2022 Penang: Day 9

January 2, 2023 14 Min Read

Written 1/1/23, Set in 31/12/22

I nearly had forgotten that its New Years Eve.

The day starts with the viewing of another car. To be honest, I should have learnt after viewing about four cars prior that I should never keep my hopes up with a cheap car in Malaysia. What do I mean?

I didn’t quite mention what we were to look at. It is a Second generation Honda Prelude, with a 1.8L twin-carburetor engine and a 4-Speed Automatic. It is literally forty years old, this thing is a dinosaur. Seriously, a 4-speed automatic is decades old but carburetors were literally a generation ago when they were still in fashion.

Hell, initially I had been led to believe that this was a Third generation car, but it is actually a second generation model. Both the second and third generation do look alike, and apart from a few design cues, these two generations of Prelude look very identical to one another. As Wikipedia would put it, the third generation had “Featured evolutionary styling from its predecessor, it shared design cues from the Honda NSX that would be introduced later in 1990″

Second generation Honda Prelude

Third generation Honda Prelude

On the face of it, this was a very clean car. Unlike another third-gen Prelude that we had viewed previously, this had original paint that for the most part, looked to be in very good condition.

Plus for Pop-up headlights

Very original interior, no messy modifications (Apart from the Mugen thing)

VIN number on the firewall

Front-pivoted bonnet, about as cool as your supercars. What isn’t cool is the A18A/ET-2 Engine.

Spraying the car with a hose to check for sunroof leaks (Yes, it has a sunroof)

RUST

RALLIART banner on a Honda. Why?

Damage on the rear quarter

Bridgestone Ecopla
EP200
185/60R15 front tyres

Michelin Energy
195/60R15 rear tyres

Now, if you’re someone into cars, you would have already gotten a gist as to how the car is. Mismatched tyres front and rear? This surely isn’t sparkly clean driving like the looks!

I’d hate to admit it, but this indeed was a deathtrap. Steering at max lock turned soft, the suspension was shot and the brakes were shot. I had initially assumed that the brakes were factory-grade, i.e they just sucked from factory.

Worst of all, each gear change resulted in a jerk that was very noticeable, which signaled for a failing transmission. Still, all of us were willing to buy the car, so hopes for it were high.

The bodywork was both good and bad, with rust spots less noticeable of hidden. We’d guess that repair work for the bodywork wouldn’t be lots.

Plus, the car was very unmodified. With the exception of the window banners, wheels and the exhaust, the car was essentially “mint”. (Spoilers, I can tell you it wasn’t)

But hey, how bad can it be? We’ll find out in a bit…

A instrument cluster that screams 1980’s

Yes, these has back seats.

Now, if you’re keen on buying a car, you consult a mechanic to look over the car to discover issues that you may have missed or issues that are harder to diagnose without proper equipment. Obviously, its so that you don’t end up buying a lemon. (Purchase with poor durability and performance)

Here’s what came up:

Literally no brake pads
Completely knackered suspension on all fours
Engine mounts soaked in oil
Steering rack is knackered
Engine oil leak
Radiator leak

Among others.

Or otherwise speaking, the car’s fucked.

I would try to keep swears out of this blog, but the car is properly ragged.

Quoted with a price to fix the car, it’d be a staggering 40k RM not even including a full repair. I would like to point out that all fees included to drive the car out is 18k RM. Its literally uneconomical to repair.

It was painful to let this one go.

Alright, let’s bring this back to the dealer and resume. Next up in the itinerary is picking up my father’s friend and driving to a place I can’t quite recall the name of.

The second Saab I’ve seen in this trip.

I believe this to be a Ford Laser.

Presumably put up as display. These look great.

I love me a Daihatsu Charade

An interesting find: A BMW E46 coupe

One of a surprisingly plentiful batch of CLS350’s in Penang

I must say: Penang sure seems to love utilitarian SUV’s

Now, may I present you with probably the most green that you’ll see in a while. (If you’ve hardly gone outside during the holiday season)

As it turns out, the reason why we were in this area was because of a plant event. Basically put simply, an event of several booths selling nice, rare or exotic plants. My father is mad in this hobby of collecting and nurturing plants, so that’s why we’re here. His friend was in the hobby too, so that’s why, again, we’re here for.

I will make the pictures smaller so that this segment isn’t completely clogged with plants. If you’d like to see them, please click on the images and you’ll be shown a full resolution preview of the photos.

Still here? I’m a bit surprised.

Some food later, we were back on our way by ourselves.

Now this is a bit of a hard guess: A Nissan AD Resort, a very odd vehicle that doesn’t exist on SG roads.

Unmodified example of one of these things

Got to love what I would call outdated infrastructure.

Well, no bother. I was sulking (Again for Christ’s sake) over the Prelude, and next trip saw me completely asleep in the passenger seat. Just another trip to Queensbay Mall for Haidilao (Steamboat) for dinner.

Since the whole family wasn’t present yet, I had some ample time to complete stamps in Wackwan Midnight.

Food was good, service was pretty good, etc. Good night overall.

Candid photography is something I greatly value. I value it as its a reminder to scenes that one otherwise may not recall like a memorial event, candid photography to me captures a more raw atmosphere, one that I feel is lacking in modern social media. Hey, its just me.

Whatever this orange blob is.

Yellow Proton Satria Neo R3’s look stunning.

Ah, well. Sometimes, its great to reflect and rethink what happened beforehand. Its also nice to write about them especially in spaces like notes or blogs like this is. Its a good way to keep track of what has happened in the past and put memories that you may forget because of how mundane they first appear to be. The celebration of the new year was me, the rest of my friend group and my extended family celebrating the occasion with music remixed into a mix by XH (Sub to this guy he’s a solid lad)