Local Acura dealership is selling a '19 red Aspec for just over $40k... the vehicle was used as a loaner and has a little over 13k miles on it over about 12 months of service.

Are fleet vehicles generally good or bad? I figure it's probably been well maintained... but do people tend to drive roughly with loaners? Anything to be wary of? There are some tech ones nearby that areva few thousand cheaper, but I love the Aspec's black trim...

 

This sounds like a question for Tom McParland...

My (mostly uninformed) guess would be that those are 13k hard miles. First, those are probably all city miles, with lots of starts and stops, so I would imagine that is going to wear on things like brakes a bit. Also, they're loaning out the RDX to people who might not have had something quite so sporty, who may be tempted to do a little hooning .And they probably put the cheapest gas they could find in it (whether that matters is up for debate). All those things add up. If it's got a service record that shows it's been maintained and things like brakes have been checked and tires have been rotated, it might be fine. If it's got no records though and you can see uneven wear on the tires, I'd walk away.

Acura is offering some good deals on the RDX now and they're going to get better next month, I think. Might be worth just waiting to score a 2020. As for the A-Spec, again that's a matter of opinion, but personally I wouldn't (and didn't) spend thousands extra for black trim. If you like that look, a wrap or replacement trim would be cheaper.

 

Great response and points, thanks. Can you elaborate on 'wrap or trim repmacenent"... is this something I can get done (and well) at a body shop for cheap?

Also, what makes you so confident that December incentives will ve better than November's? Do holiday deals tend to trump black friday deals? I certainly wouldn't mind something like 2.9% and a couple thousand off msrp if ut seems likely...

 

I have a friend who works at Honda who says the RDX is not selling in the volume that they had hoped. I know that incentives (i.e. loyalty/conquest) went up in October (I think) and they might very well go up again, or turn into cash rebates. But timing a car purchase is always hard, and I'm no expert.

There are a few threads on this board about people who have given their car the A-Spec treatment. At least one person who I think actually just got the trim parts from Acura and replaced them himself. Others have done a vinyl wrap, which if you're only doing trim pieces isn't that expensive, I think. And it's reversible. I'll see if I can find one of those threads...

Here's one: https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-rdx-...o-spec-970867/

 

It's a huge fricken mess to try and convert your base model into an Aspec and it'll surely cost more too. Rims, badges, uninstalling/installing trim pieces, etc. Your gonna break clips or scratch something. That's a terrible idea. Just buy the Aspec and be done with it.

 

That seems like awfully high pricing for a used version, much less one that's a loaner.

I bought a 2019 loaner in July but it had only 3500kms on it and it was from an area with the lowest insurance rates in my province so a gently used, low speed type of town. After taxes and everything it was $5500 less than a new 2020 (about 10% less). Now that it's nearly year end and the mileage is 6.5 times more than the loaner I bought I'd expect the pricing to be much closer to $35k than $40k.

 

KBB says fair value for a new one is below invoice. I don't think what you are getting is a good deal. And this for a 2020.

 

Like you have to ask?

If a car owned by a regular person gets into an accident, they will normally claim insurance, and any amount over what is it $2.5k gets flagged on the CarProof record.

If a car is owned by a dealership and said car gets into an accident, they usually have their own body shop where they can fix it at cost, so they don't need to claim insurance, so it won't show up on the CarProof report.

I'm no expert though, so this is just some guy's opinion, and you know what they say about them...

 

A used car is a used car, despite who owns it. I bought a 'loaner' LR3 with 4K miles on it from the dealer. Fortunately, I soon changed the wheels out, which meant removing and reinstalling the tires. The tire dealer showed me one of the tires....completely destroyed on the inside of one side of the tires from someone driving on it with a flat or super-low tire. It was so bad he would not reinstall it. There was zero visible damage on the outside. I had already had the LR3 up to 90....it's a miracle that it did not completely disintegrate, which in a crappy handling SUV like the LR3 would have been a disaster. Not blasting used cars or loaners or whatever...but you just never know.

 

I think many drive a rental car a bit harder......bit a loaner from a dealership, maybe not as bad. I bought a 1995 Acura Integra that was the Acuras bosses wifes car,lol..ya right.....never had any issues with it. But the price has to be right........

 

I’ve heard that a lot. Manager’s wife’s car .....lol.
It used to “female doctor’s car” in the past.

 

I bought my 2019 A-Spec SH-AWD for $45.5k out the door one year ago. $40k for a year old Aspec is not worth it. Should be closer to $35k.