: I’m about to hit the road in the ILX this afternoon and head to sunny St. George, Utah (~800 miles round trip). The occasion? High school class reunion! The Pine View High School class of 2000 is ready for a 15-year regroup. It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade & a half. See you on the flip side. Bonus points if you can find me in this photo from one the dances my senior year.

26 Comments »

The 90’s Are Back

Posted in Blog, ILX, Legend, NSX, Road Trip, Vigor on July 12, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 534,030

Odometer (Legend Sedan):

Odometer (Vigor): 104,384

Odometer (NSX): 100,807

Odometer (ILX): 133,489

Total Combined Miles: 1,019,680

Time warp. If you drove down my street last night at 7:40 p.m., you would have seen me standing on a step ladder in the middle of the street to capture a picture that embodied the essence of 1990’s Japanese car design. The Vigor, Legend, and NSX parked on my driveway were three of the four vehicles marketed by Acura Division of Honda Motor Company in the early 90’s under the “Precision Crafted Performance” slogan. I’m pretty sure the neighbors were peeking out from behind their blinds and making fun of me.

Some 20-plus years after they were introduced, each of these vehicles have aged well and are well on their way to becoming classics.

Ranked in order of price here, the Vigor was $28k, the Legend, $41k, and the NSX $65k when new. That’s $134,000 worth of cars, that I paid a total of $36,500 for. Did I get a deal or what?

In the background here were two “hiding” Hondas – my neighbor’s black Accord and my 2013 ILX.

Thanks for putting up with my craziness but this was a photoshoot I’d been wanting to do for some time now.

Today I have a grab-bag of features to share – no real “theme” but rather just a a few updates on what’s been going on this past week.

Automotive journalist Jeff Koch who did the photos for my Hemmings feature last November invited me to check out a car he was testing. It’s this 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat in “TorRed” paint job. It’s an absolute monster of a car, with a 707-horsepower V8 engine that left me grabbing for a handle when Jeff gave it a little gas on the Loop 101 onramp.

Even just while parked outside the pizza joint where Jeff and I grabbed lunch, the Hellcat drew a crowd of Mopar fanatics.

Sometimes I wish I had 700 horses at my command, but then I realize that my 201-horsepower ILX is getting 34.8 over miles per gallon. I’ll take the fuel economy. You all know how much I drive.

On Thursday, my friends Chris, James, and I went over to check out a sweet custom home owned by our friend Shelly. Look at that lineup of garages! Real estate goal of mine, for sure.

Meanwhile, I’ve made some great progress this week with my “new” 1994 Vigor GS. I had to laugh when Chuck from Acura’s Public Relations team in Torrance, California made a comment on my Instagram post about picking up the Vigor. “You own more cool Acura cars than we do — and we’re Acura, for crying out loud!” Well, Chuck, come borrow the keys any time!

I had a few visitors this week coming to check out the car. One was Joe who drives a 1995 Legend LS.

One was my friend Armando who drives a sweet Subaru SVX.

And one was Phil who drives a 1992 Legend LS. Thanks to all you guys for stopping by!

The Vigor got some detailing this week. I took to the undercarriage with a high pressure wash so I could clean out 20 years’ worth of dirt & gunk that the car had accumulated during its lifetime in Colorado. Then I hit the paint with a hand-wax of Meguiar’s carnauba wax and buffed it off with a microfiber towel. It turned out nicely.

The interior doesn’t need much but I’ll probably condition the leather soon.

Exhaust tip polish: Before & After

Freshly painted wiper arms in black satin Rust-Oleum.

Oil change and full inspection at Acura of Tempe (couldn’t resist a photo with a new TLX)

And looking pretty shiny now.

Ben from AutoNation where I purchased the car sent me a follow-up email. It’s clearly a “form” email, but I had to laugh at how he offered to help me understand how to operate the “technology.” Thanks, Ben, but I can handle 1994 technology just fine!

In other Acura news, my younger brother Payton picked up a sweet ride for his daily driver. He’s now in a 1993 Legend L coupe 6-speed with just 135,000 on the odometer. He sent me this text earlier in the week to share the news.

After some fresh window tint and a quick wash, he had it looking great already. Congrats Payton!

Yesterday, a few friends and I went to Sedona for a day. It’s a nice escape from Phoenix – only about 120 miles each way – and offers cooler temperatures and nice landscapes all around. I’ve blogged about Sedona multiple times, including most recently in a Toyota & GMC pickup truck comparo back in May. James captured this photo of the ILX northbound on Highway 179.

