Ok, so I totaled my 00 WDP TL Thursday night. I just happened to be out looking at cars Sunday and spotted this 01 Laguna Green Metallic TL. Now I am not a big fan of green or green interiors, but this car was a museum piece. Get this 48k ORIGINAL miles! An older couple had it in FL since new--not 1 nick, scratch, dent, or ding! The leather feels new and soft, and even the steering wheel is still "puffy" like new--no worn leather. It's like a time capsule. I couldn't pass it up. I almost missed out. I called about the car and was told to come down and look at it. Just before I got there some guy tried to buy it but his credit was shot, so as I'm walking in to buy another salesman said that car is sold because someone is on the way to look at it and is putting a deposit down. My guy was like nope, my client was here first. Bought it right then!

Even better, I bought it from the dealership where I used to work. (Didn't get a great deal since it was a one of a kind car that several were fighting to get it)...but--I know they will take care of me if it becomes tranny time. That's the only downer. The recall has been done but it's on the original tranny. I am still in warranty for about 9 months on it. The only bad thing was that the rear view mirror has a halo (uh oh)---but I called the body shop and got their glass people to swipe my old one from my other TL that's still good (and was a warranty replacement). I pulled my black all season mats out of the other car too!

I'm so happy with this car. It should last me a LONG time AND even better...I avoided a huge car payment on something $20k + which was what I was going to get.

Here are the pics. Bear in mind it has not been washed or cleaned. This was in trade-in condition.

http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n...%20Acura%20TL/

 

WOW! with a lip kit... nice job man!

 

Congrats! Looks beautiful! Wanna give me the pop out tray from your old TL?

 

I wish I had room to part my old one out, my gosh it's like a gold mine of parts. I live in an apartment though, so no place to part out the old one. That updated tranny is only 8k old. I wouldn't mind buying it and having a spare lying around. The 00 still runs (except for the leaking coolant) but b/c I bent the core support and the bags blew, they totaled it. Even the grille on the old one was perfect. The damage was pretty much bumper, headlights, hood, radiator, core support and that's it. It didn't touch either fender. When the tow guy wanted to pull the tab on the gearshifter to put it in N, I said hang on. I got in, turned the key--too far on accident, and it was starting up!

If it wasn't such a pain, I'd swap out my tires (mine have about 70% tread and the new car's has about 50%--same tires). I had rotora slotted rotors on the front that were a year old and brand new rear rotors and pads. I'm telling the insurance guy that too. It's easier to get a few hundred more than to go dismantle the car in the parking lot at the shop.

 

Laguna Green FTW

 

That car is clean! Very good find. Very nice color choice as well!

 

So how much did you end up paying after taxes??

 

CHA CHING! welcome back

 

clean. very clean

 

Ok, it was way crazy expensive but given that my choice was either overpay a few grand for this car, have it paid off within 3 yrs with a low payment OR buy a $20k+ car for 400/mo. for 5 yrs...this was better. 48k and the condition---it's essentially a new car.

OTD $13k. No negotiations because some other guy was right behind me if I didn't want it.

After my deductible, I cleared $9313 for my 00 TL. I'm using $6950 of it to pay off my jetski and taking the rest plus another couple thousand to put down on this car. I'll put down 4500-5000 which will give me a $270 payment for 36 months, and I may pay it off quicker. Either way, if I kept my paid off 00 TL, I still owed $7k on the ski so it's the same deal either way--paid a couple grand more for a lot nicer car in the long run. I just prefer to pay the ski off since my grandmother lent me the $, and I want to pay her off so she has some $ in savings.

 

Nice car, hopefully the tranny will go BEFORE the warranty runs out, or you will luck out with a good original tranny. Car looks great and that you really lucked out with the OEM kit. Congrats.

 

oh shit...granny had a lipkit.


looks nice though.

 

The leather looks to be in excellent condition. You consider getting the full wood kit, since 1/2 of it's already on the car (the gauges and shift knob)? Welcome back!

 

Nah, I don't want the full wood kit. I don't particularly like the wood trim on these cars with the exception of the black wood on the Type S. I liked the black trim around the instrument cluster better than the wood. (My old one had the black trim).

