February 2nd, 2026 - Down a ChatGPT Rabbit Hole for Project PRO.2 and its History

February 2nd, 2026 - Down a ChatGPT Rabbit Hole for Project PRO.2 and its History

As I noted in my blog post here: Some Internet Sleuthing to Uncover Project PRO.2's past in Japan, a lot of information about my car's history has been uncovered directly from changing technology over the past 21 years I've owned her. 

• Virtual Machine/Electronic Parts Catalog: I used a Honda Japan EPC to determine some of the factory options that were on my car when it was built, such as Honda SuperSound stereo system, etc.
• Plain Old Telephone System/Email: I obtained some information via plain old telephone and email when I called Honda Japan.
• Google Translate iOS App: I was able to glean information from the Google Translate app on my phone being able to translate the Kanji using my iPhone. 
• This allowed me to translate the service stickers on my strut tower and airbox to get even more history
• Allowed me to translate the pricing matrices from two Japanese Honda Verno stores to more accurately re-create the original sticker price
• CarVX Report: This allowed me to obtain information about my car that pointed to it never having been sold to the exporter via an auction house.
• Japan Car History Check Website: They were able pull information from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation which showed me how many previous owners there were and where the car was registered while in Japan. 

This past weekend I went down a rabbit hole with ChatGPT about my car's history. 

I started with some conventional Google searches but kept running into roadblock after roadblock, mostly due to the language barrier. When suddenly it occurred to me. Why not ask ChatGPT about the dealer location, and also this whole first owner being listed as the dealership? Maybe AI can help me.

Using Microsoft's Copilot extensively for work, and ChatGPT for personal use, I have a healthy distrust for AI in general. I know that AI - ChatGPT especially - can hallucinate and present findings and analysis that is geared more to what you want to hear versus what's factually correct. Believe me when I say, I grilled it for hours, asked it for its sources, asked it to confirm findings, challenged it when it went down a path I didn't think was warranted based on the evidence presented. I asked it to ignore the previous inquiries I'd made and start absolutely fresh to confirm I hadn't accidently guided it one way or another. 

I did everything I could to disprove what it was telling me. I didn't want to come here and misrepresent something that was incorrect because I trusted AI. 

After a lot of back and forth, I uploaded the MLIT registration report I got from Japan Car History Check and asked it to do an analysis, ignoring all previous queries and analysis I'd already asked it because I felt like there was an effort being made to tie the responses back to previous queries. This was the reply. I felt comfortable that we would be dealing impartially. 

After over a week of back and forth messages to ChatGPT and countless hours spent doing my own research and exhausting every possible angle I could think of that we could explore, I was finally satisfied that I was getting the most accurate answer I was going to get from ChatGPT and that in order to take the investigation further, I'd need to reach out to other sources for additional information/confirmation. 

Here's what we discovered:

So it appears that it's possible, and highly likely, that my CR-X began its life as a dealer demo, test drive unit or possibly even service loaner. It wasn't sold to its first retail customer until November of 1991. This is a bigger plot twist than when I discovered it was never sold to the exporter at auction as I'd been told when I bought it in 2005. 

Note: I continue to say "possible" and "possibility" because I've not been able to confirm these things beyond a reasonable doubt, and I'm still not ready to fully trust our robot overlords just yet. As a matter of fact, after posting about my adventures with ChatGPT, a friend from Japan has already mentioned that it's unlikely that a rural dealership such as Hachinohe would have used a CR-X as a service loaner; some regional context that ChatGPT was not able to provide.

Dealership Location

• I started by asking ChatGPT (CGPT) to help me find the Honda dealership that originally sold my CR-X: Honda Verno Aomori, the dealership Honda Japan told me was closed. 
• I asked about specifically about a Honda dealership in Hachinohe City which corresponds to my Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation (MLIT) registration search from Japan Car History Check (JCHC).
• CGPT says that many locations kept the same land and buildings. They changed legal entities, signage and official records.
• When Honda Japan says “closed”, it often means “This legal dealership entity no longer exists under that name.”
• Hachinohe City as the retail location makes sense because Hachinohe City was (and still is) a major population and industrial center in eastern Aomori and one of the primary market areas Honda targeted when siting Verno dealers.
• A sanity-check on Wikipedia confirmed that Hachinohe's population as of 1990 was approximately 247,000 people. 
• Honda strategically placed Verno stores based on market size, not just prefectural capitals .
• So “Honda Verno Aomori (Hachinohe)” is entirely plausible.

