As I’ve written before, my old Escort has been a very faithful, if boring, friend for over 10 years. She’s served me well, doing her job with few complaints. Nearing the end of her life, she just keeps on going, like a big, rusty, 2,500 pound Energizer Bunny.
That is, until yesterday.
After work as I turned into my neighborhood, I attempted to downshift into second gear. I say attempted, because it just wasn’t having any of it. No amount of clutch pumping and shifter shoving was working. I managed to get it the remaining few blocks to my driveway. Later, I tried to run an errand and found that it wasn’t going to go at all. It was stuck in reverse and when I did get it into neutral and started, the clutch was simply not going to let go. All atempts to get it into gear was left with the sounds of coffe beans being ground.
So there it sits and I have a decision to make. It’s just shy of $250 and a full weekend in the garage to fix the clutch. I’ve got only 10 payments on my van left, when I had planned on putting the old Escort out to pasture. That’s really too many to feel comfortable about getting a new vehicle, but few enough to make replacing this clutch a painful choice. Still, it’s less that one of those 10 payments on a new car between now and owning the van free and clear, so it’s likely the right choice. I’ve tried real hard to find a way to make it the wrong one, trust me.
Anyway, I’ve got more substantial stuff to write, but I think I’ll be spending my time under the car for the next few days.

I’ve owned my 1999 Honda Odyssey EX for 4 years. It’s the first Honda I’ve owned and I think I’m hooked. I love the tight handling, power, solid design and the overall quality feel, even at 120,000+ miles.
We bought it in December of 2001 Certified. Honda’s Certified Used program is one of the best. They do a thorough inspection, repair anything broken and replace anything worn out. Then the factory warranty is extended 12 months or 12,000 miles. If the factory warranty is up (like ours was) they give you a 12 month 12,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. Beyond that, the power train warranty is extended to 7 years form original purchase or 100,000 total miles.
When we bought ours it had just shy of 40,000 miles on it. The next day, it started stalling when we came to a stop. No dash lights or error codes, just stalling. Returning to the dealer it was diagnosed as needing a new transmission due to the torque converter lock up sticking. Ouch.
That’s not why I love Honda.
I considered returning it and buying a different vehicle, but knowing Honda’s reputation I figured it was a fluke. Later I learned that transmission issues with these Odysseys, while still relatively rare, are alarmingly frequent. In fact, Honda later voluntarily extended the warranty on all Odyssey transmissions of that era to 100,000 miles. I figured I’d been there and done that so I was ready for another 150,000 miles or so of trouble free motoring.
Fast forward nearly exactly 4 years and 80,000 miles. On our recent Christmas trip, the check engine light and the TCS (Traction Control System) lights came on. That’s not a good sign, those lights together usually mean transmission issues. We made it home, but the transmission began acting up, hanging in first gear too long and downshifting very hard when I went to pass on two lane roads. I had a bad feeling and sure enough, upon visiting the dealer last week it was diagnosed as needing another new transmission.
This time we were out of warranty at nearly 120,000 miles and the dealer said that the re-manufactured Honda transmission was $4,500 plus about $500 installation labor. He recommended a used transmission, which seemed silly considering how short the life of the first two were. Ouch.
That’s not why I love Honda.
I told the dealer that an average transmission life of 60,000 miles wasn’t acceptable, warranty or not. I wanted to know what could be done about this. The said they could do nothing and I needed to call Honda of America myself, that’s how Honda works. (That’s a disappointing statement that I refuse to believe. As their customer I think they should have gone to bat for me with Honda on this. I will take my Honda business to a different dealer in the future.)
So I called Honda. The woman took down my information, VIN and history including my disappointment with the dealer and said a case manger would contact the dealer and get back to me in a day or two. Twenty minutes later the case manager called back to say that Honda would cover the entire cost of the transmission replacements. I would be expected to pay the shipping on the transmission, however, about $180.
That’s why I love Honda.
My vehicle is clearly outside the warranty, yet they’re doing the right thing. It’s clear that they understand the value of their reputation that they’ve spent decades building. They understand that people like me pay a premium for a Honda vehicle because they expect more from it in terms of durability and reliability. They’ve acknowledged that this transmission isn’t up to what people thought they were buying by extending the warrany to almost 3 times the standard 36,000 miles. When it didn’t live up to their reputation even beyond that, they’ve made it right. I’m sure that they’ve calculated how many are likely to fail outside the warranty and how many of those people will even ask for help. Still, they took care of me, and for that I’m grateful. It’s got me thinking of maybe a Certified Civic instead of the Mazda3 or Protege5 to replace the Escort later this year. If the Civic was available in a 5 door …