Scenic viewpoint in Sedona

Couldn’t sit here long – parking not allowed along that stretch, and the lot was full with tourists!

Dating back to 1993, this McDonald’s on Highway 89A is the only one in the world with its arches painted turquoise instead of yellow. The city mandated the color change in the interest of preserving the “desert” color scheme of the town. Even the homes blend in. Here I’m with Jack and Donald, two of my road trip partners. Thanks to James from Six Speed Blog for taking the photo.

Rolling back into Phoenix on Interstate 17 southbound

And lastly: I don’t know where or how this photo was captured (and it wasn’t by me!) but isn’t that new NSX sweet?

Have a great week!

36 Comments »

Reader’s Ride: Wayne’s 1994 Legend GS 6-Speed

Posted in Legend, Reader's Ride on June 29, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,874

Odometer (ILX): 132,548

Odometer (NSX): 100,769

It was January 2007. I had just finished up graduate school of Thunderbird School of Global Management and I wanted to reward myself with something special. Posted on craigslist, I found a cream puff of a car in southern California that fit the bill perfectly: a Sirius White Pearl 1994 Acura Legend GS sedan 6-speed. Having owned my Legend coupe for about 4 years, I felt ready to expand the fleet a little. Now, I’d already owned a couple of other Legends in the past but this one was special because of its ownership history & condition.

The below pictures from the online listing stole my heart. The seller, Simon, had even installed the car’s original “Hoehn Acura” license plates for the pictures. He informed me that his mother Lorraine, the original owner, had named the car Bodecia. She had traveled frequently between Carlsbad, California and her cabin in Oregon and thus the car had over 200,000 miles on it at the time of listing but didn’t look even a year old.

On January 15th, I flew from Phoenix to Orange County airport and took delivery of the Legend at 207,100 miles from Simon. He gave me every single stitch of paperwork on the car – one of the most complete records I’ve ever seen.

Notice he’d even given me a CD with the maintenance records digitized. This guy was over the top, and I loved it.

Icing on the cake was getting ahold of the original window sticker AND a couple of pictures from when the car was brand new.

Starting odometer reading when I took delivery.

Back in Phoenix and meeting its coupe sibling for the first time.

It was at this same time that I got my first “real” job. I was working at the US Airways main office in Tempe, Arizona on the Domestic Pricing team. I was the guy who you either loved or hated when you got online to check airfares.

I exchanged several emails around that time with the original owner Lorraine. She was a sweet lady. Here’s her message dated May 14, 2007.

Tyson,

It makes me want to cry to see how beautiful Bodecia looks. Thank you for the pictures. Here’s the story how I chose her. I had, at that time, a white 1980 Mazda RX 7. She had a Weber carburetor, air horns, a straight through exhaust and a D-bar and a racing clutch because I blew the original clutch. You could hear her half a block away. I loved that car. Skip Gorman, Simon’s mentor, had worked on my car with all the add-ons and as Simon grew older, Simon put them on for me.

So, one day, an old Legend gave me a run for my money on the on/off ramp from 52 on to 805. I was intrigued and followed this car till I found out what it was. I needed a sedan as my Nissan Maxima of 10 years was past its prime. So, I test drove the 1994 Legend. I loved it. Loved the 6 forward gears, I was trained to use gears to slow down not the brakes. I wanted white and they had to search for her. Bodecia was one of 5 white models in the USA at that time. She was loaded on a semi and shipped down to Carlsbad from Los Angeles, especially for me. So, she may be the only white pearl GS left of the 1994 GS models in USA. This was the first car I had paid for and chose for myself after my divorce and she meant the world to me. Simon called her OJC (old Japanese car) and that hurt and it hurt to see her at his house. I still think I love her better than my new car which is an automatic for when I really am a little old lady.

Bodecia just has an air about her. She was a Legend so I picked the name Bodecia who was a British legend. She fought the Romans after her husband was killed in battle. Rallied her people but unfortunately they lost. You may see her on some of the old English coins, chariot, spear shield. So, you can imagine how happy I am to see Bodecia is getting the care she deserves. Congratulations on your Masters Degree. Quite a feat. Well done. I would love to meet you next time you are in California. Let me know. I am retired but babysit for my daughter in Yorba Linda and am a Senior Patrol Volunteer for the Encinitas Sheriff Department. I will definitely make time for you. Will mail off the window sticker tomorrow. Yes, I spell funny. I was born in Australia.