Gruppe Professional Golf store 青森県八戸市城下3丁目15-25

• I checked the Google Street View armed with some architectural clues CGPT provided to try and determine whether the dealership could have been an old Verno dealership prior to the Honda Cars rebrand of the early 00s.
• Look for: Older, low-slung dealership buildings, lots dating visually to the 1980s–1990s.
• Even if the building is modernized, the land parcel is often unchanged.
• The location I found on Street View was currently a store called Gruppe Professional Golf shop. 
• I was skeptical that the location used to be a car dealership from the look of the building at a glance. 
• At first glance, I thought maybe it could have been simply the head office for a dealership group or something.

• Looking at the street view from a different angle, I noticed something - garage bay doors. 
• I asked CGPT to analyze a screenshot I took Google Street View and it came back with some clues I'd missed initially:
• The large, full-height glass frontage that has a wraparound so that cars could have been seen from multiple angles.
• The service bay wing with multiple wide roll-up doors
• Red horizontal band wrapping the building is in exactly the spot where Honda Verno signage would be incorporated.
  
  
  
  
• Next I looked at the Google Maps overhead view and it became clear to me that this was a lead worth following up on. 
• The collection of residential houses sits in exactly the spot where a large, open parking area for new vehicle inventory would be kept.
• Subdivision of the property after its purpose as a car dealership came to an end was likely.
  

• Earliest Google Street View archive was from 2011 shows it was the golf store at that time, so that was no help. 
• I checked the Company Profile on Gruppe's website shows that they purchased the store in 2009.
• I knew it was a long shot but I called the Gruppe store, and using iOS 26's translation matrix, I was able to have my telephone call translated in real-time. I asked if they happened to know the purpose of the building prior to 2009 and whether it was a Honda Verno store. 
• The person on the phone couldn't help me. It was a long shot but it was worth a try. 
• I checked the GIS aerial survey photography online from that time period it would have been a Honda Verno dealership. Here's where it got interesting:
• I found archival aerial photography from 1981, 1984, 1987, 1992 and 1997.
• The resolution of the online photos isn't great, and ironically the best photograph was taken in 1981.

• You can make out the showroom and the service bays in the 1981 picture, and clearly the dealership parking lot for outside inventory and parking. 
• Turns out that the houses were there all along and that the dealership lot extended in a different direction than I'd expected. 
• Today, the large structure near the point on the left is still there, but the parking lot is divided by two fences. A sign on the fence nearest the main road states that it is a parking lot for rent.
• I Googled the telephone number on the signage. It is a cellphone number and doesn't appear to be registered to any business that I could find.

I even had ChatGPT render the screenshot from Google Street View to show what the store would have looked like in 1989 as a Honda Verno store. It certainly looks plausible it could have been a small dealership. 

