dmox_tl

I just sold my 07 TL and am shopping for a new car. I have come across a 2008 TL that both inside and out, appears to be in great condition. It drives great as well and according to the Carfax, only had one owner. The mileage is also very low...only 35000 miles. My question is, could the low mileage actually be a point of concern? It is not a certified pre-owned and I'm worried that the lack of mileage might indicate the car was sitting for extended periods of time or perhaps there was some mileaged-based scheduled maintenance that was never performed? The dealer acquired the car at an auction and performed the following maintenance:

Front brake pads replaced and rotors resurfaced
Drive belts checked
Washed/detailed
Air filter replaced
Automatic transmission fluid and filter changed
Cabin air filter replaced/cleaned
Oil and filter changed
State safety inspection completed
Wiper(s) replaced

...as far as I can tell, the car has been for sale at the dealer since mid-Jan. I'm almost surprised it hasn't sold.

Any thoughts/advice?

Thanks,
D

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

you're Speculating on why the car has so few miles.
stop, dont do that.

if a modern day car sits for a month or so, it will not hurt anything. and as long as the dealer performed those items you listed, the car will be brand spanking NEW!

because of speculation, the only REAL way to tell if the car is complete and not molested, check the car out in person.
if you are not comfortable checking out the car yourself, pay a mechanic to do a pre-purchase-inspection.

once you've done a PPI, the mechanic will tell you everything that is wrong with the car and everything that is right with the car.
then, it's up to you and your decision to purchase the car.

Slpr04UA6

I would question the ATF filter change (I believe '07-'08 ATF filter is inside the transmission) not external like the '04-'06. Nice low mileage find!

dmox_tl

Thanks for the quick replies. Related question, the car is being sold at a local dealer. I guess the only way to have a mechanic look it over would be for me to bring one to the lot (though i don't know any mechanics), or take it to a trusted mechanic with the 5-day return grace period?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

take the car home for an extended test drive. while you have it, take it to a mechanic. this extended test drive, will also let you know if the vehicle is for you, by driving it for more than 30 minutes.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

You'll be fine. 35,000 is not extremely low miles. That car was driven and everything should be just fine. Remember, miles are what ages a car. Miles are what puts wear on components. I don't have facts that back this up, but I think all the negative effects of a stored car were just things that mainly effected older cars. A 6 year old car with 30 some thousand miles couldn't have sat for long enough to have any negative effects. So a 35,000 mile 6 year old car is a good thing not bad. Some people here get annoyed when I mention the mileage on my car, but to back up my statements, I bought my 07 Type S last summer with 4,900 miles. The car was put in service in late 06 so that is IMO very low mileage, like averaging less than 1000 miles a year low. The car had absolutely zero issues and drove and looked like it did back in 2006...like a new car.

Go for it, there are no downsides to the mileage on that car, you'll love it!!!!

bp_spets

Unfortunately, time also ages. Especially the rubber components such as tires, hoses, timing belt, gaskets, etc.

NBP04TL4ME

As pointed out don't speculate and have it checked out. More than likely it's fine. We bought a used 2007 ES350 for my wife from a private party and it had only 15K on it this past July. Previous owner lived in the city and worked two miles from home. She had a garage on both ends and walked to work as often as she could. So far, so good and the Mrs is thrilled.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Yeah but not really any differently than a car built the same year except with 100,000 miles. Tires and belts are things that get changed no matter what and I personally haven't seen a newer car that has had gaskets fail due to lower mileage. Again, I think that may be a thing of the past with old cars. If the car was a 1989 with say 30,000 miles then I would probably be a bit concerned about certain rubber components, but a 2008 with 30+ thousand miles, nope.

MarcoNorthPolo

If it checks out, it could be a great find!

LaCostaRacer

Low miles are certainly not an indication of trouble. There are lots of legitimate reasons for why a car has low miles on it. You just have to ask the owner what's up with the low miles and I'm sure he'll tell you. I would expect a low mile car to also be in show room condition- if not then I would be more concerned.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

seems like nowadays ppl think oppositely than how they used to. low miles used to be considered a good thing...now people look at it as "warning signs"...LOL

parasitius

I heard low miles is a warning sign... 'tis why I went for a 115,000 miles car.

Is there anything peer reviewed that does a statistical analysis of like... repairs per year for 5~8 year old cars that had low miles medium miles and high miles? Of course you'd have to account for things like belt + water pump maintenance that is unavoidable and expected by the high miles buyer.

That's what I'd like to see - otherwise this is all speculation. Something like that car model/manufacturer reliability survey someone posted on another thread.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Sorry, but must say that in my opinion you've heard wrong, and picking a car with 100k+ miles opposed to a low mileage vehicle, the only positive would most likely be a lower price. Many cars out there with extremely low mileage and the only true way to determine condition is to do a thorough inspection. Our '04 has only seen 31,000 miles in the last 8 years and with just a yearly oil change all the components remain trouble free, except for the D/S door lock that went kaput last week. On the other hand, our '08 knock around car has 170,000 miles, runs great with only brakes and stabilizer end links, but the value has dropped like a rock because of the high mileage.

In my book, the lower the mileage the better, as long as the car checks out to be fine and is priced accordingly.

$21,400 pretty steep for an '08 TL though, way above KBB, even considering it has nav and low mileage.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

WTF. Wait, your being serious? Man, can you imagine the people that buy new cars? Those things must be complete beaters lol.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

dudes, parasite is a known troll. hence, his user name.
Dont fall for his outrageous lies.