Lorraine

I owned the white Legend GS for fewer than 10 months, but in that one short span of ownership, I had so much fun with the car, some of which I’ve already shared on the blog.

Monterey Trip – August 2007
Photoshoot in Superior

Here are a few other pictures of memorable occasions.

February 2007 – Sirius White Pearl block party at Chuck’s house, with his 1993 LS coupe and 1993 LS sedan.

Neighbors were rolling their eyes I’m sure!

May 2007 – Legend 6-speed photoshoot near the home I was renting in Tempe, Arizona.

August 2007 – The sedan had become my daily driver while the coupe was being repaired from a couple of deer collisions. I took advantage of an amazing sunset one evening in the parking lot of the Arizona State University football stadium in Tempe.

On October 1, I was ready to sell the car. The coupe was coming back from the body shop, I had picked up a 3rd car (1991 Honda Prelude 4WS) that was sucking a lot of my attention away — plus I had limited parking space at my rental home. So, with great hesitance I posted the ad for the car with 216,000 miles for $5,990 on craigslist. My advertisement was several pages long and had at least a dozen detailed pictures.

I also included a screen shot of the maintenance records Excel file.

On October 26th, long-time friend of mine Wayne flew from Houston to take delivery of the car. We took the opportunity to rally another Legend lover, Chuck, for dinner in central Phoenix at Hard Rock Cafe when Wayne and his friend Terrell were in town.

Group photo at the restaurant

Key handoff to Wayne

Tyson, Wayne, Chuck, in the parking garage before heading out.

Wayne and Terrell made the 1,176-mile drive home to Houston the following morning. Not long afterward, Wayne sent me this picture of the car wearing its newly-issued Texas license plates.

For many years (nearly 8, in fact) Wayne lovingly cared for the Legend with regular maintenance. Then tragedy struck in May 2015. The Houston area was pummeled with rain and most of the city went underwater, including the garage where Wayne had his Legend stored. Despite efforts to bring it back to life, the car was pronounced a total loss as the water had become too deep. Sterling McCall Acura technicians delivered the somber news.

These are photos from the car as it sat while drying out in the service bay.

And this was the news I received from Wayne regarding the insurance company’s decision.

At 220,439 miles, this Legend was merely broken in and still had a lot of life to live. Post your condolences for Wayne in the comments box, and let’s hope he can find another replacement car soon. Thanks, Wayne, for letting me share your story!

EDIT: July 2, 2015

Wayne has already found a worthy replacement for his Legend. He is the proud owner of a 2003 Acura CL Type-S 6-Speed manual. As most of you Acura fans will know, the CL 6MT is an extremely rare find. His is an Aegean Blue Pearl model, one of only 230 ever produced. 2003 was the only model year to offer a stick shift in the 2nd gen Acura CL.

Congratulations, Wayne!

I have just 4 quick pics from this past weekend:

The ILX enduring a desert sandstorm just moments after I’d finished washing it.

The Legend sedan getting an oil change on Saturday and parked next to a 2016 ILX.

A congrats to my friend Jimmy on picking up a Legend. He got this 1994 GS 6-Speed with 166,048 miles on it recently. I took a test drive.

And a shot from a Sunday drive in the NSX. Even at 8:00 a.m. the heat was unbearable. I need to get the A/C fixed in that car.

Oh, and that’s the 62-foot-long “America’s Largest Sundial” in Carefree, AZ that I’ve blogged about before.

Have a great week!

28 Comments »

Legend Spy Shot Roundup #5

Posted in Legend, Spy Shots on June 17, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,736

Odometer (ILX): 131,174

I know the mileage-mania has gone too far when even my mom is posting things like this on Facebook:

She’s recently picked up a hot little red 2010 Volkswagen EOS convertible and she’s already racking up the miles AND offering gift card prizes to her friends who most closely guess the date & location of her 50,000-mile rollover. Did you notice the 44 mile per hour speed to align with the 44,444 odometer? Now, if only she’d hit that at 4:44 p.m. and with 44.4 on the trip meter. Keep trying, mom!

(Her car is at right, and the other one is its twin – owned & driven by my aunt Connie)

Now for today’s feature:

Bring out those spy cams. My readers have been at it again. I present to you, in alphabetical order by submitter, the latest in Acura Legend spy pics from around the country. It’s only been 3 months since the last Spy Shot Roundup, but there were FIFTY (5-0!) pictures submitted since then so I figured it was time to go ahead and post the latest ones for you all to see.

