Tamara's had her 2006 Honda CR-V for a few years now, and other than some initial work to get things tip-top (because the previous owner didn't keep up with things like replacing a CV axle that had been spraying grease all over the engine compartment for quite a while), it's been a solid car. No reason to suspect that it was a strange, rogue variant.
Until she started having a brake problem that turned out to involve the proportioning valve inside the ABS pump.
It turns out that this particular car was built in the United Kingdom, that it was not built for export to the US, and that this particular year used an ABS pump that is not, and is not compatible with, the ABS pumps CR-Vs made everywhere and everywhen else, and that for some reason is difficult to find. It's turned into a real pain in the ass and even once it gets resolved, I suspect she's going to sell the vehicle and get something else.
As for how a UK-built Honda that wasn't made for sale in the US got to the US, my working theory is this:
At least at one time, members of the US armed forces who got assigned "permanently" -- that is, for more than some minimum amount of time -- got a neat little perq in that if they bought a vehicle overseas, when they were reassigned back to the US, the military would ship that vehicle over for them at no charge.
Back in the late 1970s or early 1980s, after he spent a couple of years at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, my brother had his 500cc Honda motorcycle (the replacement for the Norton 850 he sold before leaving the US) shipped back to his new duty station at MCAS El Toro. As soon as it arrived, he took some accrued leave and rode it from California to Missouri ... in January.
So I'm guessing that a US Air Force member spent some time at one of several US installations in the UK, then got transferred to e.g. AFB MacDill and had his shiny new Honda sent over.
No comments:
Post a Comment