Confirmation From Independent Sources

• Even though I think it's safe to say it was plausible that this was, in fact, the same dealership I've been searching for, I still had some questions. Maybe even highly likely, but I wanted confirmation before I felt confident to say I'd found the dealership. 
• Some of the next steps to explore is to try and locate the following information from the Hachinohe library or the National Diet Library (国立国会図書館)
• Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) telephone books of the area from 1990, looking for Honda Verno stores, including any mention of  head office or service center etc at the associated address from my MLIT documents.
• If they have available any digitized newspapers from September 28, 1989 with possible car dealership sales advertisements that could assist.
• Edit 1: I received a reply from the Hachinohe library:
• They stated, in Japanese, "We are sorry, but we do not have any old telephone directories in our collection, so we are unable to confirm your inquiry."
• "We do have residential maps in our collection, and we have found that a 1988 map shows a Honda Verno Aomori Hachinohe Store at 15-25 Shiroshita 3-chome, Hachinohe City, and a store with the same name in the same location can also be found on a 1990 map. (We do not have a residential map from 1989.)"
• I have now confirmed, independently, that the store currently owned by Gruppe Golf was once Honda Verno Aomori (Hachinohe Store) according to a 1988, and a 1990 map, stored at the Hachinohe Library. 
• And since the MLIT report from JCHC shows that address for the User of my CR-X, I can now say with certainty, that is the address where my CR-X was first sold. Now I just need to confirm... to whom?
• Edit 2: Further correspondence with the Hachinohe library has taken place. They have offered to make physical copies of the pages from the 1988 and 1990 ZENRIN residential maps and I've confirmed that they can copy a limited number of pages from the local newspaper. 
• I have chosen to request reprints of the front pages of the morning and evening edition of the 東奥日報 (Tō-Ō Nippō) newspaper on that day as well as any specific mention of automobile advertisements for Honda Verno Aomori or the Honda CR-X. If they found none, I would accept printed pages for any advertisement from Honda Verno from the time. 
• I'll have to pay a modest copying fee and payment will need to be made via Bank Transfer. I'll come back and update when that's completed.
• Edit 3: The papers have arrived from the Hachinohe Library.
• The ZENRIN residential maps from 1988 and 1990 indeed show that the Gruppe Golf store was, indeed, the Honda Verno Aomori - Hachinohe store at the time my CR-X was originally sold. 
• I also saw that the residences existed on that corner. They were not built on the former parking lot of the dealership as I'd initially thought. This is independent verification of the information I'd found on the GIS maps online.  
• The front page of the evening edition of the Tō-Ō Nippō paper has an advertisement for Honda Verno Aomori, and even features a CR-X on it! 
• The advertisement also shows that there were 4 Honda Verno Aomori dealerships, confirming that it was a dealership group with multiple locations. 
• The locations in the ad are: 
• the Hachinohe store, 
• a store in Hirosaki City, and 
• two locations in Aomori City: one in Hamada district, and another in Ishie district. 
• Checking the phone numbers in the advertisement, it appears 3 of the 4 dealerships are still intact, in some form or another, today.
• Honda Cars 青森東 八戸店 still uses 0178-24-1234 (formerly the Hachinohe store)
• Honda Cars 青森 外崎店 uses 0172-27-1711 at the same published address 弘前市大字外崎3-5-2 (formerly, the Hirosaki location)
• Honda Cars 青森 青葉店, whose published current phone number is 017-739-3131 (formerly the Hamada, Aomori City location)
• The Ichie, Aomori City location does not have a corresponding Honda Cars store that uses their old phone number from the 1989 advertisement.
  
  
• Edit 4: Not exactly related to the Hachinohe library information, but ChatGPT did help me to determine that there were 3 Honda Verno stores in Aomori in September, 1981 around the time of the Vigor launch. 
• The store in Hachinohe was listed at this address, 八戸市城下3-12-3 (3-chōme-12-3 Shiroshita), which is different than the store location I found that sold my CR-X.
• The telephone for this 1981 Honda Verno store in Hachinohe was 0178(46)0541 which is also different than the later Hachinohe store that sold/owned my CR-X.

ZENRIN Map from 1988 showing Honda Verno Amori - Hachinohe location

Honda Verno Aomori advertisement from evening edition of the Tō-Ō Nippō newspaper
September 28th, 1989

Edit 5: Got the 6 papers from the Hachinohe library scanned properly. I went to Staples to have them scanned and they claimed A3 was the same as 11x17 but A3 paper is slightly larger. I found a print shop that could scan for me.

What I discovered when I translated the Honda Verno Aomori advertisement on the front page of the September 28, 1989 evening edition Tō-Ō Nippō paper was that there was a model "Announcement Event" for both the CR-X SiR (released September 22nd, 1989) and the Honda Vigor (according to Honda Japan, released October 12, 1989) taking place on Saturday and Sunday, September 30th and October 1st, 1989. 

Since no individual location of the four Honda Verno Aomori stores is singled out in the ad, I believe this launch event was likely held at all the stores in the group on those days, including the Hachinohe store.

It's highly likely that my CR-X, registered to the Hachinohe store on September 28th, was used at that same launch event at the dealership either in the showroom or for test drives to perspective buyers!

What Happened to Honda Verno Aomori - Hachinohe? 

