Dimitry

I sold my TSX last night. The reality set in when I had to walk to work this morning

It was a 2006 with 32k miles, automatic, no nav. Sold via private sale for $17,200. Owed $17,600 on the loan still, so I'd say I got out of it pretty good. It's amazing how much value Honda/Acuras hold as compared to other brands.

As a comparison,
- Honda dealership offered $15,500 to buy it
- Acura dealerhsip offered $13,800 to buy it (wanted to re-certify it)

In the end, I'm glad I went the private sale route! It's worth the hassle.

---

What's the future hold? I sold the TSX b/c of high payments in a crappy economy and I also wanted to mix things up.

I found a 2002 and a 2003 Honda S2000 that I like a LOT. Will check both out this weekend. Not a practical city car, but certainly a fun one.

80% of my trips are to work (I can easily walk) and gym (3 miles). Not sure if owning an S2000 is justified by such meagerly distances + parking in the city.

If I won't buy a sports coupe now, I probably won't buy one until I'm 45-50.

I'm 23 and near future holds grad school, house, marriage and kids down the road. I think the S2000 will be a good car for me for next 3-4 years, but certainly not further along.

Thoughts?

TSXFL

If you can walk to work and your other main destination is 3 miles away, and money is an issue, buy a used civic beater or something and save your money. The amount of money you can save with no car payment (or a small car payment) is staggering. After a few years, you'll be able to buy whatever you really want, and have a sizeable down payment so you aren't stock with a huge monthly car payment. How much were you paying on the TSX?

I think you did get a good price on the sale. After doing a few private party deals, I will never trade a car in again.

mduthappa

My suggestions for you are,

Mini Cooper or Acura RSX.
Also the civics are not bad!
good luck!!

CiViCKiDD

Honestly I think it's odd that you sold the TSX for $17k and plan on buying an s2000 to replace it (which are maybe a few k less, not drastic sums of money or anything). To each his own I suppose.

Looking at that price makes me cringe, it's more than reasonable but I know this is the last time I buy an expensive new car (maybe..depends on the wife lol.)

Dimitry

@CiViCKiDD: I'm looking at an S2000, 2003, 57k for $13,000. Will probably put down $2-3k and then finance the rest.

My TSX payments were $505/mo. Even if I finance all $13k, I'm still halving my monthly car payments (though extending pay-off time of course b/c it's a new loan).

@mduthappa: Minis are overpriced IMHO and RSX styling makes me cringe (interior) :p

@TSXFL: used, reliable and cheap honda (civic/accord) are definitely on my list. i'm an avid car enthusiast though, so im not sure if i care for a boring drive

mduthappa

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...standard=false

TSXFL

Get a used civic/accord/prelude/crx under $10k and some reasonable mods, and you have a cheap, fun to drive reliable enthusiast car. It sounds like you may be trading one problem for another right now...

JoeC1982

iTrader: (1)

I'm looking at a 06 no nav with 24k miles, trying to talk the dealer down to 18k so i guess i'm in the right ball park.

carmagnut

My $481 a month irks me at times as well. My goal this year is to try to pay the car note down so I can pay the car off quicker. It's an 06 with 52K on it. I want to pay it off before the car hits a 100K.

frescagod

i sold my 2005 TSX with the intention of going car-less, but i ended up buying an '07 S2000. completely different car (RWD, better gearbox, zero gadgets, no backseat) and loads of fun to drive vs. the TSX, which is just...pretty fun to drive.

that said, if you don't drive much at all, you might as well save your money and walk or, like others said, buy a 3-5 year old civic or RSX for 8-10k. i don't really understand why you'd sell the car at a loss just to lower the payment from $505 to $350, AND extend the length of that loan back out to 60 months...

probably shouldn't have bought the car if the $500+ payment was so daunting. if you sold the car because of money problems, i don't see why you should spend another 13-14k on an S2000 that could very well have been beaten on very hard throughout its life anyway. if you do buy an S2000, beware of a few things:

