One year ago today, I set off for Ayase-shi in Yokohama, a city immediately west of Tokyo and not too far from Camp Zama. I had about $3300 in cash, a dash camera, a regular camera, and a couple of hand tools. I had purchased a one-way ticket a few days ago, which took me from Aizu to Koriyama, then to Omiya on the shinkansen, then south on the Saikyo line to Shinjuku, and then southwest on the JR Odakyuu Line to Yokohama, where I swapped to local railways and a bus to get to a small dealership in a residential area. The goal was to drive home, and I'd be doing it in a car that I had only seen in pictures on the Internet. It had a fresh shaken renewal, and a new AC compressor, as well as plates provided by the dealer so that I could drive it home without shipping it.
It was Tackawanna.
I've never really explained why I named the car Tackawanna, so I'll take the time here to do so. I am a major fan of The Roots, a very talented, live instrumentation hip-hop group that you may know from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The band is from Philadelphia, and there is a multi-ethnic working-class section of the city called Frankford where there is a main street called Tackawanna Street. I first heard about the name from the second track "Respond/React" off their 1996 album, Illadelph Halflife:
Brody with my man Miz-Moose and Hakeem
My squad from deuce-four up to West Oak Lane
All the way to Tackawanna and Frankford they know the name
It's like that... M-Ill-itant
My squad from deuce-four up to West Oak Lane
All the way to Tackawanna and Frankford they know the name
It's like that... M-Ill-itant
The name sounded really cool, and it has stuck ever since.
Tackawanna is the NA, or first-generation, model. She came from the factory with the NA6CE motor, a 1.6L inline-four mounted longitudinally, which at the time put out 118 hp. I made sure to buy a 1991 to avoid the short-nose crankshaft issues that came with model years before that. Tackawanna is a "normal base," which is the lowest trim level available. This version doesn't have power steering, but it does, however, come with stock power windows, which I think were an option as some Miatas had crank windows at the time. Tackawanna is also rear-wheel drive with a stock Torsen differential and a five-speed manual transmission connecting it to the engine. Even though she's almost four meters long (think of me standing on top of me), she actually manages to hide in a parking space if she's parked between two cars. Her curb weight is just under a metric ton, or 2100 lbs. These proportions and drivetrain setup allow for a sporty feeling when driving.
Since owning Tackawanna, I've only put on about 8000 km (5000 mi) on her. This is mainly because I live and work on campus, so I don't have to commute. Because of my busy schedule, I only really take her out on weekends or when I'm running errands. It's also important to note that since Japan has more "compact" cities, it's not necessarily a requirement to drive as far. I commonly see 10-year old cars for sale here that have only gone about 90000 km (less than 60000 miles)! For comparison, I purchased Tackawanna as she went over 129000 km (around 80000 miles), with her original, stock engine.
And because of this, if I sat down and truly tallied up every single purchase I've made for Tackawanna, I'd have probably seen a cost per mile that in the states would make me shit my pants. Since I first purchased her, I've done this much work to it, either by myself or by passing it off to someone else: （斎藤さん、いつもありがとう！）
- the foamectomy on the driver's seat
- new battery
- removing the side door panels, spare tire, and visors
- making new pull straps to replace the door handles using a belt I bought from a discount clothing store
- new Walbro fuel pump
- new fuel filter
- new speakers in the headrests of both seats
- new winter and summer tires
- two oil changes, plus new diff and transmission oil
- new radiator
- cleaning out the contacts for the window switch
- new head gasket, water pump, timing belt, and thermometer
- paint touch up (really did a shit job) on passenger-side door
- replacing the driver-side seatbelt buckle
- repainting the hood to replace rapidly peeling paint
- repainting the windshield wiper arms (just yesterday)
- replacing the door window trims (parts in the mail now)
So as you can see, I've done a lot of work to her, and there's plenty more [non-crucial] things that can be done. All of this on a car that can only seat two, and that doesn't have room in the trunk for any of my suitcases. In the winter time, it gets SUV mileage due to stop-and-go in the snow and cold. Parts of the trim look kind of worn, and because of the absolutely poor paint job done by a previous owner and the fact that it's a normal base, resale value on its own is about $1000 and a sad handjob.
And yet, I fucking love this car.
It truly is the greatest purchase I've ever made in my relatively short lifetime. Tackawanna is absolutely fun to drive, especially in nice weather. It doesn't go fast, but Japan's rather low speed limits and my insurance company's aversion towards mechanical mods mean that for my purposes, I have enough to get the car moving, but not enough to get into real trouble. Cornering is pretty good, especially with all the twisty mountain roads around here.