So, in the early 2000s, Honda Japan consolidated its dealership streams (Verno, Primo and Clio) into the "Honda Cars" branding. We know that the Honda Verno Aomori store in Hachinohe moved prior to 2009 when Gruppe Golf purchased and took over the location.

Googling the phone number in the Honda Verno Aomori ad found on the front page of the Tō-Ō Nippō newspaper, I found that Honda Cars Michinoku is using that same number for their main location in Hachinohe. 

The following information shows on their Company Profile page: "Honda Cars Aomori East has merged its Hachinohe and Shiroshita stores and relocated, reopening the Hachinohe store after renovations.

The existing Hachinohe [East] store has been renamed the Hachinohe Service Center."

The continued use of the Honda Verno Aomori-Hachinohe phone number and the Company History statement lead me to believe that the Honda Cars Michinoku location in Hachinohe at 4-22-25 Shiroshita in Hachinohe City is the spiritual successor to the original dealership my car was sold from and possibly sold to. 

I tried to reach out to the dealership, but the preferred method to contact them is via a webform. That form appears to be geo-locked and since I'm in North America they have blocked my location. It makes complete sense from a business perspective. To reduce the cyber-security risk footprint, geo-lock any country outside of the select few that your business is marketing to. That left me with the old-school, tried and true method of... SNAIL MAIL. 

I sent them a carefully worded letter with the help of ChatGPT explaining that I'm aware of the dealership closing and re-locating so records from almost 40 years ago would be almost non-existent, but that I'd hoped they might have some history to share on my CR-X. At minimum I hoped they may still have an old photograph of the Hachinohe location from that time period they could share or some memories from a long-term employee from those days. 

I'm not delusional, I don't expect a reply, or even a positive one should I get it. But, we've come this far, why leave a stone un-turned now?

Edit: I received a reply from Honda Cars Michinoku! They didn't have any new information about my CR-X in their records, but could confirm that an igniter recall was done on June 1st, 1994. Sadly the information they showed from a computer screenshot didn't have any mileage on it. It was also interesting because the information I received from the CarVX shows that the igniter was replaced on May 24th, 1994. Not a big deal, just more of a "huh, that's interesting" detail.

They said that they purchased that dealership store July 1st, 1995 (so that means they were not the owner of the store when my car was sold there in 1989). 

They were also kind enough to send along a high-resolution scan of a flyer from 2006 that shows a photo of the old Hachinohe store and what it looked like in its full Honda Verno glory. I took a screenshot and asked ChatGPT to enhance it.

I had ChatGPT take this image and recreate/enhance it:

Edit #2: Before I received this reply from Honda Cars Michinoku, I had emailed Honda Japan to see if I could obtain the mileage for my CR-X at the time of the igniter recall, which I referenced as May 24th, 1994. They replied today and gave me the mileage! 38,158km

So, now I have a confirmed mileage in May,1994 as 38,158km, another in Oct, 2002 from the power steering service 73,840km and another approximate in Aug, 2003 of 88,500km ("next service" date). 

Edit #3: I replied to Honda Japan and asked why there was the discrepancy between the two dates I've been provided but they don't have records that go back that far. Drawing from my past experience working at the Honda dealership here in town, I am guessing that the repair was actually completed on May 24th, and the dealership closed the work-order after they got paid from Honda Japan, on June 1st.

Things are getting interesting. 

A Long Shot -- But Since We've Gone This Far... What Is There To Lose?

Inspired by the letter I wrote to Honda Cars Michinoku, I asked ChatGPT to help me to draft letters, yes actual LETTERS, to the former owners of my CR-X using the addresses from the MLIT Registration Check report. It's a real long shot, but since I've gone this far to try and piece together my CR-X's history, why not try this route too? I've got nothing to lose but my time and the postage. 

The assistance with the letters went beyond simple translation, helping me draft wording that is culturally appropriate while maintaining a respectful tone that could potentially yield more positive results - if the people who owned my CR-X were still living at those same addresses, that is. 

I don't expect to get responses, but if I do, I asked for the previous owners to share any memories or stories about the car's history that they felt comfortable sharing with me. We'll see how this plays out.

