Hello everyone!

On Friday I test drove a manual TSX for the first time and what a great car! I was just planning on test driving it, but I was so impressed with the car, I put a deposit on it.

I've been looking around but having a hard time finding any manual 06-08 TSX's within 500 miles of me. I don't want to jump on this car if it's a bad deal, but it's the only 2008 manual TSX in this price range. I'm calling on your expertise!

Info on the car:
Year: 2008
Miles: 132,000
Asking price: $11,995

New tires all around and new front rotors/pads. Exterior is in great shape with only one dent that I could find. Interior is maybe an A-/B+ with a few cosmetic scuffs/marks on some plastics and chips in the shift knob. The car drove straight and very smooth. Carfax/title are clean, 2 owners. The first owner leased for 11,000 miles. The second owned it for the remainder of the miles.

I'd like to get them down to $10,500 - $11,000. The miles are putting me off a bit, but the car is in great shape. Since it's only 4 years old, I figure a lot of those miles may be highway. My mechanic will be checking out the car on Wednesday.

Is this car worthwhile or should I look for an 06 or 07 with less miles? I figure the miles are a bit high, but it's newer being an 08. Since I plan on financing about half the cost, the miles are concerning me. I'm looking at cars around $12,000-13,000. Everyone says Honda's are only broken in at 100,000 miles, so should this car be fairly reliable up to 200,000 with regular maintenance? Anything I should watch out for? I've been driving a 2004.5 VW Jetta GLI, so I'm used to VW unreliability.

P.S. I think white is my favorite color for this car, but this grey looks pretty good in person.

Thanks everyone!

I'm sorry that the pics aren't the best quality.

 

Have the Acura maintenance recommendations been followed? Various fluids are recommended to be changed along the way to 100k. At 105k, the spark plugs should be changed. There is no timing belt regular maintenance (the engine has a timing chain).
The number of miles in a fairly short time probably indicate highway driving - a plus.
Manual TSX cars are somewhat rare when new (something less than 10% of the cars sold).
I see the car is non-navigation - I consider that a plus. The factory navi is neat and integrated but soon becomes outdated. Even map updates don't make an old system seem new. The forums have discussions about failures of the DVD unit for the map data.

 

Check records....clutch replacement is not cheap, so be sure it was done already. If not, there's a hammer to hold over them. Non-navi is good, manual is excellent (except clutch issue), looks good. Be sure valves were adjusted at 105k too. If there is no evidence of fuild changes, the first things to do are change coolant, oil, brake fluid, power steering fuild, transmission fluid...another hammer if they can't show the records.

 

I would change all those anyway.... Compared to the VW..you do not have to worry. Had a Passat and every tax year it went to keep the car running. This will not be the same case and the car is on a timing chain too.

 

I have owned numerous vehicles with manual transmission. I have never had to change the clutch on any of them. (Knock on wood)

 

nj, I know from your other posts you skew heavily to freeway/highway miles. It is still a fact that the vehicle is likely close to the end of it's clutch if it has never been replaced. However, if it has a huge amount of freeway/highway miles, he could get quite a distance out of it.

 

I'd probably have an Acura dealership to do a full checkup on it. I bought my 04 with give or take 140,000km (90,000 miles) and I just found out a list of things I need to do. Suspension mostly but my bearings are going, control arms I think, Axle is a common issue which I might have to change as well. I already changed my struts and springs (Tein SS ftw!) and I feel like the brakes wear out fast (guy said he did it not too long ago but the car's shaking when stopping and a lot of brake dust is being produced). Personally, I'd probably look for something with lower km's and an older year. I don't think there's anything wrong with 04-07. Any reason for an 08?

 

I have 142K on my hand-me-down (wifey upgraded) 06 TSX manual..The last 40k were hard miles zero problems to date...its not a bad price for a 08...but keep haggling they can only say no

 

definitely not a bad price, be lucky you dont live over here in tx (or at least where i live). i deal like that would be a RARE find...

 

I take this is not a pre-owned from an Acura dealership?
I actually went to the acura pre owned. and they wanted 17-20,000 for a 2008 TSX w/Navigation. With 45000 miles. That seems pretty crazy high.

 

I bought the car for $11,500.

I was hoping to get them a little lower, but the car hadn't been on the lot very long, so that worked against me. I would have played the walk-out and wait for them to call game, but saving $250-500 wasn't worth losing the car to me. 2008 manual TSX's are hard to come by in this price range. Also, I got a 2.24% interest rate on the used auto loan from my credit union.

I checked out the car on the lift with my mechanic. He also took it for a test drive. Everything checked out and he was very impressed with the condition of the car for the miles. It appears that the previous owner kept up with maintenence, and there were no signs of any accident repair.

I'm currently waiting on the credit union to send a check to the dealer. I should be taking delivery on the car later this week.