And then there's the soft top. Two clips in the front, and it retracts back, giving you excellent visibility of behind. When the top and windows are down, you hear some wind, but you can also hear everything else, including the solid click of the transmission as you put it into gear. If it gets too hot, the A/C actually runs so strong that sometimes the lowest setting of the A/C is too cold for me. If it gets too cold, the heater is actually strong enough to keep my feet and legs warm with the top down.
In addition, Tackawanna is pretty practical if you figure out your loads and plan accordingly. At the sacrifice of an extra passenger, I have transported multiple saxophones, shelving, and even a giant cabinet. (That last one was pretty difficult and uncomfortable, though.) A trip to Costco during Golden Week (still need to make that post) could fit entirely in my trunk.
And despite her age and exterior condition, Tackawanna is well received by both people I know and total strangers. Here's just a sampling of the acclaim I've received:
- A friend last year saw me in Tackawanna for the first time last year and said 「うおぉぉ！イケメン！」
- One summer evening, I returned to the west parking lot where I normally park, and a group of elementary school boys were playing in the lot. One particular boy saw me in the car, and actually said hello to me as he walked past it. I then heard him mutter 「カッコイイ」 to his friends.
- I have actually been downright flirted with in this car at a rest stop in Miyagi Prefecture.
- There's a local kindergarten on the road heading towards the main road. One time, the teacher had brought out a large group of kids to stand outside the sliding door facing the road. I drove past them to the stoplight on the corner, which was red. I looked back in my rearview mirror, and most of them were still looking at Tackawanna. (They did not do the same for the two cars in front of me.)
- As I was waiting to turn onto that road from the main road, a young man, looking about high school age, was standing on the corner waiting for the crosswalk. He saw my car, and kept staring at it even as I drove away and he crossed the crosswalk.
First, the Eunos Roadster is an オープンカー (open car, convertible). Regardless of its age or condition, a convertible is 50 times more attractive than a car with a fixed roof. When you think of a convertible, you think of wide open roads along some coastline on a summer's day with the wind in your hair. Hell, I can remember when I was younger being amazed by my uncle's red Mustang convertible. Yes, it was an ST-95 automatic, which is considered the least cool Mustang in car culture, the trim was shot, and it smelled a bit of cigar smoke on the inside, but it was a convertible. If I had the chance to be inside one as it moved, I could live with the secondhand smoke risk.
Second, the Eunos Roadster is a friendly car. At least in Japan, very rarely are they hacked up into hellaflush moving light displays (*cough* Civic *cough*) or tire-smoking sideways-drifting scream demons (*cough* Z-series *cough*). Roadsters have soft edges, and their exhaust notes are soft and inviting unless you really, really try with a special exhaust system. A Roadster doesn't storm onto center stage; it gracefully and nonchalantly wanders there. When other people see a Roadster with the top down, they don't think 「ああ、やべ！暴走族だ。」, but rather 「何それ、あの車？ちょっと可愛いよ。」I can usually tell when these people look that they are imagining themselves, if even for a moment, in the driver's seat of one of these cars. To them, the Roadster is an invitation to something nice that you could experience, and like, without anyone giving you shit for it.
Finally, the Roadster community in Japan is largely comprised of people who truly love others just as much as they love the car. These people aren't vape-huffing tryhards or posh pricks; most of them are actually well mannered. They're older gentlemen, or they're young/middle-aged families with young kids, or up-and-coming professionals looking for a reliable car to get them around. I've been to two Roadster meetings, and even with my ugly car and shit Japanese, I'm warmly welcomed. They're so welcoming to other owners that no one even lodges a complaint if you show up with an automatic transmission. That kind of energy, in my opinion, also radiates from the car as they drive. When you see someone like this in this kind of car, you're inclined to think that this person is a sensible person who wants to have sensible fun in a sensible car. You care about your happiness, but not to a point where it starts to come at the expense of others' patience. So when people see a Roadster on the road, they don't think as much about the car as what it would be like to have one; on the surface, it makes you seem like a happier person. And who doesn't like happiness?
I'm still on the fence about a lot of my future. Do I stay in Japan and work for a Japanese company? Do I go home and find work with an American company? What about my dream of starting my own business? But regardless of all these questions, there is one constant: Tackawanna. If I stay in Japan, I'm keeping her. (Taxes won't go any higher, I've cleared the initial hurdles of ownership costs, and my insurance gets even cheaper the longer I stay out of trouble.) If I go home, I'm putting her on a cargo ship, and I'll register it as a second car at home. (My 3 must be getting lonely without me.) If I can be that confident about Tackawanna, then it must be because she's truly a car worth every penny.
Or as this guy says, because it's the best!
-wp
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