Registered Owners

• According to the MLIT registration document I received from JCHC the address of the first registered owner, listed as 株式会社ホンダベルノ青森 八戸店 (Honda Verno Aomori Hachinohe Store) was 青森県八戸市城下3丁目15-25  (3-chōme-15-25 Shiroshita)
• This address is not a residential address based on previous searches (above) and it's currently a retail Golf store. 
• That location was a car dealership and not a head office location for a dealership group.
• Uploaded the JCHC MLIT registration history into ChatGPT and asked it for an analysis.
• According to ChatGPT, Japanese vehicle registrations distinguish between two key roles:
• Owner (所有者): The legal title holder
• User (使用者): The party who actually operates and stores the vehicle
• This distinction exists specifically to support leasing, financing, and corporate ownership structures. 
• The User is often the best indicator of how a car was actually used day-to-day. 
• Japanese automakers often registered new cars under a leasing subsidiary rather than directly to a private buyer.
• Legal owner (often finance company)
• Actual user (customer)
• This structure is repeatedly visible in:
• Late-80s Hondas
• Early-90s Toyotas and Nissans as well.
• A ~4-year owner-retained period is entirely normal and appears in multiple verified cases.

• A careful look into the first two registrations of my CR-X indicates that:
• September 28, 1989
• The first registered owner was Honda Lease Co. Ltd
• The user was Honda Verno Aomori
  
  
• November 8, 1991
• The second registered owner was Honda International Sales Co. (HISCO)
• The user was a individual person.
  
  
• We've already extensively searched the first registered User's address in the searches above. It belonged to Honda Verno Aomori - Hachinohe store.
• A Google search of the second registered User's address from the MLIT report indicates a residential address.
• CGPT could not find any evidence that the second registered User's full name was affiliated in any way with Honda Verno Aomori as a corporate executive or employee. 
• That being said, CGPT did admit that its ability to search such information was limited since the dealerships were privately held businesses and in Japan it's not common to publish the names of dealership employees.
  
  
• A ChatGPT check on HISCO and what could be interpreted from corporate records in Japan revealed that:
• Was formed in the early 1970s as a sales and distribution company connected with Honda’s broader sales and trading operations. 
• This suggests that the name Honda International Sales Co. was used historically by Honda for certain sales or distribution activities, potentially including handling vehicles on behalf of the company in contexts such as export, wholesale, or resale. (emphasis is mine)
• A ChatGPT check of Honda Leasing Co. Ltd revealed that in the 1990s
• Was a back-office financial services entity and not retail sales.
• Honda Lease Co. Ltd was used to hold title to vehicles while they were used in dealer demonstrations, promotions, or internal fleet use.
• This legal ownership by Honda Lease does not by itself imply retail sale to the dealer; it reflects Honda’s internal financial structure of the time.
  
  
• I advised CGPT that the model information for the Civic and CR-X, specifically the generation change between the 1991 and 1992 model years.
• Cross-referenced those dates with the timeline for the sale of my CR-X from Honda Verno Aomori to the retail individual line up almost perfectly:
• The 92-95 Civic launched in Japan in September, 1991
• The CR-X del Sol launched in Japan in March 1992, after production of the 2nd generation CR-X ceased in February. 
  
  
• ChatGPT drew the conclusion that my CR-X was most likely
• Used as a dealership demo, service loaner, or possibly some sort of promotional vehicle.
• A friend from Japan on Facebook saw a post I'd made and let me know that in rural Japan, back in those days, it was highly unlikely that a dealer would have used a CR-X as a service loaner.
• Was sold to a retail user via HISCO in November 1991 at the end of the EF8 CR-X's marketability as the new generation Civic was already being sold and the new CR-X del Sol was on the horizon in a few months' time.
• Evidence used to make this conclusion:
• First user was listed Honda Verno Aomori
• First owner was Honda Leasing Co, Ltd
• CGPT felt it was unusual for a dealership to fully register a car in their name, subjecting it to road tax and starting the Shaken clock, for it to sit on the lot in inventory awaiting retail sale.
• According to Japanese tax law from the time, companies were able to write off the depreciation of leased assets as well as the lease payments similar to North American tax law.
• Using anecdotal information to CGPT from me that, while I was unsure when the EF8 ceased manufacture, I was aware of EF6 models being produced in February, 1992. 
• Using confirmation from Honda Japan that the 5th generation Civic with new body lines was released in September, 1991 for the 1992 model year CGPT determined that The sale to the second Owner/User aligns with the end of the 2nd generation CR-X's relevance in the logical sales/marketing strategy. 
• The second owner being transferred to HISCO aligns with the transition from corporate lease to retail ownership financing.
• The second user's address being a residence as opposed to a commercial address like the first user.