Beau in Arizona (6 submissions – Legend Spotter Extraordinaire Award Recipient)

Chris M in Maryland

Chris G in California

Conor in New York

Check that rearview!

Daniel in Arizona

Dillon in North Carolina

Grant in Utah

Ian in Arizona – spotted my friend Joe!

Ira in Washington

Jack in Arizona

James in Arizona

Jim in Arizona

Clever shot here!

Joe in Arizona

Kyle in Arizona

Nice attempt at a rearview mirror shot here, Kyle!

Matt in South Carolina

Yours truly! Came up behind this guy on Cave Creek Rd in Phoenix a few weeks ago. Nicely kept Milano Red 1995 L coupe.

Nate in Idaho

Paul in Georgia

Ruben in Arizona

Ryan in Arizona

Scott in California

Sunny in Utah

WINNER! Toby in New York

Special features! Jason in New Mexico captured a 1987 Chevy Celebrity Classic, much like my first car. It even had the same vinyl roof. Bonus points, Jason!

We have a few Vigor features this time, too.

Chris C in Florida – blurry, but we can tell what it is!

Chris G in California

Kurt in Arizona

Thanks again everyone for playing!

15 Comments »

Hiking Shaw Butte to Abandoned “Cloud 9” Restaurant in Phoenix

Posted in Hikes, Legend on May 18, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 533,559

Odometer (ILX): 125,623

Remember that classic 1985 movie, Goonies? It’s one of my all-time faves. I can’t believe it’s 30 years old.

So, there’s a scene in the movie where some kids go hiking around in an abandoned restaurant in search of buried treasure after finding a map in someone’s attic. Sounds like my kind of adventure, and that’s why I love the movie.

Oh, and I also loved it because of some sweet off-racing scenes with a Jeep Cherokee 4×4.

I get a kick out of “urban exploration.” One of my most memorable road trips ever was when I hiked around the ghost town of Modena, Utah. I’ll never forget the feeling of uneasiness as I climbed rickety wooden staircases and wondered if they’d crumble under my weight. The thrill of discovery, adventure — and sometimes, of getting caught in a place where you shouldn’t be — is fun for me.

A few friends, family members and I (hi, mom!) are planning a 20+ mile Grand Canyon “rim to rim” hike a week from this Friday. We’re insane, yes. But, as part of the training for that, I’ve started seeking out local Phoenix-area hikes a couple of times a week in preparation. My friends Rustin and Wade told me about a 3-miler with a nice 900-or-so foot elevation gain near 7th Avenue & Peoria in north-central Phoenix. We met up at the trailhead last Wednesday after work and set out with Wade’s dogs, Abi & Jackson, leading the way. The path was called Shaw Butte: Trail #306 in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.

According to the “Health” app on my iPhone, we climbed the equivalent of 68 flights of stairs. I was panting more than the dogs were by the time we reached the summit. The hike was just what I needed to get my heart rate up, and the views were awesome.

The icing on the cake, though, was getting to wander around the remains of an old restaurant that’s been gone for over 50 years now. Cloud 9 opened in the early 1960s as a luxury restaurant for the Phoenix elite. According to one video account, the facility was small and could only accommodate about 30-40 people. In all my googling, I wasn’t able to find a picture of the building from when it was open for business. On November 8, 1964, the building burned down. There are suspicions that the demise of the building may have been related to gang or mob activity, but nobody really knows for sure.

Even when the restaurant was in operation, the road was too rough to be traversed by passenger cars so people were shuttled to the summit by four-wheel-drive vehicles. Today, the location is part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve System and it’s not likely it would ever be built up again as a commercial business.

The round-trip hike took us about an hour and a half. Here we are getting ready at the trailhead.

Wade takes the lead

Now it’s Jackson’s turn. This is the crumbly road that once led to the restaurant.

Staircase and some old kitchen equipment

This concrete pad is where the tables once would have been. There were glass windows along the edge.

Abi, Rustin, and Wade as silhouettes on the Cloud 9 patio

It would have been a great view from the restaurant – especially at night.

Taking a break with the pups

Sign along the roadway

Photo op. Color coordinated – unintentionally (I promise)

Best thing about the Acura ILX? Huge cupholders that can accommodate gallons of diet soda after a hike.

Now that we’ve worked up an appetite, I’ll do a quick share about a local restaurant that I checked out for the first time over the weekend. This one’s for you, Dave in Seattle! I know my friend Dave is a BBQ fan so I thought he’d appreciate this. It’s Honey Bear’s BBQ – family owned and operated since 1986.

