The Amazing Honda Civic

This morning on Boing Boing Gadgets a fellow by the name of Matthew Farley mentioned that his Honda Civic has traveled one light second in ten years.

I find this interestingly timely, as I noticed on my way to work this morning that my own Honda Civic rolled over the 209,000 mile mark:


Of course, my Civic is a '91. This means that my car is traveling substantially slower than his, having moved only 1.12 light seconds in its approximate 18-year life. To be fair though, my car was out for a few days on and off over the last month for some maintenance & repairs: front rotors & brakes, spark plugs, timing belt (recommended timing belt replacement = 0.332 light seconds), water pump, oil change and a clutch issue that I don't really want to get into.

(Thanks for the help, Geoff, by the way.)

A few people have said to me that I should look into getting a new car. Truth of the matter is, though, that I can either get a new car or send the kids to the good private school, but not both.

And I kind of like my car, even though it's rusted and dented and missing a few unimportant bits. It requires very little maintenance, other than a complete rebuild from scratch every few years (it is, in the seven years that I've owned it, it's almost completely replacement parts).

And chances are, I still get better gas mileage than you.


Photo of my Honda courtesy Google Street View as their magic van drove past my house.