ApprehensiveAcuraBuyer

This will be my first car I found a 2005 Acura TL Auto with 130k miles on it for $7600 I know its a little over priced but im in desperate need of a car and fell in love with this one. I viewed the carfax and it looks to be pretty well taken care of, as well as it being a clean vehicle in person, my question is should I purchase it? my dad is a mechanic and has a friend who owns a 2006 TL and is a fanatic about them and he says I need to watch for the transmissions and timing belts which I understand that with any car but I need to get this car...I know to check with the dealer and try to find any timing belt or transmission services but overall is this a good car to buy? would it be risky buying a TL with so many miles on it and would it be reliable as I have to drive 30 miles to work 4 days a week and I may be a uber driver also. NEED HELP ASAP

TylerT

iTrader: (1)

You don't need this particular example....IMO, I would travel & search harder for a more resilient 6MT example and call it a day.

The 5ATs are hit or miss and until you find any recent services / rebuilds, I would steer clear - especially at that price.

nist7

Unless there is very detailed records, clean carfax don't mean much.

For what its worth, I bought my 06 TL 5AT with 160k miles...now 2 years and 29,000 miles later it hasn't missed a beat at all at 189,000 miles. Very reliable. But also took me about 2 months of solid, daily, mutliple website search to finally find an example I was comfortable buying (was looking at accords of the same year as well). The owner is 1-owner from new and had ALL records from the Acura dealer she serviced it at since mile 0.

And even then, the ATF filter looked bad and I did lot of preventative stuff right away (ATF drain and fill, 3/4th gear pressure switches, coolant, brakes, new PSF parts, etc.) Somethings even Honda/Acura dealers miss. And so far my car, even though its an auto, has been super reliable.

But of course others may not be so well taken care of (and even meticulous dealer records does not mean well taken care of to the enthusiast standard as the torn up ATF filter on mine showed).

So if you can spare the luxury keep searching daily on multiple sites. That price for that mileage/year is too high and not worth it for an auto.

CL, cars.com, autotrader, cargurus, acurazine of course, and search all sites at least once daily for at least 1-2 months. Private owner is best. Maybe branded car dealers if you're willing to pay premium or carmax. I would stay away from smaller used car lots as those are huge rip offs and they source their vehicles from auction cars that are passed by by buyers from the bigger players in the industry (major branded dealers, Carmax, etc.)

ApprehensiveAcuraBuyer

Ok thank you for the feed back I found a 04 TL 6MT with 170k for 4995 how's that sound

SamDoe1

If you can, look for a type S. At this point, there's really no reason not to. $7500 for a 05 TL 5AT is high and I would pass with the transmission issues. 04 TL 6MT for $5k is about right but there's going to probably be a lot of wear and tear on that car.

TylerT

iTrader: (1)

All depends on how it was treated.

If it's within a reasonable distance, take a look at it and plan on taking a thorough test drive to make sure there aren't major issues.

What's your budget?

nist7

The leather in these cars is another huge weak point. My car's prior owner actually spent $800 (I have the receipts I found) to re-upholster the front seats just a few months before I bought it so that was a huge plus. The rear seats were original and you can tell the leather is really starting to take a beating.

Go and see the car for yourself, don't just count on price, mileage and trans and think its good.

I saw probably 12 cars when I was shopping for mine before I found one that I felt comfortable buying. (it was 5AT due to sometimes my other family may need to drive it and no one knows how to drive manual.....so I settled for 5AT for now).

After you looked at 3-4 cars in real life (test drive) you'll know what questions to ask, what to look for, and can have a better sense of comparing one car to another.

ApprehensiveAcuraBuyer

Really don't have a budget I just want reasonable monthly payments mostly

YeuEmMaiMai

There are lots of factors to take into consideration. 12+ year old car is not something I would buy unless it was for a new driver and you are not concerned about long term ownership. Car is likely to have high mileage and lots of age related issues. The engine is very reliable but the 5AT prior to 2007 is not

wackjum

You are going at car buying all wrong. The total price is what you need to focus on. A "low monthly payment" of under $300 for 7 years is $25,000 total (with no interest considered). And you would be crazy to buy a used TL for $25,000 right?

You need to have an idea of how much you can spend a month, and with the interest rate you can get, that will determine the price you need to be looking at.

It is very difficult to get financing from a traditional source for such an old used car. You'll want to arrange this first before you walk onto a dealership.

SamDoe1

You're probably not going to get monthly payments at all on a car that old let alone reasonable ones unless you're going through some shady vendor and getting 30% interest rates. Also, what's "reasonable" to you?

Aman

Reasonable payment on a $5k car would be $5k/month for one month.

OP, it sounds like you need a reliable car more than you need a 3G TL in particular. They're great cars but it might be easier to buy something cash than to try and finance for that amount.

If you want to Uber, I also suggest double-checking the vehicle requirements in your state. Here, a car has to be 2009 and newer.

ApprehensiveAcuraBuyer

I'm in Virginia and Uber requirements are 2005 or newer and they just dropped the price to 7k but you're right I should look for something else what's a good cheap car in you alls opinion?