I was one of only 5 people in the restaurant at about noon on a Saturday. Had my share of parking spot choices, and I took an end space as usual. There wasn’t much traffic on Central Avenue.

Inside view – pretty quiet.

Those are some soft drinks you don’t see very often: RC Cola, Sunkist, and Hires Root Beer.

“You don’t need no teeth to eat our meat.” How’s that for a motto?

And here’s that pulled pork sandwich. Delicious, I’d say. The only issue was that the meat was so juicy, it soaked through the bun and I ended up having to eat everything with a fork.

And we’re off to cruise down Central on a full belly.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

18 Comments »

Carfax Reports and Smog Checks

Posted in Blog, ILX, Legend, Maintenance on May 7, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 533,379

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 146,786

Odometer (ILX): 124,503

Some people buy a vehicle as a disposable appliance – a sheer means of transportation to get from A to B. Others hold their vehicles so near and dear that they’ll rebuild them – twice – after catastrophic collisions. Where do you fall within that range of car owners?

One of my favorite things to do on rare weekends when I stay in town is to visit the local Ecology “pick & pull” auto junkyard, plunk down $2 for my entry fee, and simply wander around through the aisles of parted-out cars. I like to eyeball the interiors and look specifically at the gauge clusters to see just how many miles each one traveled before being put to rest in the graveyard. Occasionally I’ll come across something with fewer than 100,000 miles on it. Most of the time the odometers are between 200,000 and 300,000. And every once in awhile, I’ve seen them beyond that – but never anything in the 400’s or 500’s.

The thing that I wonder about, though, is what kind of story each car would tell if it could talk. How many of those vehicles have ever had “Just Married” painted on them? How many were driven by a zealous 16-year-old as his or her first car? How many ever took a cross-country trip from one coast to the other? How many of them were ever stolen? Or, a more somber thought, how many of them became witness to their driver’s death in a collision?

Many people today buy a car without ever having thought of its prior ownership history. For me, such history is a hugely important part of how “good” a used car is. I go crazy for a clean car for sale by its original owner, with a stack of detailed maintenance paperwork, a clean title, and some original floor mats. Mmmm. It’s scary to think of buying something without any kind of record. There are, however, ways to at least know something about where any car’s been.

Carfax and Autocheck are companies in business to provide that kind of reporting. Carfax has been around since 1986. The company has access to 10 billion records from 86,000 sources (motor vehicle departments, auctions, insurance companies, repair facilities, etc). With just a VIN or a license plate (and a credit card), regular consumers can pull vehicle history reports from those billions of records. Carfax is certainly not a complete record, and it should only be considered for a used car purchase in combination with other research.

As I’ve been casually in the market for a 1992-94 Acura Vigor, I grabbed a $45 Carfax account and started running reports on a few prospective cars, including the above pictured beauty (sarcasm). My account gives me access to UNLIMITED reports by license plate / state, or 5 reports by 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). I had some fun with this.

One Vigor showed record of a whopping 13 owners in its lifetime. I ran some of my friends’ cars for the heck of it, too. I also checked out some of my “old” cars to see where they ended up. I was intrigued by the report on my first car: the 1986 Chevy Celebrity that was my pride and joy from 1997-98. I laughed the other day when I saw this picture on Instagram because the keys shown there are exactly what the keys to my Celeb looked like (square for the ignition, round for the door & trunk locks – I think).

I know my parents bought the car new in 1986 from Axtell Chevrolet in Logan, Utah. But the first record on Carfax wasn’t until March 1994 with an odometer reading of 555 miles. Say what? Yes. The odometer on that Celebrity only had 5 digits. So, by the time the car was only 8 years old, it had already turned over to 00,000 and made any future readings erroneous. Utah noted that fact on the Celebrity’s report. The car’s title was branded with “Exceeds Mechanical Limits.” Can you imagine if my ILX only had a 5-digit odometer? It would have rolled over once already and it’s a 2-year-old car.

By the time I got the Celebrity, it had around 194,000 miles on it. But of course, the odometer read only 94,000.

That Celebrity dropped off Carfax reporting a decade ago, since the last record was a purchase reported in March 2005. I’m sure the car has long since been crushed and turned into scrap metal.

I thought it would be interesting to go ahead and share the detailed Carfax reports for my Legend and for my ILX. The Legend’s history is tainted so it’s a little unnerving to post it here, but it’s all in the interest of a good history lesson. Some of you may know that I hit two deer with the Legend in summer 2007.

