Whereabouts of Eric's car?

Does anyone have the slightest info on where it ended up?

I have a soft spot for Hondas of the 1980s and early 1990s (owned a bunch of them) and am now financially and mechanically in a position to take good care of a 5-speed/1.8 silver '86 Prelude with Rammstein stickers.

Unlike Dylan's BMW which briefly popped up for sale not that long ago, I never, ever heard anything about the Honda.

About 2005 someone ran the VIN number and it showed up somewhere in New York state.
It was registered there sometime after the shooting. Nobody found out more as far as I know and I never heard anything else about it.

Man that would be so wild to be in one of their cars.
I wonder if it kind of feels "haunted"

Probably not but it would be cool to see and drive.

Dunno, a car is just a car. Its just a piece of junk metal.

Sabratha wrote:

Dunno, a car is just a car. Its just a piece of junk metal.

IMO it's actually BY FAR the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] item in terms of memorabilia value. Eric got it shortly after he got his license (Spring of 1997). Up to -- and obviously including -- 4/20/1999, he drove it everywhere. Probably drove it nearly every day.

They had the stolen stuff in it in January '98, were busted in it.

On that questionnaire Eric considered it the best gift he was ever given.

It appears in many of their home videos.

In order for each boy I'd say [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] memorabilia item is their cars, and distant second for each would be Arlene or the carbine for Eric and the TEC9 for Dylan. Those are associated only with the shooting, while the cars were an integral part of their existences for their final, and most meaningful, two years out of eighteen.

(FYI: in suburban Colorado, you drive everywhere. A car is an essential component of teenage freedom.)

I have a carfax report for Eric's car. I'm not sure if it will be of any help and it's about 7 pages long so quite difficult to post. This was done in 2006. The car might have been demolished since then.

lio45 wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

Dunno, a car is just a car. Its just a piece of junk metal.

IMO it's actually BY FAR the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] item in terms of memorabilia value. Eric got it shortly after he got his license (Spring of 1997). Up to -- and obviously including -- 4/20/1999, he drove it everywhere. Probably drove it nearly every day.

They had the stolen stuff in it in January '98, were busted in it.

On that questionnaire Eric considered it the best gift he was ever given.

It appears in many of their home videos.

In order for each boy I'd say [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] memorabilia item is their cars, and distant second for each would be Arlene or the carbine for Eric and the TEC9 for Dylan. Those are associated only with the shooting, while the cars were an integral part of their existences for their final, and most meaningful, two years out of eighteen.

(FYI: in suburban Colorado, you drive everywhere. A car is an essential component of teenage freedom.)

I tend to agree that is may be the most desirable memorabilia item, as well as the biggest. Not only that, but it's not as morbid as a gun or anything like that.
I think there may be a thread on the board about what piece of Columbine-related "souvenir" you would want, it was a year or more ago. I wouldn't mind revisiting that thread again, there were some pretty cool responses from the members. (Though I can't remember what I wrote about!). I'd like to know some other members' thoughts on that again.

MegaloX wrote:

This was done in 2006. The car might have been demolished since then.

Unless you have evidence specifically pointing to the cars having been demolished, I am going to say it's a safe bet that the cars of both Eric and Dylan are in good condition right now.

The only dangerous moment for the Honda was April of 1999 if Wayne Harris had been determined to send it to the crusher for sentimental reasons. If the car survived to 2005 it's all but guaranteed it's in good hands and will continue to be.

Damn, I can't find the document I'm looking for...

It's some kind of police report concerning the Honda which was towed and impounded during the "January '98 incident". Shows the VIN. I am absolutely sure I recall seeing that document but didn't keep a copy and now I can't locate it any more!

Anyone knows what I'm talking about...?

lio45 wrote:

If the car survived to 2005 it's all but guaranteed it's in good hands and will continue to be.

