I have an old Acura. It's a 2010 and I don't drive it much since I upgraded my own vehicle, but the thing about Honda's is they are workhouses. Those cars easily get over 300,000 miles when they are maintained right, and I planned on getting at least that much out of my Acura which is why I hung onto it. Finally, my son is getting old enough to get a license and I have plans for it to be his first car, but before I handed it over, I wanted to get the radio working again. 

The radio system is linked to some type of code, and since I only drive the car a few times a year to keep the fluids running, I don't really know it at this point. I  figured I wasn't the first to forget the code, so I decided to call Honda's customer service line to figure out what I was supposed to do about it. Of course, millions of people own Hondas so I really didn't know what I would be walking into, but I figured calling was easier than going to a dealer. 

When I first called, after a brief greeting, the automated assistant launched a huge list of questions including, "Thank you for calling America’s Honda customer service department. To continue in English, press or say 1. For questions about your Honda financial services, vehicle loans, consumer loans, or lease accounts press or say 1. If you know your case number, or party's extension, press or say 2. For information about recalls, product updates, or warranty extensions, press or say 3. For radio or navigation security code support, press or say 4. For Honda Link, press or say 5. To repeat these options, press or say 9." I will add, that they ran through the options so quickly that I did have to have them repeated, but I was delighted that there was a direct option for radio support. 

Once I chose 4, I had the following two options, "For assistance with your radio code, press or say 1. For assistance with your navigation system, press or say 2." I chose one and then a recorded message said, "If you own a vehicle made before 2013, most radio presets can be accomplished by pressing and holding the radio button while the vehicle is running. If your display shows a code E or 0E, you will need to wait at least one hour before trying a reset. If your vehicle is a 2001 or older Acura, and you do not know your radio code, press or say 1. If you know your radio code, press or say 2. To retrieve your radio code, press or say 3."

This was weird to me since retrieving and not knowing your code almost seemed to be the same thing, but I went with option 1 and it told me that I had to take it to a dealer. Interestingly enough, it asked me for my zipcode and told me that it couldn't find a dealer, but then went ahead and listed three that were nearby. I'm not sure what was up with that, but at least I knew what to do next.