It took almost six years — until early 2013 — before that insurance claim started showing up on the Carfax report! My car’s title today is clear. There are a whopping 77 service records, and oddly enough, Carfax thinks my Legend is actually worth about $2,600 MORE than retail book value! That means I could price it at about $4,700 since “excellent” condition value is $2,173.

It took me 11 screen captures to get the full Legend Carfax report. Here you go!

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Then there’s the ILX. Clockwork maintenance from Acura of Tempe, and not much else.

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There’s one more Legend record that’ll be showing up soon. I got a $41.23 oil change on Wednesday with 5W30 synthetic blend oil at Acura of Tempe. It had been over 6 months since my last service, but only 1,703 miles. I really hadn’t driven the car much since last fall! Here’s the latest snapshot from my Excel maintenance record showing service and repair costs since about 512,000 miles.

The technician did note a number of leaks, including the differential, transmission, driver side inner CV boot, and rear main seal. This all does come as a bit of a surprise though since my garage floor is squeaky clean and I’ve never noticed a drop in any fluid levels.

Today during lunch, I took my Legend GS sedan for its emissions (“smog”) testing. The test is required once every two years and it evaluates the levels of pollutants in the exhaust output. The wait was only about 20 minutes.

Here are the numbers:

Hydrocarbons in grams/mile: .49 (applicable standard = .80)
Carbon monoxide in grams/mile: 7.65 (applicable standard = 12)
Oxides of nitrogen in grams/mile: .66 (applicable standard = 2)

It passed, I was issued my certificate for a $20 fee, and I went on my way. My 2-year renewal registration with the State of Arizona was only $95, and $50 of that was because I have a personalized tag. It really is a cheap car to hang onto. I gave the car a bath before putting it back into storage.

Oops, should have pulled out the vacuum.

Happy Friday!

15 Comments »

Cruising Arizona’s “Catalina Highway” in 5 Performance Hondas

Posted in Arizona, Legend, NSX, Road Trip on April 12, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend Coupe): 533,178

Odometer (Legend Sedan): 146,723

Odometer (ILX): 121,263

Odometer (NSX): 100,060

Trip Distance: 307 Miles

Remember when car keys keys looked like this?

Honda Heaven. That’s what I experienced on Friday.

Most days at the office, I’m trudging through incoming email volume from 150-250 messages during my 9-hours at my desk. But every once in awhile, an escape from that harsh reality is just what the doctor ordered. Accompanied by 6 car-enthusiast friends (including James from Six Speed Blog and Jason from Driven for Drives), I headed for the sunny mountain roads of southern Arizona in search of what I’d call “automotive therapy.” Three hundred miles later, I wore a grin of contentment that clearly reassured me: that drive was totally what I needed.

Our special guest on this particular excursion was author Steve Lynch, pictured above. I first met Steve through a group of automotive journalists called Phoenix Automotive Press Association (PAPA) a number of months ago. He and I attended a roundtable discussion at the Phoenix Art Museum that centered around “how to write a book.” As it turns out, Steve is an expert on such matters as he is a published author. His 1997 book Arrogance and Accords details some of the inner dealings at Honda during the early 1990s when he was employed there. He later went on to spend 17 years working in Finance for Mercedes-Benz and currently writes for an automotive blog called The Truth About Cars.

Naturally, when I saw Steve pull up to a later PAPA event in his eye-catching Rio Yellow 2008 Honda S2000, I had to pick his brain a little more. We ended up deciding to coordinate a drive/story. And that’s what you’re here to see today.

The Catalina Highway which ascends Mount Lemmon just north of Tucson, Arizona is one of my favorite stretches of highway and I’ve talked about it a few times in the past on this blog, including August 2012 after I’d recently taken delivery of the ILX, and November 2013 when I took a 2014 Acura RLX there to review it. The thirty miles from the base of the highway near Tanque Verde Road to the summit at Summerhaven are full of twists and turns, and it’s only fitting that we equipped ourselves with automobiles that were up to the task. Here were our contenders for our Friday fun-day:

1992 Acura NSX 5-speed
1993 Acura NSX 5-speed
1994 Acura Legend LS Coupe 6-speed
1994 Acura Legend GS Sedan 6-speed
2008 Honda S2000 6-speed

Departing from the Phoenix area, the first 100+ miles of our drive were relatively mundane interstate commuting on Loop 101, Loop 202, and Interstate 10. I led the pack in the Legend coupe and set the pace for our 4-car caravan. After dealing with some heavy construction traffic on Grant Road in Tucson, we finally made it to our meeting spot with Steve who was already snapping pictures.

