Guys & Gals,

I do have a cold so forgive the sneezing you may see / hear and hopefully not feel as you read this.

I spent the morning working on the garage. I needed to fit 2 motorcycles and 2 cars. The motorcycles are a Honda Pacific Coast (My wifes) and a BMW R1150RT (mine) and the cars were -- the Honda Del Sol and of course my S2000.

I spent all morning cleaning, moving things and now I have a very cramped two car garage that houses 4 vehicles. I need a new garage!

Once this task was done and I managed to put everything in the garage one time I went in and had a shower. Came back and fired up the S2000 and went down to the dealer to pick up my additional keys and my manual. Remember I have a used machine so it seems that these things were not kept with the vehicle. I got to the dealer and they had a set of manuals for me--for a S2000 '01 model. They have ordered me a set but thought I would appreciate having something to look at as there was little difference between the '03 and the '01 except for the glass.

The keys? That is another story. They are working on it, and after reading the manual it seems I also get a valet key. So, I will get them all before it is over with.

I left the Honda dealer satisfied that they were trying. NOw it was time to do some driving.

I live in SoCal so where did I go for my first roads to play on? You guessed it. I own a motorcycle so I _know_ where there are some good roads. I went up to Kanan and took my favorite motorcycle roads to get to Mulhalland. Yes, there were police as the Rock Store is there and all of the evil motorcyclists. I passed to CHPs on bikes but they were not paying attention to me. I was under the speed limit anyway. I was out there to make friends with the S2000 not to set any land speed records.

I drive and start twisting. The handling of the S2000 is excellent. Now I am not an expert on these matters at all, my nicest car was my Honda Del Sol but I can tell you this--the handling was night and day better than my Del Sol. It was truly no comparison.

I rode around for about a hour and half and then went home to collect my wife and head to dinner with some friends. I meet them and they properly fawn all over my car. One of my friends works for BMW of NOrth America and his job is to inspect cars as they come off the boat and make repairs. He goes up one side and down another. I thought I was going to get a clean bill of health when he finds a small ding by the door handle. He says it is easy to fix though he doens't know how HOnda put's the door handles on. He said though that if he can get the door handle removed he can fix the dent in 10 minutes.

BMW likes his work and my friends swear he knows what he is doing. Should I risk it? It is used so I don't know that I can get the Honda dealer to do anything about it.

Anyway, we had dinner and my cold started to kick into high gear. I came home and here I am letting you know about my day.

I love the car but hate knowing that there is a ding I didn't put into it.

I need a name for the car. My wife suggested Col. Mustard. It's a thought.

Thanks for reading.. achoo!

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call it "The Mistress", or "Second Wife" and get a license plate: "2ND WIFE". Women always seem to appreciate that kind of wry humor. You may encounter an initial dry spell however that is unrelated to El Nino, but all weather passes with time...

 

If it's a Cert Used, take it back and have them fix er up for ya.

 

Well it is certified used and they told me--bah, we don't cover stuff like that. Well they said it nicer than that, but that is what was said essentially.

Oh, a tidbit was added "You got a good deal on that car, better than really a lot of people ever get--don't let that little dent bother you."

So.. thankfully my BMW friend can fix it for free. Frustrating that dealers don't know that fixing small problems with new customers goes a long way for big dollars to be spent later. I can't tell you how many dollars I have poored into my BMW motorcycle because I had a dealer who knew when to "deal" with me and when to expect coin from me.

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