Jesstzn

I sold my son my moms 1998 Cavalier ( estate) 36K miles ... only issue to date ( 48K ) is alternator went .. My 06 TL has 42 K miles .. no issues.

parasitius

This meme is stronger than you might imagine - I have encountered forum posts with concerned buyers second guessing the "deals" on the new car left-overs from the prior year model at the dealer because "it has been sitting so long without regular driving, the car may be messed up from that"

Now I didn't expect that to be true, but I did sort of buy into the idea that a car that gets used intermittently (say weekends only?) can develop some serious issues because something about the way it is not engineered to sit with the components of the engine not rotating regularly. You hear stories about junk yard engines that seize up, see questions on google like "How long can a car sit unused before the engine seizes up?", and see posts like this:

Xpditor

My 2004 TL has only about 26k miles on it. I average about 2500 miles a year. It is garaged, pampered, and over-maintained. The mileage is low because I currently have 3 cars and sometimes have 5 that are all licensed and on the road. My daily driver, a Jeep Wrangler, is 22 years old and has nearly 190k miles on it. I rotate driving the others. If you pop the hood on the Acura TL, it still looks like the day I got it.

I don't consider the low mileage to be a detriment. Call me crazy, but I expect my TL will not look much different ten years from now when it has 50,000 miles.

story.customz

I bought mine with only 39k miles. Had it for a year and a half now and it's still perfect

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Now that's low and I bet the car is basically like new like you said. People that think that's a bad thing are crazy :-)

parasitius

Do you take so much pleasure from picking out a different vehicle to drive each day? To me it is really hard to understand this sort of thing - as contrasted to - not owning a bunch of vehicles and instead just pooling all that same exact money to buy 1 super bad ass vehicle that you drive the hell out of... putting in just 1/5th the cleaning and maintenance effort the 1 super vehicle could be kept looking pretty new up to ... 100, 200, 300k miles etc.

When I see used car ads selling a 2007 $40k vehicle for $20k and it has only 25,000 miles I really pity the owner, it seems he "saved" the car for nothing. It ended up costing him $.80 per mile to own, while the guy who drove the same 2007 model for 100,000 miles paid only ~$.17 per mile to own the car (assuming a sales price of $17,000).

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^no one is listening to you

parasitius

What the HELL, are you scarlacc 2.0 or something now?

We even share the same proud name and you treat me this way

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Good thing I spell it Justn.

NBP04TL4ME

DaeHanMeenGuk

wait wait wait.....you sold an 07 TL and now you're looking to get into an 08?

BwhiTL13

Xpditor

Yes. Or to detail.

Apparently.

I'm a car nut. A collector. If I were married, I'd probably be a polygamist.

Alexns05

All else being equal, a low mileage car is better than a high mileage car. You have no way of knowing if it's good or bad unless you know how well it was maintained. However, highway driving is way better than city driving. If there was a car with 5,000 miles that was driven 1,000 times and a car with 50,000 miles that was driven 1,000 times, I'd take the higher mileage car. The car with less mileage most likely has way more shifts in city traffic and has taken more short trips. Short trips of 10 min. or less are bad on the engine too (http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story....s&subject=more).

Again, that's all assuming everything is equal. The bad part is you don't know the history of the car so you have no clue how it was treated. I'd say as long as they both check out good after a thorough inspection, I'd have to flip a coin on which to buy (assuming the higher mileage car is cheaper).

6 MT

This. In modern cars how the vehicle is maintained/driven is oftentimes more important than the mileage on the vehicle. Shorter trips and start/stop conditions put more stress on the components than cruising highway.

When it comes to maintenance, especially fluids, there is also a time component as well as mileage. An 08 should have had all new fluids (power steering, brake, etc..not just engine & trans oil). This can strongly affect the longevity of the involved parts.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

I hope this is true because there are many things wrong with his post I could argue. But if he's just trolling then whatever it's cool

pbook4g5

I just sold my 03 accord with 215k miles on it and have been looking to replace it with a TL-s and all I've found are higher mileage ones (that have been close to my locale). As many people have noted above, I'd much rather work on a lower mileage car like this rather than a higher mileage one.

P.S. I called about this car and they said it sold pretty quick.

tones160

I was about to say too lol

ZOMGVTEK

CAN low miles be a warning sign? Absolutely.

In most cases it probably is not an issue. Personally I would avoid buying a car as a daily that sat years. So in that sense, if it has low miles as a result of sitting years straight, I would question it. If it was just driven lightly, no problem. The real issue here is it's usually not easy to know how a car was used over its life.

To answer the question literally, low miles can indicate some mechanical issues that resulted in less use, or the fact that it sat for years, hopefully not outside. That is almost always not going to be the case, but it is entirely possible the vehicle was totaled and repaired slowly without being reported.

All things being equal, lower miles are preferable. That said, I would get more excited about a car with 20-40K on it over one with 2-4K. Especially since the price premium on the ultra low miles car is usually silly. It really just depends on how much you intend on driving it, how long you want to keep it, and what you care about. Paying more for a 6 year old car with 5K on it, only to put 30K on it a year offers little benefit.

STL TL

Buy it!

When I first came to this forum it was to ask about an 08 with 29K miles. I ended up buying it and learned that it was owned by an older woman who was a school teacher. She lived right next to the High School she taught at and only used it to commute to work, to the Dr and grocery shopping. It was garage kept and honestly I don't know who cleaned it for her but they knew what they were doing. The car has extremely minimal washing swirls and the interior is well.... still new and smells new. All work was done by a local dealership like oil changes and a steering recall.

If your's checks out like mine did you will be nothing but happy with it! I would have love to have a TL-S but this was just too good to pass up! Also I have had no issues with the car at all and drive it happily everyday.