I am going to the glass shop tomorrow to get my mirror from my old one. I got them to pull it off for me, and they're going to install it in this new one. The new one has the halo of death around it, so I'm taking care of that asap. I already snagged my OE rubber all season mats to put in this one so I don't ruin the carpet.

I still have some parchment carpet 02-03 type OE floor mats (they say TL, not Acura) that I may put on the classified section soon if I don't sell them on Ebay. I bought newer mats when I got the other one, but rarely used the front mats since I got the all season. I have green interior now, so beige mats won't do me much good but take up closet space.

 

Wait a second. That similar scenario happened to me too. I'm speaking to a salesman about getting the car and then another guy comes out and tells me there's a client inside about to put a deposit down. Is this some sort of car selling scheme?

 

dude that color is sooooo SEXXIII!!! OMFG!! haha.. nice purchase bro!

 

Not that I know of. There were only a handful of salesmen there that I liked since I used to work there. The rest were ******. If I hadn't bought the car from the guy I did, I would have bought it from the other guy that came in with the deposit customer.

It wasn't a scheme. The other guy actually showed up and the other sales guy got the keys and showed him what he "missed out on" while I was still in the box.

I walked up when the initial guy was trying to buy the car. His credit sucked and he couldn't get financed! He commented saying something like "hey man, you tryin' to buy my car here?" I was like yeah, I just crashed mine and it was my baby so I want this one.

I picked who I bought the car from, so obviously I picked one of the better sales guys that I liked and wanted to help out. Because of the car's condition and mileage for its age, there were several interested in it.

The F&I guy did get mad when I didn't buy the warranty, even at his cost. I almost went into F&I and he knew that so I don't know why he continued the sales pitch. I told him the tranny still had several more months and that I'd take a gamble on that; otherwise the car is built like a brick $^&*house and that I can afford to fix anything else on it since I make sure all the maintenance is done. I didn't tell him that I knew that Acura (and the dealer since I bought it from them) would typically go to bat and at least pay a portion for the tranny if it went out after the warrany expired. For $1650, I opted out of the warranty--ESPECIALLY since it wasn't AcuraCare. I wrote service there so FYI--ONLY BUY OEM extended warranties if you even buy an extended. Aftermarket warranties find loopholes for not paying claims.

 

Congratulations for getting the car so quick, glad you got it rather than some none 'ziner.

 

Damn. You even talk like someone who worked for a dealer. In the box...F&I, ect. In the box is where the bad dealers will try and take all your money...

 

Only if you let 'em. I've researched their tactics enough so that I'll never get ripped off.

 

Nice Cream puff there!! bought my 99TL-P (Navi) Heather Mist/Beige interior. (exactly what I wanted) with 38,000 on it Sept. of 05 for $11,000. (mint condition also) Now it has 92,000 on it. Yea, I got a great deal too!

 

wow am i colorblind? i see nothing green about this car, it is gray on gray in and out...

btw 13g seems a lot especially for a TL-P non nav, but given the condition and the fact that you like it so much makes up for it.

oh and if you don't like the wood in your car, why don't you go swap it with ur previous car's trim...i'm sure they wouldn't know it wasn't wood, nor wud they care.

 

1 more question, why does it have a rear plate like it came off an infiniti dealer lot? was it infiniti or acura? if infiniti, then i don't get how they gonna replace ur tranny.

 

The car was traded in at the Infiniti store, so that's why they have that tag on the back. I bought it from Joe Bullard Automotive Group. They own Infiniti, Acura, Cadillac, Jag, Rover, Saturn, and Mitsubishi. They're all paid by the same company and all work together. They just own different stores but the $ all goes into one pot. An Infiniti sales person can sell a customer an Acura if they wish and vice versa. The F&I guy floats back and forth between stores so really it's all one deal. Since I bought it from them, I'd get preferred treatment over someone that didn't if it comes time to deal with a tranny or something. Plus they know me up there.

 

i see...it's one of those dealers that own a crap load of cars lol....but since u went to the "infiniti" store in the 1st place, was it because u wanted to look at an infiniti or because you knew ppl there?

also, if they own all of these, if they get an acura trade for an infiniti wudn't they send the acura in the acura lot or do they not bother to do that?