Earlier this month, I went with a friend to the 2005 Good Guys Nationals. This is one amazing car show that happens every year at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. Over 6,000 street rods, and custom cars. At every turn throughout the grounds there was another couple hundred cars, stationary and moving. We spent 6 hours there and saw maybe half the cars. Amazing rides, I’ve posted a gallery of 100 of the 120+ pictures I took here.
Of particular interest to me were the wheels on the cars. I wanted to both see the wheels I ordered (I’ve only seen pictures) and see how unique they are. I saw a lot of American Racing Torq-Thrust II, by far the most popular wheel. Second was Boyd Coddington’s Smoothie II, lots of those too. But not a single Junkyard Dog. Bummer, as I wanted to see them, but good that I picked something unique.
It was also good to see my friend. We hadn’t seen each other in about 2 years when we wen to Good Guys 2003. He is one of those who used to go to my church. He now goes to a ‘Mainline’ COC across town near his house. In fact, he’s since been appointed elder there. He shared about how he likes his church and how things are done. I shared a little of my disappointment at how things don’t seem to be moving in a new direction after all. But mostly, we looked at cars.
He’s a car nut too, with a 1964 Olds Dynamic 88 Convertible, a 1965 Mustang coupe and a 1966 Triumph TR4. I think the Olds is the only one that runs, the other two are ‘in process’. It was a good time with an old friend

If you’re like me, you hate driving in the rain with bad wipers. I actually enjoy driving in bad weather, but bad wipers really annoy me. Last fall, my old Anco AeroVantage blades in both cars had taken to that annoying BRRRRRPPP if there wasn’t enough rain on the windshield. In fact, it had gotten to the point that it was rare for them not to do that, and they weren’t that old. It was driving Maria nuts to the point that she’d crank the radio way up to avoid hearing it. She was already a little anxious about driving in bad weather, the noise just sent her over the edge. So I set out to look for a better wiper.
That’s when I found some online reviews of SilBlades. They are wipers made from GE Silicone rubber instead of natural rubber. Supposedly, natural rubber breaks down in a matter of months while these will last for years. What I read, they sounded to good to be true. Everyone said they were fantastic and lasted forever; in fact they come with a 5 year unconditional guarantee. Of course lots of junk products come with big guarantees knowing that people never take the time to return things that break or don’t save the paper work, so I was still skeptical. The fact that everything I read, including a comments for folks at Odyclub, indicated that 6 months is the expected life of a wiper blade (even Anco agrees) didn’t help.
I decided to take a chance on them when I discovered that I could get them at Amazon for $12 instead of the $22 they go for at the Silblade site. I put them on both cars in December.
The initial difference wasn’t substantial. What I mean is they performed flawlessly, nor more BRRRRRPPP, and a nice clean windshield, but I’d expect that from any brand new wiper. A big difference became noticeable after a week or two. Over time, the GE Silicone in the blades coats the surface of the glass like Rain-X. That means that the water beads up and runs off the glass at any moderate to fast speed. There’s no film of water on the glass to blur the view out the windshield. I cannot over state what an amazing difference this is. During the day and on lighted streets at night, you can drive with the wipers at one speed lower than you used to because you can see clearly ‘between’ the drops on the window. At night on a dark highway, you don’t need the wipers at all – in fact it’s had to tell a difference.
After about 5 months, they are still performing as good as new. I will never buy another type of wiper blade.

Sure, we all need an $850,000 (base price) motorhome, right? Oh, did I mention that it swims too? Yep, that’s right, an amphibious motorhome. How cool is that?
The Terra Wind is made by Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International LLC, who also make amphibious tour busses and other interesting things. “It is exceptionally unique,” says John Giljam, President. Uh, yeah, 80 MPH if by land and 7 knots if by sea is pretty unique. It also features slide out rooms, a rear deck to dock your jet ski to and inflatable outrigger pontoons. Nothing special needed to go swimming, just drive in the water and flip a switch. The outriggers aren’t even needed if you’re not opening the slide outs.
The picture is from Serious Wheels (where else?), but I originally saw it at Car and Driver.

Check this car out. It’s Jay Leno’s Custom 1966 Olds Toronado. I have a soft spot in my heart for 60’s American cars and Oldmobiles in general (I learned to drive on Dad’s 1977 Cutlass), but I’ve always loved the early Toronados. Lots of style, room and power.
Well, this is no ordinary Toronado. It’s powered by a prototype GM 425 cubic inch crate motor with twin turbos that makes 1,070 HP and 1,000 ft/lbs of torque. That’s 5 times the power of my 1999 Oddysey, 4 times the power of my 1960 Thunderbird and about a million times as much as my tired 1993 Escort.
Under the restored, stock sheet metal is a stretched C5 Corvette chassis. It’s been converted from FWD to RWD and utilizes a beefed up Corvette automatic rear transaxle. Custom 17″ alloy wheels that look just like the originals keep the outside looking stock.
General Motors photo as seen on Serious Wheels, a site with lots of cool car pictures.