The picture looks like a terrible photoshop but things are blurred for privacy reasons. Her name is Cocoa. No meaning behind the name, I just love calling her Cocoa.
I’ve always been a massive fan of Japanese culture, JDM culture included. I’ll make a blog post about my previous trip to Japan soon. I make a lotta of references to it.
Why I like the car
It sounds kinda silly but back in the day of playing a bunch of Need for Speeds on an old PS2, I would always grab a Japanese car like the Mazda RX-8, Miata, Nissan Silva, Honda Civics etc (you get the point) and just have fun messing with them.
I really like the idea of really making something yours. It’s also why I like linux so much.
That’s what I love about older cars, you get more bang for your buck and have so much more freedom and modularity available to you.
Buying something completely new (relatively expensive and long-term) makes me feel unhappy? Like I’m getting ripped off. I never buy anything where the emphasis is on the brand and not value for money. Mini-Coopers/Beats Headphones are a good examples.
I like unique and unpopular things too. Maybe it’s because I like standing out and being different or whatever.
Test-driving the CRZ
It ticked all the boxes for me. The second I got in, the interior blew me away. It’s not NA, Steering wheel is on the right side for me.
For 2011, it was very modern. It was comfy, a really smooth drive, pretty damn responsive in sport mode, manual transmission, great sound system, hatchback, great fuel economy.
The only downside is that it’s a two-seater primarily but I mean, 4 people is possible. Its just insanely uncomfortable.
Buying process
The purpose of getting a car was threefold.
- My brother need transport for university.
- The car I had been driving for a year(my Mom’s) had too many problems and she did not want to sell it.
- Unsurprisingly, I needed my own personal transport for the future.
I needed a decent, clean, safe and relatively new hatchback. After test driving a bunch, my other options came down to the Renault Kwid(2020), Mini-Cooper(2012) and Honda Civic 2.2 CDTi(2011). For necessity sake, they were fine, checked all the boxes.
Renault Kwid
The Kwid was just not fun to drive. Engine was tiny. The clutch felt really weird. I remember just lifting the boot and it felt incredibly light. On the highway, it has a tendency to sway a little bit and it just felt extremely cheap. The car was meant to be a student car, produced cheaply for the masses. It sells extremely well and is in abundance here.
Mini Cooper
The Cooper was great. It had all the bells and whistles, was fun to drive, space for everyone and the sound system was amazing. It was pretty old though with 160K km on the clock. My only concern was repairing. Repairing a Cooper is not fun and most importantly, it’s not cheap. After driving the CRZ, I knew my heart belonged to it but I might’ve gone with the Cooper if the deal with the CRZ wasn’t possible. Maybe.
Honda Civic 2.2 CDTi
This thing was a fucking monster. It was sooo damn responsive and stupid fast. It was so much fun to drive. Definitely the most fun car to drive out of the bunch. The problem was it was unnecessarily fast, dangerous and way too old(wasn’t looked after well). I needed a reliable daily.
Future Plans
I’ll need another car eventually once I settle down, something more family oriented. Instead of replacing the CRZ I’m gonna do a K swap and Cocoa will become a project car.
A “K swap” means taking a Honda K series engine and putting it into something that didn’t come with a Honda K series engine. Pretty self-explanatory. The problem is, I’ll lose all the economy features but I mean you can’t really save the environment if you wanna go fast.
Either the k20 or k24. Its in abundance here, really easy to find and relatively cheap.