Steve had scoped out the drive route to Summerhaven beforehand – even going so far as to plan out a few potential stopping points along the way. The first was at Seven Cataracts, about halfway up – a dramatic overlook of the valley below with ample parking space which we had entirely to ourselves. The higher in elevation we got, the more pronounced the smell of fresh pine trees became. The temperatures and light breeze as we got to 6,000 and 7,000 feet made it the perfect weather for windows-down (or top down!) weather. We rowed our 5 manual-gearbox Honda & Acura cars to the 8,200-foot summit and then paused for a patio lunch session at a restaurant called Sawmill.

From there, it was time to play what we liked to call “musical cars.” Keys got tossed around. We looped back to Seven Cataracts as a way to give people the chance to car-swap and experience the other vehicles on the roster. While slow-moving traffic did at times slow our pace and we were mindful of the need to watch for bicyclists and the local sheriff, we still had enough chances to let our engines breathe at higher RPM and give our suspensions a workout. At the end of the day, we nodded our heads in agreement that there was certainly no “best” car of the bunch. Each one had its merits and its drawbacks. But there are certainly things that stood out from my driving impressions that I’ll share (and similarly, Jason and Steve will also be posting on their respective sites).

The 1992 NSX is what I can best describe as a “raw” driving experience. There’s no power steering so it’s heavy at slower speeds but undeniably direct and responsive once you get rolling. Body roll is nearly non-existent and there is nothing quite like hearing the roar of VTEC from behind your head when climbing the grades. It’s a challenge to get in & out of the low car without a bit of a strain. This car rolled 100,000 miles on the way back to Phoenix later in the afternoon. You’ll see a feature story on that soon.

Kelvin’s 1993 NSX is mechanically identical to my 1992 but has a different shift knob which I loved and a performance exhaust system that really gave the 270-horsepower 3.0 motor a nice growl. Kelvin’s got me thinking about exhaust systems now! At 144,000 miles, the car still drove as tightly as mine does at 100,000.

The 1994 Legend coupe must still have a few of its original elderly 230 horses alive, because the car was still able to easily pull itself up to the summit without a ton of downshifting. It’s a torquey motor and still sounds and acts healthy. The suspension on the car is original (and very noticeably so). While the ride is comfortable and quiet, the amount of body roll is excessive and the car exhibits understeer extreme when pushed in the corners. Steering feels overly assisted for a performance driving environment.

My 1994 Legend sedan was only driven 278 miles from last July to December. It sits in a storage garage and comes out once every few weeks for a walk around the block. This 300-mile drive was good for the car, I’m sure. I noticed a light puff of blue smoke when Jason fired it up at the beginning of the day – I suspect there is a valve stem issue brewing. But that Legend sedan became an all-day crowd pleaser. Everyone talked about how comfy the seats were and how smooth the clutch and gearbox were. The car is equipped with a Stromung exhaust system that Jason said did “drone” on the interstate a bit, but was fun to have on the mountain roads.

Steve’s 2008 S2000 was just as fun as could be. From the moment I hit that START button on the dashboard I knew there were good times ahead. Despite having the smallest motor in the group – only a 4-cylinder – it had 7 more horsepower than the Legends. Handling is light and the car can be “tossed” in any direction effortlessly. It’s a riot to let the motor rev into the higher range. Finally, there is simply no substitute for the feel of a top-down convertible on a perfect springtime day. I loved every second of it.

The takeaway from all of this – and something I think that Steve will convey in his upcoming article – is that these cars embody how it’s possible to inject a fun-to-drive demeanor and a healthy dose of performance into a car that is still comfortable enough to drive every day. Honda has always been good at this. Still, we all agreed, the company has been in a bit of a rut in this regard. Sure – the new NSX will hit the sales floors later this year, but most of us will probably never afford one. And the newly-announced Civic Type R will make a nice machine. But where is today’s Acura Legend coupe or today’s Acura RSX? Give me a fun-to-drive luxury sports coupe that is actually within financial reason. That’s all I’m asking. And to the Honda corporate folks who I know follow my blog, that’s my plea.

Many thanks to my awesome friends for coming along on this trip, and especially to Beau from The Shutter Co for sharing his professional photography skills. It’s thanks to him that we got most of the great shots featured herein.

Kelvin & Tyson – dressed for the occasion with our matching Formula Red twins

The 2015 Lexus RC350 was driven by James and acted as our photo/chase car. Thanks for bringing it!

