i was just curious for those who have departed from their beloved cl's, how hard was it to sell your car? i am processing of selling mine and no one is biting it.. is it just me or is our cl's hard to sell?

 

I guess a lot depends on price and your local market, plus coupe buyers are a smaller niche. The automatics sell faster than the 6 speeds since most people only drive autos. Took me a while to sell my first 03 6 Speed I had, but I got about $24k for it a year ago with 15k miles. I just happened to find someone wanting the 6 speed locally.
you might consider ebay to broaden your market.

 

What he said.....
Mine was on the market for 6 months. had one intrested buyer, & he was low balling me. I just kept it.

 

Sold my 2001 CL Type S last December. Originally listed at $15,700 (89K miles and Navi and BBS wheels and new tires). Not a peep for 2 weeks. Re-ran the ads in the local papers (and on Yahoo autos) at $14,500 ... still nothing except for some Nigerian scam emails wanting to buy the car with forged/stolen cashier's checks (a whole 'nother story). Finally, listed the car at $13,500 and had a buyer (and a couple of prospects) within 3 days.

An old and wise car salesman once told me ... "If it ain't selling, there's either something wrong with it or the price is too HIGH". The car isn't worth more than what someone else is willing to pay. A big problem is that for $15K, people gots lots of choices and many of those same people don't know what a great car the CL is.

Note: I spent the extra bucks on the ads and included lots of info on the car so people would understand what they were getting for their money.

Good luck.

 

so did you sell your at @ $13,500 mark? i have 01 acura cls w/navi with 73k miles on it. i still have the powertrain warranty on the car until 2007. what is a good price mark to sell my car at?

 

It's not that easy. I would think you should be able to get a bit more that $13.5K for it, but the miles are up there and if anyone knows about the tranny issues, it will make it more difficult. All I can say is keep running ads. How much were you thinking about asking for it? And what color is it?

 

Auto sell faster than 6 speed? Hmm.. interesting. In fact I am looking for a 6 speed instead of auto. The tranny problem sounds pretty scary here Maybe I am wong..

 

Tranny is under warranty til 100K and Acura is pretty good with their warranty program. I had mine changes with no problems.

 

Yeah ... $13,500. He tried to get to $13K but I said I had two more people coming the next day to look at the car and "they sounded real interested." Out came the checkbook.

As for your warranty, you got 2007 only if you plan on putting less than 24K miles on it between now and then. I'm sure that's what you meant.

Good luck.

 

Kelvinjai, It's all about demand. Most drivers do not want a stickshift so there were not many of them made. Most people are shocked that my car is a shifter.

Yes autos sell faster generally because of more potential buyers. But the CLS is a little unique, the few people wanting the 6 speed will seek them out but the demand is much smaller. I lucked out in selling my first 6 speed (white) to a local professor lady at UT.
The 6 speed I then bought had sat on autotrader for months, had Navi and only 7500 miles and a good price. No one in OK apparently wanted a stick shifting luxury 2 door , they wanted trucks and SUVS I guess. I flew up there and navigated it home the same day. shweet.

 

I have an '03 CL-S 6MT w/ NAVI; 31K mostly highway miles; black on black; never wrecked or damaged in any way; I've babied it and never run it hard. $22K...It's a great car, no B.S. I'm in Fort Worth, TX, if anyone is interested. eprice56@yahoo.com

 

$13,500 for an '01 sounds about right.. I sold mine in early March for the same price ("Sundance Gold" CL-S 5AT without nav, $67K mi and a few dings on a car).. I had it listed since December at $15,000 and got exactly one serious inquiry in the 2 1/2 months...
Part of it may have been that I'm in Chicago and winter with a few inches of snow on the ground is never the best time to sell a coupe, but I think this is a very tough car to sell.. there's a very limited niche market for any 2-door in general - if CL's were ever popular, Acura would still be making them I don't think the tranny trouble are part of it - most casual buyers either aren't aware of it or are happy with the warranty extenstion

 

You can read about it in the car fourm, with me wanting to trade in my 01 CLS with 51K.

Been offered everything from $13000 (BMW dealer) to $16000 (Honda dealer) in trade. As for private buyers, i did a few ads and got nothing.