1) roughly $240 for each front tire, close to $280 for each rear tire, and they wear out FAST. i drive very conservatively 95% of the time and my rears only lasted about 20k miles, but i should have probably replaced them at 18k. the fronts are still okay, but they'll need to be replaced at about 35k.
2) the cost of a new clutch is roughly $1200 for parts and labor
3) the rear differential costs a lot of money to replace as well. before buying the car, i would probably bring 2 quarts of honda MTF with you and change the differential fluid right then and there, and see if any metal shavings come out the drain.
4) the car drives differently than your TSX...the rear can come out very easily, especially on tires with 25% or less tread, and in the rain, snow, etc. the summer tires do NOT hold up well to any sort of cold precipitation, so beware if you live where it snows. my recommendation is to buy a second set of wheels and throw snow tires on them, or at the very least, high performing all-seasons that can handle light snow.

as you can see, rules 1-4 will cost you a lot of money. just something to think about...

good luck!

Tsx536

^^ Good post!

zot09

You have to look at other aspects besides monthly car payments, as frescagod pointed out. Another thing to think about is the higher insurance costs, which I'm sure would negate any benefit of a cheaper monthly payment.

sol_survivor

Find a one-owner 02-03 s2000. Relatively inexpensive, stunning good looks, and plenty of smiling.

moda_way

Let's play the numbers game. If you had a 5 yr at 3.5% on $28k for the TSX, you at the end of the loan would have paid out nearly $2600 in interest. With a S2k @13k, I'm guessing 6% to get your payments to half, you are paying $2100 in interest, you've already lost $400 in the sale of the TSX and you want to put more down on the S2k, guess what bud, you just paid more for the S2k by a long shot. I'm also willing to bet your insurance is going to be more on the S2k given that it is a soft top and easy to get into.

I don't think you are doing a total cost of ownership calc here... you are doing what I term an emotional buy. You want to get in a toy before (as you stated) grad school, marriage, kids etc down the road.

And if you don't think I know where you are coming from, take a look at my avatar and my signature.

Dimitry

Awesome guys, thank you. I wanted a 3rd party opinion, so asked here and got what I wanted. Appreciate all the input.

i saw almost all of those (except the rear diff.) in my research and have been reading up on the car a lot. they're certainly things to consider.

@moda_way: I'll probably put down half of the cost and finance the other half for 36mo. Ideally, I'd like to be without a car payment soon. I paid the TSX off at about 20mo into the loan so I can sell it easier with the title, so its interest costs didn't add up to $2k. I'm still looking at the numbers and won't go into anything blindly.

Also talked to my insurance guy. It'll cost $25 extra per month for the S2000, so something to consider as well.

On top of that, I live in Pittsburgh now. Winters get pretty bad and with it being my daily driver, I'm only increasing my chances of wrecking. To add to that, I live in the city with only street parking...

Sounds like I already know the answer, just haven't comes to terms with it

Taking a look at an S2000 and a VW GTI tomorrow.

CJams

12 payments to go for me. ugghhhh....

If my situation was like yours, i'd get a scooter. No bs. So economical, and they are more accepted these days.

You will miss it though.

frescagod

oh man, you live in Pittsburgh AND you don't have a garage for the S2000? i would seriously consider another car. there have been many S2000s getting their tops slashed, seats stolen, wheels jacked, etc. in the past couple of years, and it's getting worse with the recession. it's pretty easy...heck, you could seriously bend the soft top and reach in behind the window if you put enough force behind it. even if you bought a hard top, you'd have to uninstall the soft top, AND thieves can still steal the hard top fairly easily, as i do not believe there is a lock for it.

on top of that, i'm guessing it snows at least a bit in Pittsburgh. i grew up in rochester and we had that lake effect thing going, i.e. 100+ inches of snow a winter. i drive there from DC every Christmas, and let me tell you, it's no fun driving through the Pennsylvania mountains with even wet slush on the ground. i don't have dedicated snow tires, however, since it snows like 3" in DC every year.

i think you're asking for it if you have a flashy car parked on the streets of pittsburgh. if you want one, i'd recommend doing one or all of the following:

a) building a garage
b) renting a garage space in a secure lot
c) getting a serious alarm system for it (motion sensors, etc...clifford is a good bet)
d) paying a higher amount in insurance premiums to keep your deductible at $250 or something reasonable
e) buying some nice rims (work, volk, whatever you like), mounting the summer rubber on them, and mounting winter tires on the OEM AP1 wheels, or at the very least, driving with all-season tires. of course, that means you're sacrificing handling and fun when it's warm and dry out, and that defeats the purpose of the S2000 in the first place...

seriously, consider the VW, a civic SI, acura RSX, etc.

ugh, plus street parking. your S2000 might be in good shape when you buy it, but it'll only get dinged and stuff if you park on the street all the time.

good luck!

r000m101

I thought you said in your first post you still owed $17,600 on your loan when you sold it?? I'm confused.