I'm no expert on US car related issues, but it is an old car. I imagine that if some big expensive part inside brakes down (engine or whatever), the car might just be taken apart and sold as spare parts.
Happens all the time with old (I mena resonably old, not a 1950s for etc) cars in Poland. Often the cost of repair would exceed its market value, then often the car is sold to a workshop where they dissassemble it and sell the parts.

Dylan's BMW Carfax Report:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Eric's Honda Prelude Carfax Report:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

lio45 wrote:

Damn, I can't find the document I'm looking for...

It's some kind of police report concerning the Honda which was towed and impounded during the "January '98 incident". Shows the VIN. I am absolutely sure I recall seeing that document but didn't keep a copy and now I can't locate it any more!

Anyone knows what I'm talking about...?

Is it page 10336 ?

The VIN is JHMAB7227GC016578

Sabratha wrote:

lio45 wrote:

If the car survived to 2005 it's all but guaranteed it's in good hands and will continue to be.

I'm no expert on US car related issues, but it is an old car. I imagine that if some big expensive part inside brakes down (engine or whatever), the car might just be taken apart and sold as spare parts.
Happens all the time with old (I mena resonably old, not a 1950s for etc) cars in Poland. Often the cost of repair would exceed its market value, then often the car is sold to a workshop where they dissassemble it and sell the parts.

Yeah, it's an old car.

But I know of one even older car, a light blue 1975 Ford Escort GL, that I think we last heard about when it changed hands in 2005, and in my opinion it's quite safe to assume it wasn't since disassembled for spare parts, as it used to belong to a certain Karol Józef Wojtyła and is therefore not just a random old bunch of metal.

Clearly these cars are both in the hands of people who did not just buy them because they happened to need a car to drive around.

And they're both old enough to have collectible value now. That Prelude is 30 years old. A random stick-shift second gen Prelude in good shape, you don't junk that. A stick-shift second gen Prelude in good shape that belonged to someone relatively (in)famous, you junk that even less.

Sabratha wrote:

I imagine that if some big expensive part inside brakes down (engine or whatever), the car might just be taken apart and sold as spare parts.

P.S. That engine won't break down. The Hondas of these years would be total rustbuckets WAY before the engine would quit. They're easily good for many hundred thousands miles even if you treat them badly.

And as I said, I'm sure that EVEN if the engine died, the car wouldn't be parted out, but rather sold on eBay or something as "Eric Harris' car, needs new engine".

But whoever has it almost certainly treats it well and doesn't put a ton of miles on it, so except for routine maintenance I don't see why it would ever need major repairs. Unless they get in an accident with it.

Thanks sororityalpha for the info!!!

I'll see what I can find when free time allows.

Sabratha wrote:

Dunno, a car is just a car. Its just a piece of junk metal.

I've thought about how weird it would be to own one of their cars before. On one hand you're right, its just a hunk of metal. At the same time though the cars could still be viewed as weapons when it comes to "columbine memorabilia". They might not have detonated or hurt anyone, but they were still meant to blow and kill people. Maybe its just me, but I wouldn't want one of their guns nor do I want the cars they planned to murder innocents with. Too much negative history for me personally.

If I was to own a piece of memorabillia, off the top of my head the list of preference would be something like:

Trench coat - something that instantly makes me think of Columbine whenever I see one.
Gun - shotgun or tec 9
T shirt - natural selection or wrath
Journal - either

Seems pretty evident that ANY piece of "Columbine memorabilia" will be tainted by "negative history". The whole thing was unambiguously a negative event. The only reason we know about E&D is this. Even baby items from them would exude "negative history". It's inevitable.

Any of the guns, or the natural selection/wrath t-shirts (which, if a car is a hunk of metal, are just a bunch of cloth fibers after all :p) carry much more negative history IMO. The cars on the other hand are a big embodiment/slice of life of their 1997-to-death period. They weren't bought on purpose for NBK only just prior to it. They used them every day long before they even started thinking of NBK.

Seems I'm very poor fangirl material. Never cared about any memorabilia of any event, aside from the financial value of selling those.