If you wondering about the $16000 Trade is was based on me buying a 2005 Merc C230 sport they had, i was not getting much of a discount on the Merc, but they instead they gave me more for my CLS. On my dealings with the dealer have always been straight, but carfax report showed it was in a minor crash, (unknown to the dealer), which i believe. And i left it at that.

 

So am I wrong in thinking that it might be better to trade it in if the private sale market is weak? Some dealers will give you book value and it sounds like people are getting hosed below book...? I whacked a fender on mine but even with the knowledge that I might have to hand over stock part for my car if I trade it, I expect to get within 10-15% of the blue book...maybe I am wrong? I got more than book with my Prelude but they wanted that car. They just didn't realize that it needed more work than putting it up on a lift told them.

The big problem is that cars like the Civic and Sentra are slowly edging toward the speed area that our CL and CLS are in. You have to look hard for a car over $20k that isn't a 6-7second car and the $30k+ cars are low 6 or better cars! When the CLS came out it was a force. Sorry, but the nice seats don't make up for getting spanked by a WRX.

 

You didn't know that yourself? Wow

 

Luxury vs speed

 

Hey, all.

I have to say I haven't paid much attention to cars in the last several years, having turned my attention and most of my expendable resources to sportbikes. Honda, of course.

But it's time to get another car, and all I require is a nice manual tranny and the ability to get out of my own way. Got pretty serious about a lightly used WRX, but the dealer in this area is SUCH a putz.

So I was looking at RSX-S's, and not getting that excited about them, and I noticed a beautiful CL Type S in the lot ( not for sale, apparently) that had a manual trans. I take it they're not very common.

Looked at some ads, and there are no manual CLs that I can find within 150 miles of Southeast Michigan.

If I have to travel to get one, I'd feel more comfortable if the car is known to this board, or if you all could give me tips on what weaknesses to look for.


Thanks!
Dave

 

Didn't know it when I was 25 ... and obviously others don't know it either. They list their cars for sale and get NO offers and wonder why. Consider those whose cars sit for 6 months without selling. Guess not all are as wise as you.

 

6SPDsearcher, the CLS 6MT is a great car, it is refined, comfortable, reliable and fast. I flew to OK from TX to get my current one. I had a white one before this but it was the wrong color/options. Blame Acura for not debuting the 01 CLS with a 6speed. THere's still nothing out there that offers as much for the price. IMO.

 

Thanks for the reply - What should I look out for mechanically? Are many of these raced? There's such a huge disparity of pricing.. $16-22,000 for what seems to be the same car with similar miles (no nav) maybe because they're not in huge demand?

 

I'll sell you mine for $22. But, it is not a 6 speed. It only has 24,000 miles on it.

 

Only common issue is the brake rotors warping. My first 6 speed rotors warped at 10k miles. Dealer replaced all pads and rotors. My current 6 speed is fine at 19k miles. Sometimes sunroof squeaks, easily fixed free at dealer. There's really not anything else that commonly happens to the 6 speed CLS.

I'd try to get one from an older driver or a non-modder IMO. the used prices are great on them. My anthracite had 7500 miles, with Navi, OEM spoiler, clear bra, splash guards, sunroof shield, a year ago I paid $24k which was a great price then, with low miles. Anthracite was only offered on the 03 CL.

 

So, as it turns out, the CL-S with the 6 speed I saw in the dealer's lot yesterday had just been Acura Certified before the holiday and became available this morning.

I bought it!


It's a silver '03 with 39000 miles, very clean, factory decklid spoiler, no aftermarket mods. There is some too-damned-dark tint on the rear 3 windows, but I'm having them remove it. Can't tell if the car behind me has lights on the roof.

I'll pick it up later this week, and then I'll post some pics.
Thanks for the input, all. Should I change my name?

 

Congrats Dave, welcome to the forum. You should love the 6spd as much as the rest of of 6spd owners do. It's a great car for the money.

Don't forget to start a new thread with pictures, as we always like to see new members cars...

 

what's disappointing is I sold my 1997 Accord back in 2001 for $17500. 5 year old car with 75k on it. Paid 21k for the car new...but had a lot of work into it. I have more work into my CL, and paid a lot more for the car initially but couldn't get anything near that price for it.

 

6SPDsearcher, congrats on the satin silver! Certified is great too, another year of warranty. Good luck on the tint, I need to do this too but tint installer won't guarantee the heater elements and radio wires in the glass won't be damaged, so I haven't gone lighter tint yet.