 

Exactly know the game and you're fine. The F&I guy got mad when I didn't buy the warranty, but oh well, it's an Acura. Other than the tranny the car is solid. He kept saying payments of $311, and of course, I had my finance calculator and I said no way, I'm getting $270. He said well that's with your service contract. (He already was trying to add it in). I said no I don't want it.

I was a top tier credit score but the interest rate still wasn't the best and I had to go through Crap One Auto Finance because they were the only ones that would finance a car that old, even though I was going to put $4500-5000 down on it.

Yeah watch out when they get you in the box (the F&I box at least). Talk about buy rates vs. sell rates, buydowns, etc. and they'll leave you alone. I worked in service and have family in the car business and I still got the sales pitch. After nicely refusing several times, I got the "man I have to sell like 28 more of these this month". Well now there's one reason I didn't want to go into F&I---pressure, quotas, etc. The guy was really looking at me like "oh my gosh" as when the buyers order and finance contract was prepared, I double checked every single number and sales tax figure.

As for going to the Infiniti dealer, most are all right there together so I just happen to walk through all of them looking for any recent trades that haven't gone to the used car store and found the Acura. It was traded in Saturday and was still out front unmoved. It never went to wash or the shop. Typically they have a store called the Auto Outlet, which is where they send all of their used inventory because they reserve the small space on their store lot for new vehicles.

 

This is the article I read that made me wary of and more prepared for dealing the dealer. It's a good read. Confessions of a used car salesman: http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying...2/article.html

Btw, 13k on a TL-p with low miles in excellent condition isn't a bad price.

 

Yeah, mine is Laguna Mist Green as well. The thing I like about it is if you look at it one way you can see the greenish color in it, in another light it looks grey. It is a very subtle green - looks nice and conservative but she goes.

Little odd Granny has the lip kit though - I guess I know what mine would look like with one.

 

I'd recommend that article to anybody that's interested in buying a car from a dealer (new or used). Very eye opening and informative.

 

looks brand-spankin-new
congrats.

 

great color! i would know....i have that exact car but a year older.... here is what yours would look like with dark tint!

 

Now my other question that I forgot to ask. I was just about to do the t-belt and water pump on my 00 before I wrecked it. It had 100k on it.

This car is an 01, an early 01, so it's hit the 7 yr. mark but of course is mint. It only has 48k miles. Since old folks had it and rarely drove it, much less drove it hard, should I do the timing belt asap or can I wait a few months? I'm sure it will need it soon due to age.

 

my 99 has 92k on it. Have not changed the belt yet. I inspected it and it looks fine
mine is 9 years old

 

.

 

wow that thing is a book, i started reading it but it's just masivly long...don't got the time or patience for it. (yea, i'm probably the 1 who wud get ripped off at the dealer...)

 

Umm.....yes.

 

In my case the guy was actually outside looking at what he missed out on. I knew both the salesmen since I used to work there anyway. I almost lost out as there was a guy trying to buy it before me when I drove up. I even talked to him. He was kinda ticked that I was buying the car but his credit sucked.

But yes, I'm sure otherwise many dealers would do something like that. In that case you ask which guy it is. If they don't tell you, call them out on a lie and say well if he wants it that bad, he can damn sure have it. This is my final offer, take it or leave it.

In this situation, I needed a car asap, and because the alternative was an 04 RL or an 05 Lexus ES, I was looking at a $22k car vs. a $13k car. With the mileage and condition this car was in, it was worth paying maybe $2k more than I should instead of paying 10k more for another car.

 

In your case I'm sure the guy was really a potential buyer(nice car by the way). But those guys (sales-crooks) really do pull some crazy scams. They'll even resort to having a dealership employee (happens to be there on day off, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt) pretend to be a potential buyer. I've known enough of these guys and know their tricks; you just need to be smarter than them and that's not hard, it's just that you're usually put at a disadvantage due to your passion and excitement, which you need to disguise. Always be aloof and ready to strut away.

 

man, they hustled you good. thats a classic act they use for noobs.

congrats on the new car tho.

 

wow...i just read you paid 13K for this...and the fact that its also from alabama. man you really got owned. sorry to tell you dude. you coulda got typeS with relatively low miles for that price...if not less.