Honda conducts successful launch and landing of experimental reusable rocket

I often described my wife's old Honda Civic, which we finally sold (still running and able to be driven) w/ just north of 340,000 miles, as having been to the moon and on its way back. I like the idea that someday Honda hardware could, in fact, send something to the moon.

Agreed, same experience with my wife's current Honda Fit. And I like the thought experiment of Tesla Model S (or whatever) is to Falcon 9 as '98 Honda Civic is to... Wait they do they say the name if this rocket anywhere?

The Honda rocket won't be as "fancy" as the SpaceX but it'll have vastly better parts availability.

And JDM badges.

And magic seats

US Taxpayers ain't wrong, voted most reliable rocket 10 years in a row.

The real fun is the equivalent spaceship. "This here Honda Bucolic has so many miles on from its Earth-Moon runs that it's basically been to Neptune and back."

VTEC decal on the side

A lady backed into my 99 civic in 2008, totaled it. The body work was more than the value of the car. I’d still be driving it if that hadn’t happened :sad-face.

Make sure you do a valve adjustment on the Fit engine every 100k or so. Easy job to do with some basic tools and a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps Honda should launch an old Civic into space, like Musk's Tesla.

0.711 of the way to the moon and back. It has been to the moon though.

An inattentive person rear-ended my 82 Civiv in 87. I probably wouldn't still be driving it, but it has led to a long association with Honda/Acura products.

If rockets became as common as cars, what kind of accidents would we see? And would insurers insure them?

I can't wait to see the GIANT spoiler on the engine cowling that does nothing more than help them push it if it breaks down.

My experience with Honda has not been great. Both Hondas I have owned had complete transmission failures. Full disclosure, I bought them used (as I do all my cars) with unknown maintenance history and I did get a few years out of each of them so it still worked out "ok" in an economic sense. The engines do seem pretty bulletproof. But I would not buy another, at least not one with an automatic transmission.

I find the common problem with automatics is their service time scale. Bad car owners often forget to do oil changes often enough and those are only 3.5-10k miles apart depending on climate/oil type/etc. Which means services that happen every 50-75k miles or greater get left to people that actually maintain service histories and timely maintenance.

Personal example buying a used car with 60k miles that had some idle/start issues at times but generally ran well. Everything seemed to be serviced in a timely manner but the spark plugs were still the originals. Those spark plugs have a generous "100,000 mile" service interval. I pulled the originals and sure enough they weren't in the greatest shape. $40 later I never had start/idle issues again for the remaining time I owned the car.

That'd be a very impressive service record - Neptune is right around ten thousand times as far as the moon.

A Civic would be on-brand, but an S2000 convertible with an ASIMO waving from the driver's seat would be much more fun.

I just want to know who will get the J.D. Power Initial Quality Award and then subsequently fall apart five minutes after it gets judged (lookin at you, Stellantis)

Hopefully anime wraps will be available as well.

find an old one, connect the odometer to count the distance flown in addition to the x00k miles it already has, stream the video as it flies around the moon and back.

would be a fun publicity stunt.

S2000 is worth too much, in SoCal, their going rate is probably equal or above that of an equivalent Porsche Boxster/Cayman of the same era...

That was a known thing from the '00s decade cars. But good excuse for a manual transmission swap!

$18,450: not bad! https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/listing/409969476?sourceContex...

That's just short of 20 years worth of use if earth-moon is your work-home commute, that's a pretty good analogy actually.

If you'd still be driving it then how was the resale value relevant?

Insurance won't pay for it. But it's probably still cheaper to fix than buy a new car (I had a '99 CRV that I drove for 17 years).

I'd still send the Civic. Sending another convertible is imitation, but sending a Civic, a people's car, especially an older model, would by quite humorous.

Not just SoCal; watch the auction sites. I really only wanted an AP2 in Rio Yellow Pearl, and their values are perilously close to $30k. In fact, a 70k mile example I bid on last year on BaT or C&B (in San Jose) went for over $30k.

Ultimately I "gave up" and just bought a 981 Boxster S (a 2013) for $42k. A 986 Boxster from the same era as an S2000 would absolutely be S2k prices.

I owned a Miata and wanted to own an S2k before moving up to the Boxster, but for today's asking prices, it just didn't make sense.

You should watch Pontiac Moon! (Or maybe not, it's not that great of a movie)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110867/

I think he means that the cost to repair exceeded the market value of the car. As a recent victim of something similar with an 09 Accord, I feel the pain. Was the perfect car.

I'm fairly certain that an S2000's current worth is a rounding error in rocket-science economics.

perhaps they could launch Elon into space, that would be civic

I'm supposing he meant that the body damage was the only damage, and that the known cost to repair the body exceeded the market value.

But OP states that, body aside, the car's condition was suitable to deliver at least two more decades of driving time. Buying a different used Civic at market value would introduce an unknown, unbound cost of repairs to reach that goal. Unless you're a mechanic it's essentially gambling. Or* it's a new vehicle-- in which case it will cost vastly more than the cost of the body repairs.

I suppose I understand why the market is relevant-- if it were $1 then it would be worth the gamble. But given OP's goals and foreknowledge of the car's condition, I don't understand why market value would create a hard limit against paying for the repairs. That foreknowledge is worth at least a few hundred dollars, probably way more if you factor in time to find another car and risk of it being in ill-repair. Edit: (Not to mention the depth of knowledge since OP had been driving it for nearly a decade already!)

Edit: Plus the fact that OP would have run this car into the ground. So while market value still plays some role, resale value does not.

My yearly car insurance bill is more than I paid for my Civic.

It comes down to insurance and salvage titles mostly. In PA, the vehicle I have experience with was valued by insurance at $11.5k, minus a $500 deductible, so $11k. That value determination was made by the insurance company by market factors, which is why market value comes into play. Looking around at comparable used vehicles of same make, model, year, mileage, I found that to be fair price.

The cost to repair from multiple shops within transportable distance (important consideration as I'm sure someone somewhere could have done it for less) was $16k. To get it to an ugly but functional state was about $10k, which would have to be paid out of pocket.

Even if repaired to "roadworthy" condition, it would need to be reinspected and if deemed to be roadworthy would hold a salvage title, meaning insurance would go through the roof, my liability coverage would be dropped, and the car could not be resold. If not deemed roadworthy, more cost.

Needless to say, I considered the car totaled and used the $11k for a down payment towards another Honda.

Extra impressive then, since you'd be making what's typically been a 6-day round trip every day!