My wife and I took our 'flame red' Prelude in a road trip, 2,000 miles over six days - but only four days of driving. We traveled from Bend Oregon to San Diego California. Going down via Route 395 (until Los Angeles) and then back on I-5. Here are my impressions:
Purpose:
395 is a famously beautiful interstate. East of Mt. Shasta, into Reno NV, past Lake Tahoe, past Mammoth Lakes, past Bishop, into Mojave and then over to Los Angeles. The route travels on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains in a valley between the White Mountains (separating CA from NV and also the Mojave from Death Valley). The route passes Mt. Whitney - at 14,505 ft the highest peak in the contiguous US. There are many dramatic, sharp peaks as the Sierra Nevadas are a 'new' mountain range.
Along the way we stopped in Bishop CA, a tiny town that most people know as a waypoint to skiing at Mammoth Lakes. Bishop has a Honda dealer 'Perry'; it is where I bought my car (and had it shipped to me). Nobody in Bishop would buy a Prelude (my guess) - it is a rugged area - the car lot was full of trucks and SUVs.
Beyond Bishop we stopped at Manzanar - the WWII Japanese Internment Facility. A sobering location memorializing a very sad part of US history. Although the visitor center was closed on the day, we walked through the housing, dining and other buildings. Hard to imagine living in those conditions.
To get from 395 to Los Angeles we took the famous 'Angeles Forest Road' and 'Angeles Crest Highway'. I road these routinely 40 years ago on a Honda VF500F motorcycle with buddies, doing stupid things. They are motorcycle landmarks (along with The Rock Store on Mulholland Hwy). In the Prelude I made my wife a little dizzy/sick - but I was smiling ear-to-ear.
Drive Impressions - Positive
One of the LA Dodger games we went to was 'One Piece' night. Anybody know 'One Piece'? It is a Japanese manga/comic with movies and trading cards (think Pokemon). It was my son's favorite comic 20+ years ago. We walk into Dodger stadium and get handed a plastic wrapped pack of ~5 trading cards as part of the promotion. We walk 15 steps and get propositioned - "Buy your One Piece card pack for $400". I'm thinking "what is this about" and said 'no'. During the game we hear somebody behind saying they sold their cards for $200. So... the game ends we leave our seats towards the exit. We get propositioned - "Sell your cards?", I say "How much", he says "$600", I turn to my wife and say "Get the cards! (from her purse)". We ended up selling two packs for $1,100 - basically paying for most of the trip. Turns out, if the card pack has a special card that one card can be worth up to $5,000 (on eBay, elsewhere). Think 'Pikachu' in Pokemon history.
Cheers.
Purpose:
- Go to a LA Dodger game on the way down and then on the way back.
- Visit my son and his wife in San Diego
- Return some of my daughter's boxes (she lived in San Diego briefly and hadn't moved everything back)
395 is a famously beautiful interstate. East of Mt. Shasta, into Reno NV, past Lake Tahoe, past Mammoth Lakes, past Bishop, into Mojave and then over to Los Angeles. The route travels on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains in a valley between the White Mountains (separating CA from NV and also the Mojave from Death Valley). The route passes Mt. Whitney - at 14,505 ft the highest peak in the contiguous US. There are many dramatic, sharp peaks as the Sierra Nevadas are a 'new' mountain range.
Along the way we stopped in Bishop CA, a tiny town that most people know as a waypoint to skiing at Mammoth Lakes. Bishop has a Honda dealer 'Perry'; it is where I bought my car (and had it shipped to me). Nobody in Bishop would buy a Prelude (my guess) - it is a rugged area - the car lot was full of trucks and SUVs.
Beyond Bishop we stopped at Manzanar - the WWII Japanese Internment Facility. A sobering location memorializing a very sad part of US history. Although the visitor center was closed on the day, we walked through the housing, dining and other buildings. Hard to imagine living in those conditions.
To get from 395 to Los Angeles we took the famous 'Angeles Forest Road' and 'Angeles Crest Highway'. I road these routinely 40 years ago on a Honda VF500F motorcycle with buddies, doing stupid things. They are motorcycle landmarks (along with The Rock Store on Mulholland Hwy). In the Prelude I made my wife a little dizzy/sick - but I was smiling ear-to-ear.
Drive Impressions - Positive
- A smooth, quiet and comfortable ride. Aside from bad road surfaces I find the car quiet - easy to talk or listen to music at highway speeds (up to 75 mph). I used 'individual' mode with everything GT but 'suspension' and 'engine noise' at Comfort.
- Cruise control and 'lane keeping assist' worked well (mostly, more later). When cruising a flat road the battery charge cycles between about 5 and 3 - hits three, the engine comes on, hits 5, EV mode activates.
- The 395 route including mountain passes to >8,000 ft; no noticeable engine/power issues at that elevation
- Great handling - Sport w/ S+ on Angeles Forest/Crest. ~25 miles of heaven!
- Thunk Space - we returned with 5 moving boxes and a full size suitcase with my daugher's stuff. Plus two carry-on suitcases for me and my wife plus a tool kit and some car cleaning stuff (detailer, bug remover, towels)
- The gas mileage wasn't all that good when at 70 mph and above. When driving back, along I-5 at 75 mph, gas mileage of ~36.5. I think we had a headwind as well. Other legs of the trip where typically 39-41 mpg, not too far off from the official mpg ratings.
- The Active Cruise Control is too sensitive for my liking. If somebody changes lanes to in front and within the 'closeness' setting, the car brakes too aggressively and then speeds up aggressively when the car gets out of range. I'd be smoother; end result is that I disabled cruise control when I was in any kind of traffic.
- Cruise Control sometimes brakes for no reason - eventually I figured it out... on a left hand sweeper, the car on your right passes in front of you, the cruise control sometimes brakes - I guess not recognizing the lane lines.
- The Emergency Braking has a similar 'problem'. Drive straight with a curve ahead. If there is a car parked on the side of the road, at the corner, the car will warn to 'brake' as it thinks you will hit the parked car but you are going to turn.
- Paint Chips - I don't have a protective film, only a self-applied ceramic coating (Meguiar's M888). Over 2,000 miles a number of nicks on the front part of the hood.
One of the LA Dodger games we went to was 'One Piece' night. Anybody know 'One Piece'? It is a Japanese manga/comic with movies and trading cards (think Pokemon). It was my son's favorite comic 20+ years ago. We walk into Dodger stadium and get handed a plastic wrapped pack of ~5 trading cards as part of the promotion. We walk 15 steps and get propositioned - "Buy your One Piece card pack for $400". I'm thinking "what is this about" and said 'no'. During the game we hear somebody behind saying they sold their cards for $200. So... the game ends we leave our seats towards the exit. We get propositioned - "Sell your cards?", I say "How much", he says "$600", I turn to my wife and say "Get the cards! (from her purse)". We ended up selling two packs for $1,100 - basically paying for most of the trip. Turns out, if the card pack has a special card that one card can be worth up to $5,000 (on eBay, elsewhere). Think 'Pikachu' in Pokemon history.
Cheers.
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