Itchytoe

Yea, what's up with that? Did you still owe on it, or did you already pay it off? If you still owed on it, that was a bad move because you lost money selling it and now you're getting into more debt, so you clearly don't know a good deal when you see one. If you paid it off, then you made an even bigger mistake since it was only costing you insurance, gas, and maintenance costs. How can you trade lower cost for higher cost when you can't afford the lower cost already?

What's really going on here?

Dimitry

Take it easy guys. I owed $17.6k on the loan. Paid it off with savings to get the title in hand for an easier sale. Sold it and will now put the same amount minus $400 back in my savings. Didn't mean for confusion.

All very great points. Thanks so much for your post. I've been getting similar feedback via S2ki forums (hardtop, garage, winter tires).

It snows quite a bit in Pittsburgh (honestly, it's a hit or miss). I think I still may be in California mind-set and seeing Spring sun makes me want to buy a convertible. It's 90% impulse.

I didn't get the deal I wanted on some local S2000s, so moving on to something else. I have a budget and I'm pretty strict on it.

Thanks for everyone's input!

ODUB

find a good used EVO

Itchytoe

Instead of an S200, which probably holds it's value fairly well, why not get an Evo, or Z since it'll give you just as much fun, if not more than the S2000, and will cost less. You can probably find one pretty cheap right about now.

yangtsx

get a used civic

cbusAcuracls

I'd buy a fit if I were you.

Thats what I did.

Takran

I have to say, for a hatchback econobox (not generally a fan of hatches), the 09 Fit Sport in silver is a decent looking car... and the cost for the features is very good, plus ridiculous mpg. If I were floating in enough money to buy a DD in addition to a nice car, I'd definitely be looking at it. For an economical city car that you don't really care what happens to, I'd say it fits the bill nicely.

cbusAcuracls

Yea I traded in my CL-S for it and other than the power loss...this car is just as nice as my CL-S. Plus this thing carries anything. So much space inside.

The fit drives like its on rails and 40 mpg isn't to shabby either. With the paddle shifters it makes curvy roads a blast.
I drive my tsx now and it feels like a boat compared to the fit...ha.

Dimitry

you know, ive been considering the Fit.

the power loss is not something i know i can handle though! hehe

ZipCarring for now.

Rocket_man

My wife has an 06 Civic Coupe EX and honestly I really like that car. It is quieter than my 06 TSX and has a decent amount of pick up for a smaller engine. It takes regular gas and gets great gas mileage. Not to mention she paid 9k less for hers than my TSX. Everytime I drive it I think it would have been a great affordable car for me. I still like my TSX but the Civic coupe is great value.

cbusAcuracls

Really the power loss is not that noticeable compared to my tsx. Now comparing it to my CL-S is different.

The fit sport gets 0-60 in 8.0 sec that's just right behind the tsx 4 cyl and I average 8-9 mpg better in the fit on top of that.
Not trying to point you to the fit or justify it...but just stating there really isn't that much difference. Yes its an econobox but Honda did a really good job with this car. Just like the Tsx the fit is a very good car price per what you get. Can't turn one down without test driving one.

kneedragger87

Your new vehicle awaits you...
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50mpg.
0-60 in 3 seconds.
No problem parking.

ODUB

well EVO's hold their value pretty well too, but you're right about the fun. EVO's are faster than S2000's in every category, and you've got 4 doors and a trunk. i looked at S2k's back at the end of '05 when i bought my EVO IX MR. I couldn't justify spending almost the same amount of money for a car that was so much slower than the EVO and that i barely fit into ( I'm 6'4")