Rolling shot of the Legend coupe

Pit stop at Seven Cataracts

Steve’s S2000 was blinding in the sunlight.

Nothing like seeing two Acura NSXs in your sideview mirror.

Lineup at one of the lookouts

Jason seemed to enjoy his time behind the wheel

James and Tyson at lunch

Making our descent

Mile marker near Windy Point lookout on Catalina Highway

Heading out again, this time as a passenger in the S2000

Following my Legend sedan back down the hill

Legend sedan

Stretching our legs along the roadside

Met up with Zac of Baker Brothers Garage back in Tucson

Group shot. Kelvin had already departed but this was everyone else!

Tyson, James, Steve, Beau, Jason, and Peter. Thanks guys!

19 Comments »

Road Trip to Dallas Part 2: “Maple & Motor” Legend Lunch

Posted in Legend, Reader's Ride on April 2, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,846

Odometer (ILX): 119,147

Among the many highlights of my 2,205-mile drive to Dallas, Texas and back this past weekend, I wanted to devote a special blog entry to an event that was especially fun for me.

Having been a part of the online “Acura geek” community for over a decade now, I’ve done my fair share of networking. Today, I have car-enthusiast friends in every major city in the country. When I started putting together my plans to visit Texas, one of the first things I did was reach out to a few folks there to see if they’d be interested in meeting up. Turns out, they were. And they did.

TJ drove all the way from Houston for our lunch meet-up, and Marc came from Austin. Each of them had a 3+ hour one-way drive. Now that’s dedication! Our venue of choice was a renowned burger joint on Maple Avenue in Dallas called Maple & Motor. It’s a former gas station which was turned into a restaurant and it has received multiple awards including a feature on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. Its motto is “Low Class Cool.”

Seating was tight and the lunchtime crowd was bustling, but we were able to find a table fairly quickly for our party of 7 while we enjoyed a few minutes of car talk and delicious tater tots. Pictured here from left to right are Marc, Tyson, Lance (Escalade), Scott (GS350), Blake, and TJ. Yes, we let a couple non-Legend people join us because they’re still fans. And thanks to Amanda for taking the picture.

Here’s a little about the Acuras in our party. First off, this is Blake’s 1994 Legend LS coupe 6-speed. It was the first Milano Red LS coupe 6-speed on the production line that year. His car was the 805th Legend coupe built overall for the 1994 model year, and rolled off the line just 27 cars before mine.

It’s nearly broken in at just over 1/4 million miles on the odometer, but you wouldn’t know it by taking a test drive. During my short spin around the block, I was impressed with its pick-up.

This powerplant is 3.5 liter V6 with a performance air intake system and other upgrades. Blake has installed a custom Stromung exhaust system which gives the car a nice growl.

This showroom-fresh example is Marc’s Granada Black 1994 LS Automatic with special options like the OEM gold grille/emblems, chrome wheels, and spoiler.

Marc recently snagged this gem from a California dealership and had it shipped sight-unseen to Texas. He has no regrets, and it’s a stunning example. It has traveled just 128,000 miles since new. I took a drive in this one, too, and it felt like going back in time two decades. It even smells great.

Not to mention that leather interior.

Thanks, Marc and Blake for the test-drive opportunities!

I look forward to seeing all of these people at this year’s National Acura Legend Meet (NALM) in Houston this coming September.

My friend Randy didn’t make it to the Maple & Motor meet-up, but we caught up later over a Whataburger shake just up the road.

When the trip was all said and done, I had a lot of bugs to show for it.

Thanks again for being a part of the adventure!

6 Comments »

Legend Spy Shot Roundup #4

Posted in Legend, Spy Shots on March 21, 2015 by tysonhugie

Odometer (Legend): 532,749

Odometer (ILX): 116,494

Odometer (NSX): 99,627

It’s that time again, folks! Let’s take a look at some of our reader-supplied Legend pics.

Over a 10-year span, there were 477,831 Acura Legends sold in the United States. Twenty years later, how many of those are still on the road? Half? Maybe even fewer? Either way, they’re getting to be a rare sight these days. But somehow, all of you keep spotting them on the roadways and sending them to me. Please enjoy the latest collection of submissions. My friends Jack and Conor are tied for first place with the most Legends captured since last time, with 5 each.

I’ll kick it off with a unique shot. Hass in Michigan sent me a pic of this restaurant. I told him we have to eat there the next time I’m in Detroit (most likely for the 2016 North American Int’l Auto Show in January):