The Honda Parade, Part 1

As I approached graduation from college, lending institutions began inundating me with offers to help me get myself properly in debt.  Among these offers was a car-loan that let me put off my first payments until months after graduation.  Awesome!  Like free money!  (Clearly, I was an idiot who did not understand the mechanics of loan interest.)  I jumped at the opportunity to spend somebody else's money and launched myself into a journey with Honda vehicles that would last for years afterwards.

Several things were happening in my life at the time.  I was engaged to be married to a fantastic girl who not only was beautiful and smart but was also my best friend.  I wanted to impress my soon-to-be father-in-law that his daughter was in good hands with me.  This intention was significantly undercut by the fact that his soon-to-be-son-in-law was driving a Korean-built Ford microcar (see the "Festiva" blog post, below) offering about as much crash-protection as soda can.  Add to this reality the fact that the Festiva was passing 100,000 miles and was starting to make noises.  Add to THOSE facts the reality that the Festiva lacked air conditioning, and we were about to move to Alabama in the summertime for work.

So, when my father-in-law suggested that I could buy his low-mileage Honda Accord, I got the point.   "Yes, sir!  I'd love to buy that car from you!  I'll pay top dollar!" 

The car was a 1992 Honda Accord LX, with less than 30,000 miles.  It was a two-door with a 5-speed manual transmission, painted in an unusual light metallic green (shown on this advertisement below.)

If I did make any impression on my father-in-law, it probably was that I was a sucker or just slow.  In an effort to show that I was a man of means, I offered him the Kelly Blue Book RETAIL value for the car in EXCELLENT condition.  At the time, I didn't understand that (1) No car sells at the KBB "retail" price (even the KBB website says that this is the starting price that dealers advertise at to work down from) and (2) that no car ever sells at the "excellent" condition price, because less than 2% of all cars qualify as being in this "like new" condition.  In other words, I offered my father-in-law the highest conceivable price for the car.  He, being no idiot, said... "Sold."

Years later I would learn that my extravagant offer allowed him to nearly get back the full price he paid when he bought the car new... almost three years before.

Nevertheless, I loved the Accord.  We owned it for years, driving it across the country twice.  It is a unique car for me in many respects.  This was the first of many, many car purchases made as a working adult.  Of my many cars, this was the only coupe.  The only car I bought from someone I knew personally.  It's the only car I paid off and owned outright, as I later would become "king-of-the-trade-in."  It's the only car I ever sold to a private buyer (repeat: "king-of-trade-in" remark).  Most importantly, it began a Honda-buying habit of mine that would repeat itself five more times.