Honda CRX News

Easter is a time of rebirth and new beginnings, and naturally that turns our mind to cars (what can I say, we have a one-track mind).

Ignoring the pleas from my friends and family I went ahead and bought a 2002 BMW 318Ti Hatch.  Unsurprisingly within a week of ownership the car was overheating with a blown radiator expansion tank, much to the dismay of my wife who drives it to work on a daily basis.Seeing as though I have never owned a European car before now, and have only owned Japanese cars, this did come as quite a shock.  My wife’s previous car, a Honda CRX, had zero mechanical issues since new in 1997.Going into this new adventure in luxury motoring I was totally prepared for the Beemer to burn a big fat hole in my wallet.  On the contrary I have found that all the issues that occur with these cars are quite common, and fairly easy to fix, with plenty of “better than factory” replacement parts available online.I have said it before and I will say it again, when looking for used or new car parts, look everywhere.  From the local wrecker, to web forums in the US and UK, to Ebay and the Trading Post.  You will find the parts you need at a decent price even for luxury Euro brands.After a bit of web forum hunting, and orders through US distributors online, off to the mechanic I went.  A few days later the car is all good and my wife is once again ecstatic about her pure driving machine.  Thanks Inter-Webby!

Panel Shop 1, Revesby - Honda CRX Respray After a small accident and on advice from several friends, I convinced my wife that this shop was the way to go for a re-spray on her CRX. We took the car in and negotiated to totally re-spray the car in factory white and colour-code the side skirts. Basic stuff. We were told it would be a four week turnaround and quoted $2000 plus the insurance claim payout. All good. Four weeks later, the promises started. If I could get them on the phone, they would say “pick it up tomorrow” then cancel the next day. Same thing happened daily for the next week. Finally we pick up the car a week late, after waiting around for half a day till they get it clean and ready. Then driving the car out reveals the plugs are full of water. From there, it gets worse. We list a full page of imperfections from masking tape lines and dents to a misaligned bumper. Basically, points that should be picked up in the process of a respray. Another two weeks of being stuffed around, we are told that it is finally ready. On picking it up, there are still two dents that haven’t been fixed. Finally get the car back and still not happy. But at least there’s no chance I’ll ever deal with them again. Some compensation was offered but it was really too late in proceedings. Panel Shop 2, Homebush - Skyline Aftermarket Front Bar Install After the above mess, my wife says we are only going to a smaller outfit from now on. This place is not cheap and I had to accept that the premium cost quoted to paint and install would be worth it, based on my wife’s feelings about the company. Eerk! So we dropped off my R34, with the front bar still in the original box. The owner, Joe, went through the options I had on installing the bumper and what he would be doing to it. All included in the original quote so there were no surprises. A week later as promised, I headed to the shop, to be greeted by a clean-as-a-whistle R34 with fitted and painted Impul front bar. No bumps, imperfections, issues, or anything else to complain about. The finish is excellent and the colour-matching is flawless. The bumper was mounted to all the factory holes and Joe personally mounted the front number plate on the spot to my specification. The morals of the story are: - you get what you pay for - your mates are not always right - just because places have a big name, they are not always the best - and – most important of all — listen to you wife!