There and back again, or, in other words, recent happenings with our beloved 1999 Honda Accord

In June of 2008 my parents bought this beauty for me as soon as I got home from my mission. That was at the peak of oil prices so small cars like this were going for hefty prices - but this one was a stick shift so apparently no one wanted it, meaning we got it for relatively cheap. Win-win - I was hoping for a manual anyways. Infinite thanks to my parents for the car - it was a wonderful gift and has served me and my family faithfully since.

1999 Honda Accord LX, manual transmission

On November 2, 2015, someone crawled under my car while it was parked at a park-and-ride in Daly City, CA and cut out my catalytic converter. But, since I only understand car mechanics at a superficial level, I had no idea that's what happened. All I knew was that when I turned on my car it sounded like a throaty V8 and shook terribly when I put it in gear. But I had to get home in time for Heidi's choir practice so I called her to let her know I might die on the way home and drove slowly.

I took it to our go-to mechanic the next day and he pointed out the problem - and told me that the thief probably took the converter to melt out its precious metals inside, netting ~$50... $2000 for full repair, with parts from Honda. At this point, the car was probably worth $1500 before the vandalism, so this was a no go. I'd lost hope for the car.

Thankfully a friend of mine knows cars and local mechanics well, so he hooked me up with a local muffler shop that was able to bring her back to life for $340. Miracle of miracles!

She's running perfectly well now - but the experience nudged me to rely on the car less and use more public transit - hence the scooter mentioned in the last post. My commute is actually slightly shorter now - and gas free!