More and more I want to replace my 2002 Accord auto with an Accord manual of the same vintage. Being from the Rust Belt, and that particular vintage being so "vintage," I understand I'll have more luck buying one from the south, southwest, or west coast. If in the south I could drive down there but much farther and I'd have to fly. Flying to CA and driving a car back would run me at least 2 grand, not including buying the car.

So, how far would you go for a Honda?

 

 

 

I've done the left coast thing twice now (and I live in New Hamster, so it is a loooong haul to get home); not sure why you think it will cost an additional $2,000.

FWIW, I was looking for a 2001-2002 Accord EX 4-Door 5-Speed for a friend a few weeks ago and found one in pristine condition with only about 120,000 miles on the clock in the Bay area. If I recall correctly the price was roughly $3,000. If I was in the market for that car I would have hopped the first plane out of here and said, "Road-Trip!"

 

Flying to CA and driving a car back would run me at least 2 grand, not including buying the car.

I was hoping that might have given it away. LOL. It's OK, it's easy to misunderstand things sometimes.

Driving a car back from 3,000 miles away requires motel stays, food, fuel, and likely a timing belt change before I left, since it's a used car and being 16+ years old and how devastating losing a timing belt is.....you get the idea. Tools, emergency driving gear, etc.---I don't know about you guys but I don't drive anywhere without certain tools and I doubt I'd be able to put all that into checked baggage for the flight over. *If you saw my standard trunk loadout you'd understand.

I used to sleep in rest stops, empty parking lots, and even just on the side of the road but I learned the hard way that's not really safe. Besides, I use a CPAP machine now and that means I need 120 volts. Motel stays for me and although I have driven up to 19 hours at a time, about 6 hours driving per day is where I want to be.

I guess I could have been more specific....LOL....I'd be going to CA to buy a car originally built as a manual shift.

shipo, I've probably seen that same CL ad! I've been going through CL on my free time a lot here lately if just to show myself "good Accords are still out there."

 

If you really love it, its worth any trip out to get it. I have bought cars all over the US to get exactly what I want. Just wait for some granny to die and sell her 60k mile car for $3500 here in SoCal and fly in and grab it. I got a 120k mile, all original, one owner civic SI EF for $3k here in SoCal and it was awesome. Would have made the drive anywhere. Driving back isn't that expensive if you do it quickly. I did FL to SoCal in 3 days and could have done it way faster but was in an RV doing 70 mph.

 

gramps....thanks man. As soon as conditions change and I can get away from the house for more than a few hours at a time, I hope to buy such an Accord.

No way I can drive across the USA in three days though! I have to use a breathing machine at night and it doesn't run on batteries. Plus, I'd have to go alone and driving more than 8 hours at a time is beyond where I like to be.

 

Shipping is cheap. Cross country would be like $2k max. Use montway.com to get a quote. You could fly out, check out the car, buy it, put it on the shipper and fly home.

 

2 grand is cheap? Where are you working and are they hiring there? LOL. 2 grand is pretty cheap by today's standards.

I did a price comparison (purely theoretical) of driving back to WV vs. having it shipped to WV and the theoretical price was about the same. The drive would be much more fun though and interesting. I love flying, every aspect of it, but the drive back would be part of the adventure.

Thanks for the website suggestion as I could do 5 days away at a time assuming certain conditions are met so having it shipped back would work within that time limitation.

 

I'm not saying it is cheap, im saying its as cheap as driving. To WV from here is probably $1600 for something the size of a honda. IN 5 days at 3 meals a day and $10 per, that $150 on food, probably $400 on gas and $200 on a flight. Plus 4 nights in a motel at $120/night would be 150+400+200+$480= $1230. Not a huge difference from shipping.