Attempted Confirmation From Honda Japan

• The next step I took was to email Honda Japan for confirmation.
• The email bounced. I called Honda Japan to get the new email address and I updated my earlier blog post accordingly.
• I had asked Honda Japan for confirmation on the following:
• Whether the vehicle was originally designated as a Honda Verno dealer demonstration, showroom, or promotional vehicle during its initial period of use under Honda Leasing and Honda Verno Aomori.
• Whether the transfer in November 1991 to Honda International Sales Co., Ltd., with a private individual listed as the user, would be consistent with a retail sale financed or administered through a Honda-affiliated company at the end of the EF-series CR-X lifecycle.
• The address and exact location of the Honda Verno Aomori dealership in Hachinohe that handled this vehicle in 1989, as it existed at that time.
• Two days later they replied and told me that they weren't able to confirm or deny any of the following information. It had simply been too long and records were not available from them. 

Attempted Confirmation From Japan Car History Check (Anecdotal)

• I don't explicitly trust ChatGPT's analysis of what the norms are for Japanese vehicle registration. In general, I don't fully trust AI, period, but I do know someone who I would consider to be an expert in reading Japanese registration information.
• JCHC would have is a specific knowledge of Japanese car registrations and could possibly help me with some pattern recognition when it comes to how the first owner/user usually appear.
• They wrote back saying while every situation is different, but it is not uncommon to have a Honda dealership show up as the first registered Owner, however, the User is typically the retail customer. 

Other Anecdotal Testimony

• A friend on Facebook who lives in Japan and drives a CR-X also confirmed, anecdotally, that the way my car was registered is not normal, and it was likely due to it being a demo car. 
• He also admitted that it seemed too early for it to have been sold to a customer (September 28th, 1989).
• He also mentioned that if the dealership held the car for more than 6 months or so before transferring the car to a retail customer, that would further strengthen that position it was a demo. If it were a retail sale, the retail user's name should appear first in the MLIT report. 
• He said that, in that area of rural Japan, it was highly unlikely that it was a Service Loaner.

A Long Shot -- But Since We've Gone This Far... What Is There To Lose?

Inspired by the letter I wrote to Honda Cars Michinoku, I asked ChatGPT to help me to draft letters, yes actual LETTERS, to the former owners of my CR-X using the addresses from the MLIT Registration Check report. It's a real long shot, but since I've gone this far to try and piece together my CR-X's history, why not try this route too? I've got nothing to lose but my time and the postage. 

The assistance with the letters went beyond simple translation, helping me draft wording that is culturally appropriate while maintaining a respectful tone that could potentially yield more positive results - if the people who owned my CR-X were still living at those same addresses, that is. 

I don't expect to get responses, but if I do, I asked for the previous owners to share any memories or stories about the car's history that they felt comfortable sharing with me. We'll see how this plays out.

Speculation with the help of ChatGPT

I don't know much about Northern Japan, but from what I had read on Google, the climate was cold and snowy during winters. I asked ChatGPT about the climate in Aomori, specifically Hachinohe, Aomori City and Akita - the areas my CR-X spent most of its life in Japan. Aomori City is one of the snowiest places in the world with annual snowfalls in the neighborhood of 8 meters (over 26ft). 

I asked ChatGPT if it could tell me whether Aomori prefecture uses salt on its roads the way Canada does, and it confirmed that they use a combination of salt and brine on the roads during winters there.

I gave ChatGPT an honest assessment of my car's condition, rust-wise. There's barely any for a 37 year old car - the worst spot is where the passenger door lower hinge meets the body, the is a rust hole starting on the body. It's been there since day one and I have the OEM Honda panel to replace it. But the rest of the car is remarkably rust-free. I have replaced the suspension, and never needed anything more than hand tools and an under-powered electric impact gun. The typical rusted bolts, like the lower strut fork were not seized and had no evidence that anti-seize had been used on them. When I replaced the rear inner plastics in 2005, I inspected the inside of the rear quarter panels, a spot any CRX owner will tell you is troublesome for rust - no indication of any previous repairs or rust of any kind.

