I really love my Celestial Silver 2005 RL....and have over 74,000 miles in just under 3 years. My lease is up in September and I had planned to buy it off lease for about $28,000...but...after having it serviced with some tech issues...the customer service guy made a comment about not owning this car off of warranty. It is just too high tech and even the service dept doesn't know how to fix everything. I bought the extended warranty up to 113,000 miles...so I am probably covered for another 2 years...but it could get really expensive to fix some of the high tech toys after that. I figure I have about $6,000 in mileage overage if I return the car now...and get another car...maybe an RL...maybe a CTS or Infiniti M35X or EX35. WHAT TO DO? I know that Acuras run forever...but it's just those high tech gadgets that I know are gonna go bad sooner or later. Maybe it's better to go with a car that is simpler and won't have as many problems down the road. But then again...once you get hooked...hard to give them up!!! Love my RL

 

If you like the Caddy, I'd say go there. GM's hurting right now, they're having a big sales push this weekend, and if you find a dealer who's got enough play in a car sitting on their lot, you can probably get out of your RL without too much pain.

If you buy it off lease you're going to take a bath. If you hold it to lease end, you'll also take a bath. Best bet is to try and trade out now, and take advantage of the promotions.

 

How about getting a 08 or 09 RL? Try to trade in now and see what kind of deal the dealer would give you. I have a 08 TSX that i leased last year. I might buy it at the end of the lease. Good Luck.
Umair

 

If the common problems they have had are indicative of the future, I wouldn't want to own the '05 out of warranty either.

Are you interested in any current Acura models? The reason being, sometimes dealers will let you off the hook in miles overage if they know they'll be getting your business again. Then again, your overage is pretty substantial. I'd also suggest what the others have said, which is to trade it in. You'll probably also take a hit on the trade (very doubtful they'll give you the residual value of the car), but it may not be a $6k hit like you would returning it.

Edit: Then again, there's also that other thread with another '05 owner hitting 200k miles w/o much problem

 

FN P90 has 205,000 on his 2005 RL and the only big issues he's had are that he had to replace one of the axles at 160,000 miles and brake rotors later than that IIRC.

So, up to you. Anything you do will cost something.

 

I'd buy it off lease. You're happy with the vehicle, you have an extended warranty. Drive it for a few more years until the warranty expires and then sell the car privately.

 

Given $6K out of pocket at lease end... you couldn't buy an '05 RL for $22K, so $28K for your car isn't *that* bad of a deal. At least you know the history of it, and you've got the extended warranty.

However, I'd still be looking to trade out. But that's just me, I like to have that "new car smell" every 24-36 months or so.

 

I wouldn't ever pay mileage "overage" charges on a lease. You have several choices:

- Trade the car, or sell it privately, and get everything you can for it. It'll be worth less at that mileage, but probably not $6,000 worth.

- Negotiate with the dealer before lease-end if you want another Acura ... most will "look the other way" for some excess mileage, if they can either market the car themselves or wholesale it at a good price. Just don't let them "excuse" the mileage, then add it back in to the new car's price!

- Keep it forever. (I don't like this last option, but that's just me.)


In any case, a car with 74,000 miles on it isn't going to be considered prime goods for any buyer. That's a LOT of miles for a 3 year-old car when 12-15,000 miles a year is considered normal. The longer you hold onto it, the more miles you're going to rack up, and the more the value will drop.

I'd advise you to get out of it now if you can. Take your losses now before you put any more miles on it. Get another RL, or whatever you like, but the value of that car is plunging and won't get any better.

BTW - you can probably get a pro-rata refund on the unused part of that extended warranty.

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You may try and negotiate with the dealer and hopefully if you commit to buying another vehicle from them, they will drop the "wear and tear" charge.

 

The residual of $28000 is interesting. My 05 lease had a residual of 59% for $29300. I assume you had a lower residual?? I know I leased mine at the very end of the 05 year. $28K isn't too bad for a buyout actually since you have the extended warranty. Also, did you receive a letter from Acura stating they would forgive the remainder of lease payments? This could offset the overage charges a little, plus if you can get a pro-rata refund on warranty, getting into a new lease could be a possibility without too much financial pain. Only one question for you though, how did you manage to put so many miles on a leased vehicle??

 

Just coming off of a lease of a 2005 RL (with 20,800 miles - so I was under mileage), Honda/Acura didn't "look the other way" on too much. I had $189 in wear/damage (no idea what that was - maybe a slight scuff), but they held firm on the $1500 excessive wear waiver ($500 per incident/3 incidents).

Still - it's a tough time to sell cars, and while you may not "recover" the $6000 through HFS/Acura, you may get that from a dealer.

Although if I were you I'd buy the car for whatever they want to sell it for.