CLDude

I'm a bit sad to see it go, I ran it up to 131,000 miles (211,000 Km). I loved this car.

I originally bought it in 2004 with 52,000 miles (84,000 km) on it. There was a few things that I had to fix, but nothing major. Car ran great through the years, with no real issues.

One night at a poker game, I came back to my car and saw that someone did a hit and run on my driver side. The door was all dented and the mirror was dangling, hanging from a wire. I did a police report and filed an insurance claim. They gave me a completely new door and mirror so that was cool.

On a 26th of December, boxing day, a lady hit my left side fender in a parking lot, not hard, but enough to dent my hood, destroy my left headlight, scratch the corner of the bumper and of course the fender. Again, I filed an insurance claim and they fixed all that. By that time, they had to hunt down pieces from other CLs, I guess cause in 2012 they weren't making any more pieces.

A year later, the transmission went. So I had to get that repaired.

My exhaust system needed to be completely changed and there was quite a bit of rust on the left rear wheel well than needed to be fixed.

I needed to invest 3-4k $ Canadian in it to bring it up to par for a while. Maybe I should have done that, but I don't know, I had it for 10-11 years and the car is 17 years old. In this day and age, that is a life time for car, heh. We swap cell phones every 2 years, some people lease cars every 3....

All in all, considering everything, it was still the greatest car I ever owned.

I'd like to list some PROs and CONs about this car.

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PROs:

-Great visibility on sides, front, rear.
-Excellent engine, great torque from a 3.0 V6
-Smooth transmission (IMO) *when it's working optimally.
-Superb highway handling. I cruised a few time at 160km/h (100 miles/ph) and it doesn't feel that you were going at that speed.
-Excellent interior, comfortable.
-Great unique looks/design (I had black on black)
-Great soundproofing, car was very quiet on the inside.

CONs,

-Atrocious turning radius (as much as I loved the car, I hated the radius. It was really annoying in parking lots and in tight spaces)
-Below average in handling curves, it felt like a boat in those instances.
-Problematic transmissions. It seems even after I completely repaired the transmission, it was starting to give signs of wear, 1 year after.
-Never really handled that well in snowy conditions even with great winter tires.
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Now, I own a low mileage black on black 4WD 2011 Honda CRV EX-L 12400 miles (20,000 KM). Heh, I paid a good price for it, handles great (better than the CL lol) however the CL trumps this in highway cruising no problem.

The CRV has awesome visibility since you sit higher, has a few more options that I wanted that the CL didn't have such as auxiliary (I didn't want to change decks in my CL as I wanted to keep it stock.)

I miss the torque of the CL, that 3.0 V6 was so sweet.

I kinda regret selling the CL, I get too attached to my cars, it's difficult for me. I had someone else sell it, as I can't ever do it. My modified 2000 civic hatch with a B16A2 USDM, I had my someone sell that too.

Ahhhhhh, I hate parting with cars, but don't have the space.

Since I'm a ever car loving dude like most of you guys, I will continue looking for that perfect ride of the current era. That one ride that has it all, maybe I'll find it someday. The CL was quite a contender in my dream list.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Sorry to see you go, I would definitely be sad if I ever sold my CL

musiclevelz5

CLDude...You can always buy a Gen2 CL and if you want a manual they made those in 03! You can weep for joy!