A late-night tale of a childhood friend now sweeping in automotive heaven…
My childhood, or what’s left that I can barely remember (with goldfish memory) was pooled in the back seat of a souped-up Honda Stream RSZ, which was as simple and nourishing as ABC soup.
The first generation Honda Stream was a fine girl but without an endearing face and a confusing Category-B 1.7-litre displacement. Its little brother, the humble new (old) gen Jazz probably aged better for the young-to-beng buyer, but upgrading afterwards… the second-generation Stream was worth drooling over.
With more than just makeup, the Stream took on a design change so drastic it could compete against modern Chinese face filters; punchier to the eye, aesthetically shorter and undeniably baller.
For the uncle with tall shorts and low-perched glasses, the Stream X was simple, tame and unoffending. But for the boy-racer past his prime with a kid or two now hoarding the back, one look at the front grille of the RSZ is enough to tame him.
But much to the disappointment of the spiky-hair man-racer, the red-badged RSZ was more expired ketchup than fresh blood. The engine was 100 milimetres larger, sure, but it was no 2-litre K20A that Type R owners love with a cheeky grin. The old 1.7-litre D17 (the 2-litre K20 wasn’t locally sold) of the first-generation was retired for the 1.8-litre R18A, from a mundane 130 horsepower to an also-mundane 140 horsepower.
Though, buyers who don’t patronize local distributor Kah Motor could look for parallel importers to secure a RSZ or RST with a 2-litre R20A1 outputting a mundane-nevertheless 150 horsepower. The 1.8-litre RSZ would remain the star of the Honda MPV show after Honda closed the Stream’s chapters in 2014.
Much of the financial mistakes that is my existence and resulting mistakes on top of this mistake have been supported by my father, even though he has never been featured here – which doesn’t mean he isn’t instrumental to this website. In a different life, he was playing with a beng’d-up Mitsubishi Colt, and in another, was this shining new Crystal Black Pearl Honda Stream RSZ in 2007.
In traditional Singaporean fashion, the original (and lovely) biomimetic-design 5-spoke alloys was almost immediately swapped for a set of WedsSport SA-72Rs, alongside some interior and exterior lighting mods that emitted more “rally blue” than “Typo R” red. Ah, a banger tune too, supplied by a banging subwoofer system in the trunk.
The car wasn’t anything worthy to plump into Super Import Nights or sound shows, but it was uniquely ours. For the rest of our ownership, it largely stayed in the same condition – simple mods and not-simple use as a Multi-Purpose-Vehicle (MPV).
This car was both a good and bad decision in equal measure at a time where my family didn’t enjoy the luxuries that we now do. It survived a very turbulent point in the family, plus me and two beloved Shi Tzus that justified its very purpose in the family roster.
The backwards-installation label of the child seat remains to be my most vivid memory of young, a kept memory as backward as that discouraged way of installation itself.
Fathers and mothers, please understand that simple changes that stray from the norm can impact the tastes of your children. As I think back, I remember the blue ambient lighting which seems to have done irreversible formation of taste that now form the lights in my color preference. These posts are now written within the hue of blue lighting that eerily match the lights of the old RSZ.
It was also in this car that activated my first “taste” in music, keeping me on the auditory lookout for Adele’s “Someone Like You”. Though unlike the lights, Adele’s genre of music hasn’t yet caught on, where eurobeat and trance has since swept my youth away.
To quote the song, “Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead” we sold the car after nearly a decade of the RSZ serving as an one-owner workhorse that we couldn’t afford to renew COE for. The parting would hurt just as much as the two doggies that would eventually move on in the coming years. The Stream RSZ was plated SJB4128K.
In 2015, my father swapped his tyres and wheels to a gold six-spoke wheel chosen by his son (who was more of a design-snob than brand-snob) shortly before selling it, and we spotted the car in 2021 and my family did once more in 2022. In both instances, it remained a time capsule for its first owners, who would never see it again.
I believed years ago that our Stream RSZ was renewed on a 5-year tenure and has since silently left the island around 2022; the timings of when we last saw it and the deduction by year would make sense. There is a slim chance that it is still around, but gone like the memories is likely the car itself. I miss it every now and then, but will sorely miss the Stream as a model when their next COE tenure comes. Our culture will only survive as the disappearing memories of those who lived in it.
Thank you dad, for the early glimpse in automotive life and fueling my passion into what it (tragically) is now. Perhaps someday, I may fall exactly into your shoes and back in a beng Honda MPV.
“Never mind, I’ll find someone like you, I wish nothing but the best for you, too~”
~Linus
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Read more: SG Archives: ɛ̃fini RX-7
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