I asked ChatGPT to check the climate data for the dates my car was in those regions and correlate how it's possible that a car that spent from 1989 to 2005 (minus 4 months in Tokyo in 2002) in Hachinohe, Aomori City and Akita could have possibly escaped being driven on salt-covered roads without being severely rusted. 

• 1989-1991 - Hachinohe - Moderate Snow/Salt Exposure Possible
• 1991-2001 - Aomori City - Very Heavy Snow/Salt Exposure Possible
• 2001-2002 - Akita - Heavy Snow/Salt Exposure Possible
• Four months in Tokyo (April - August 2002) - No/Extremely Minor Snow/Salt Exposure Possible
• 2002-2005 - Akita - Heavy Snow/Salt Exposure Possible
• The CR-X experienced ~14.5 winters in snowy regions of Northern Japan, most of them in very severe snow regions.

The condition of the CR-X is:

• minimal underbody rust
• extremely clean suspension and other underbody hardware
• some surface rust spots typical of paint-chipped areas
• one rust hole near the passenger side lower door hinge, still minor considering the climates the car was in.

ChatGPT speculated the following:

• The combination of the above does not match a year-round commuter vehicle in those climates.
• In Northern Japan it is extremely common for enthusiasts to own a winter vehicle (4wd, kei car, wagon, etc) and a summer vehicle, like a sports or sporty car.
• The CR-X was likely parked between the months of November/December and March
• It was likely stored indoors
• Driven mainly from April until November.
• Even though the CR-X spent most of its Japanese life registered in very snowy regions, its physical condition strongly suggests it was not driven regularly in winter conditions.
• While there isn't a great timeline of mileage for the CR-X, its service in 2002 revealed that it had 73,000kms at that time. That is roughly 5-6000kms per year. 
• The national average mileage in Japan during the 1990s for a commuter car was 10-12,000kms per year.
• The national average mileage in Japan during the 1990s for a general personal use car was 5-8000kms per year.
• That puts the CR-X in the national average personal car range for mileage, however, the mileage patterns for the northern Honshu region tend to be somewhat different than the national average. The differences come from geography, commuting patterns, and household vehicle ownership. Basically, rural regions tend to drive more.
• When taking into account the rural area it was in, the CR-X actually falls more in line with seasonal hobby car mileage averages for a rural area: 3-7000kms per year. 

ChatGPT admitted that none of this is a smoking gun to prove it 100% wasn't a commuter car or daily driven at some point in its life, but the hypothesis certainly fits that this car could likely have been a seasonal use, garage stored, low mileage hobby/enthusiast car for most of its life in Japan, which is why it's so well-preserved today given the climate where it spent the majority of its time in while overseas.

My interpretation and gut-feeling after living my whole life in various parts of Canada and seeing the affects of salt usage from the east coast to the west coast and points in between, I can not believe that this car didn't spend most of its winters in storage as a seasonal car. The undercarriage is simply too rust-free for me to believe otherwise.

Shaken Inspections

What's always made me wonder, was why my car's Shaken inspection was set to expire in 2005 and not 2006. My understanding is that my CR-X should have had Shaken inspections every two years beginning in  September, 1992 (three years after the date of first sale):

• 1992
• 1994
• 1996
• 1998
• 2000
• 2002
• 2004
• 2006

In my CarVX report, it shows MLIT Inspections in August 23rd, 2001 and August 6th, 2003 and my de-registration certificate from MLIT prior to export to Canada shows the current Shaken was set to expire August 20th, 2005.

When did the Shaken deviate from the schedule and why?

The inspection on August 23rd, 2001 appears to be a new anchor point in the timeline. It did not occur in September, which it should have, given the car's retail date.

My CR-X was sold on August 30th, 2001 - 7 days after the out-of-band inspection took place. It also was sold to a new owner in Kazuno city in Akita prefecture, it's first time being registered outside of Aomori prefecture. The fact it left Amori for Akita is not reason for a new Shaken, so it likely was agreed upon as part of the sale. 

