Hello everyone! I am a 50ish-year-old guy who has been interested in cars his whole life. I work as a service manager for an industrial robot company, so I have extensive knowledge of things mechanical, electrical, digital, and even pneumatical. My car history is varied, starting with a generous gift from my father, then some Eurotrash in the '80s, some Jeeps, and a few Nissans, and of course a Honda. I tend to keep cars for a long time, so even though I have lots of grey hair, I haven't had that many cars. I have used Honda-Tech as a research tool for my lightly modified 98 CR-V for a long time; there is a wealth of information here. I suppose you could call that lurking, but I didn't really feel as if I had much to offer those conversations. My mama always said if you don't have anything constructive to say, keep your mouth shut. Anyway, I wanted to be a more direct part of this exchange, so I decided to throw my voice into the din. What follows is my car history. I "borrowed" the images of everything except my current car down at the bottom, but the pictures accurately represent my previous cars. All are the correct color, equipment, and even modifications. I was frankly amazed to find such accurate representations...


My first car was a gift from my father when I enlisted in the Navy. After saving up some of my frankly minuscule Navy pay I rebuilt the engine, had it painted, and installed a slight lift and some decent size BFG tires. It made me very popular on base, I was one of the few people new to my unit with a car. The roof was always off, and it was usually full of my friends. At every opportunity, we would drive down to the outer banks and camp on the beach. Good times.


I sold the Bronco when I was released from active duty to attend college. Using the excuse that it got awful gas mileage, I sold the Bronco to a cousin and got a proper college car. I was in the market for something European to impress the college girls. That’s how it worked back then. I really wanted a Saab 900 Turbo, because they were so cool. I was unable to find one in my price range so I settled for a BMW 325is. It was a fun car, and it did get a lot of attention, but it utterly consumed expensive parts.


In an attempt to get something more reliable I sold the BMW for a Maxima. It was a much better car, but it didn't drive as well, and it didn’t get the attention the BMW did. It was a great car until the bearings in the transmission went bad...


I was done with used cars and wanted something new and consequently more reliable. At the time I couldn't decide between an Integra and a Sentra SE-R, but in the end, I got the SE-R because it was considerably cheaper than the Integra. Fabulous car, I put almost 300K hard miles on it. At the time I had a neighbor with a C4 Corvette that could not believe I could keep up with him on a back road.


The Sentra was a great fast car, but it was a Sentra, after all. It was cheap, rough, and loud. So I found a nice Pathfinder SE as a more luxurious second car and work vehicle. I was working in computer networking at the time and needed a truck-like thing to haul my equipment and tools. Evidently, the previous owner used it to pull stumps or something, and its transmission died. And it started to rust through.


Since I still had the SE-R to play with I replaced the worn-out Pathfinder SE with a Cherokee Limited. It was horrible. You couldn't see out of it, the leather interior was too hot, or too cold, or too stiff, or something else that made it impossible to get comfortable. The suspension was both rough and wallowy. The supposedly indestructible 4.0 had clicking lifters, and the open differentials made it impossible to drive in the rain without engaging 4-high. And it got about the same gas mileage as my old Bronco.


So I got a better Jeep. The UR Wrangler. Square headlights and everything. It was uncomfortable until I put a lift on it. Then it was unbearable. But it looked good! I actually owned it for several years, put a few thousand miles on it, and sold it for more than I had in it.


And finally, my 1998 RD1 Honda CR-V EX. It has been my favorite car so far. I have had it for many, many years. Back in the mid 90's my wife and I sat in a JDM model at a car show way before they were available in the US. We loved it and still do. It's a manual, of course. The tired San Marino red paint was covered several years ago with a similar hue of matte paint until I decide if I want to repaint it red or some other color. In fact, that matte paint needs attention at this point. It has an OME lift kit (springs and Bilstein dampers) and completely new suspension components. When I lifted it I could not decide on what wheels I liked the best, so I painted the factory ones white and made new center caps until I could decide. That was years ago and now I don't think I want different wheels, I really like the white ones. I have some restoration parts (carpet and floor mats, window seals, rear disk brake conversion, headlights, taillights, and various other things to keep it perfect) to put on it over the next year or so. And this is the reason I decided to actually join Honda-Tech. I want to have a discussion about my plans for the car and hear some ideas from the knowledgeable people all over this place. I look forward to interacting with you all!