I reached out to the MLIT for the mileage data, if available, for the most recent two Shaken inspections, in the hopes that they'd been digitized in the early 2000s. 

I received a reply that, unfortunately, they didn't begin the digitization until 2004 - too late for the 2001 and 2003 Shaken inspections.

Newspaper Ad (November, 1991)

The next item we are searching for is a newspaper used car advertisement from November 1991. 

My CR-X was originally sold to the Honda Verno Aomori - Hachinohe store in September, 1989. 

November 8th, 1991 my CR-X was sold to its first retail owner. The way registrations work in Japan, the Owner and User are listed separately. In this case, the owner was listed as Honda International Sales Co., Ltd. (HISCO) and the User was listed as a person who lives/lived in Aomori City. This means that the car was financed from Honda so it was most certainly sold at one of the Honda Verno Aomori stores. 

It's extremely likely that the car appeared in a used car advertisement for Honda Verno Aomori, possibly even flagged as a former dealer demonstrator, or something like that. It may even have a photo or the mileage listed in the ad. I'm also somewhat confident that there won't be too many pre-owned CR-X SiR models listed since, according to ChatGPT, the usual lease durations for Honda back in 1989 were 4 to 5 years.

I've reached out to the Hachinohe library to assist, but they are in the middle of their fiscal year end and will be 3-4 weeks before they can look into it. I checked with the Aomori City Library and they referred me to the Aomori Prefectural Library. I've sent the request for a check of the Tō-Ō Nippō newspapers from October 31st through November 8th, 1991. 

I'll post the results here. 

Edit 1 (March 31st, 2026): Received an email from the Aomori Prefectural Library. 

THEY FOUND HER! 

They located a newspaper ad in the Saturday Morning edition of the Tō-Ō Nippō newspaper for HISCO Aomori Smile Fair used car event in Aomori City. There are 25 cars in the ad, and only one CR-X, and it's an SiR... and it's black!

"1,480,000 yen, 1989 CR-X Si-R, 5,000 km mileage, inspection valid until September 1992, 5-speed manual, black, AC, PS, CS, PW."

Let's break this down:

November 2nd, 1991 - The ad is dated November 2nd, a Saturday, and the registration transfer for my CR-X was on Friday, November 8th, 1991. Confirmed - The timeline matches perfectly. 

HISCO Aomori Smile Fair Ad - My CR-X's second "Owner" is listed as Honda International Sales Co. Ltd, with the "User" listed as an individual person, indicating the car was financed/leased from HISCO. The second owner lived in Aomori City. Confirmed. 

1989 CR-X - My CR-X was built in 1989. Confirmed.

SiR model - My CR-X is an SiR. Confirmed.

Shaken until Sept 1992 - My car was registered in September, 1989. Confirmed.

5-speed manual - My CR-X is a 5-speed manual. Confirmed.

Black - My CR-X is black. Confirmed.

Air Conditioning - My CR-X has auto air conditioning. Confirmed.

Power Steering - My CR-X has power steering. Confirmed. 

Cassette Stereo/Car Stereo - My CR-X had Super Sound from factory. Confirmed.

Power Windows - My CR-X has power windows. Confirmed.

I think the evidence from the ad is overwhelming. THIS IS MY ACTUAL CAR IN THIS AD.

I'm so excited to get the reprint from the library and see the photograph. I'm hoping that the photo will help me to answer the question of whether my CR-X came with the factory alloys or the factory steel wheels!

Future ChatGPT Searches

• Assistance to try and locate archived/back-issues of Goo or Car Sensor used car magazines that I can reference for that same used car ad.
• Assistance to reach out to Tō-Ō Nippō newspaper to try and obtain better quality images of the pages/issues that contain the new car ad I've already found, and potentially this new car ad.
• Assistance in locating Honda Verno Aomori - Hachinohe actual store photographs, perhaps from Honda Japan dealer locator page from the early 2000s?

Currently waiting on replies from:

- Letters to previous owners

- Hachinohe City Library

- U-Park email re: my CR-X

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As more things are uncovered I will come back and update this. 

 

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.