High Mileage 04 TL...good deal?
 

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How many high mileage TL's are out there and what how many miles can I expect to see before major repair bills? I've never owned an Acura and I've found an 04 with 178,000 miles. The asking price is 8900, Im just curious if you guys think this would be a decent car or am I getting into something that is going to be spendy.

auto or stick?

I think that if the TL is properly maintained it can last a long time. 178k is quite a few miles though, especially for a car that's only 6-7 years old. But if you think about it, I'd rather have a high mileage car that's 6-7 years old as opposed to one that's 15 years old. It tells me that most of those miles are highway miles.

Find out as much as you can about its service history, especially the transmission. Definitely have a mechanic check it out. Also test drive some younger TLs and see how it compares. Could be a way to get yourself into a nice car for less... or it could be a pile of issues.

I try to sell my cars before they hit 100K. Less problems that way. I know its an Acura, but I'd stay away from that kind of mileage.

I had a 1986 Legend that I bought when it had 111,000 miles and I got rid of four years later when it had 178,000 miles because I was getting fed up with some of the repair bills. Many of the things I had to fix were wear items and not necessarily serious problems, but I reached the point where I said that I could spend less money on car payments than I was on maintenance.

I'd suggest to the OP that you definitely want the service records. Given the mileage on the vehicle, I assume it's a private sale, as most used-car dealers will not resell a car with that many miles on the odometer (they'll wholesale them instead). If it's a private sale, a responsible owner should have all of his service invoices. Ask to see them. Look at the ones for the last 20,000 miles or so to see how much work has been done and what sort of work it's been. Look to see that the timing belt and water pump were changed in a timely fashion. Look to see if the mechanic lists any service recommendations on the invoices and, if so, pay attention to WHAT was recommended and whether it was then done (if it's something important). How old are the brake pads and rotors? They might be coming up for replacement soon, and that can be quite expensive, especially if the car is a 6MT due to the larger front brakes. On a 2004 6MT you're looking at a thousand dollars easy for front pads and rotors. So it's equally important to note repairs that maybe haven't been NEEDED recently but that would likely crop up in the future. While brakes are a wear item that don't automatically denote a problem with the car, if they'll need to be replaced soon it's fair to include that as a bargaining chip as to the price.

Also, when you look at the service records, pay attention to WHERE the car is serviced and WHO the service advisor is. If the same guy has worked on the car on a regular basis, give him a call and ask about it. Tell him that you're thinking about buying the car and that you'd appreciate any input on its condition. You might want to suggest that because he knows the car you'd consider maintaining him as the mechanic, assuming his location is convenient to you. If he knows you'll give him continued business, he might open up a bit more about the car.

It's also worth taking it to a mechanic on your own to have it checked out. You may have to spend $50 to $100 to have them do it. Explain that you're considering buying the car from its current owner and that you'd like an independent assessment of its condition to include whether any items are showing signs of needing replacement. Note that the timing belt is not something they can opine on visually, which is why it's important to know whether that was done. For this diagnostic, it would be worth taking it somewhere other than where the current owner takes it. Do not commit to having the work done by the mechanic who does the diagnostic, but do not give any indication that you WON'T have it done there, either—instead, be noncommittal so as not to give the mechanic any reason to think he can get business off you either way.

If the owner balks at showing you the service records, walk away. Ditto if he doesn't have them. That's a sign of a sloppy owner. But if the owner bought the car used and doesn't have the prior owner's service records, that's not necessarily a bad sign as long as he's kept his own records AND he tells you that he bought it used and doesn't have the prior owner's records. (While you may be able to surmise this if his records only go back a certain amount of time, I'd consider it a commentary on his honesty if he's willing to state it.) Likewise, if the owner won't let you have a diagnostic performed, walk away. But it's reasonable for him to want to go with you to drop off and pick up the car. It's HIS car, after all.

Try to find out how the car is stored, too. If it's garage-kept, that's a further good sign, as it slows any deterioration.

There is no reason to be put off by high mileage per se. As jhumbo notes, for a car that's 6 to 7 years old to have 178,000 miles means that the vast majority of the miles will almost certainly have been highway miles. As a practical matter it's very difficult to put that much on a car in that short a time doing all city driving unless you're using the car for your business, such as a real estate agent. So that's a positive sign.

The price does sound slightly high to me unless the owner can prove the maintenance and the nature of the miles. I routinely see 2004 TLs advertised in the Sunday paper with around 100,000 miles in the $10,000 to $11,000 range. Since the car you're considering has 75% more miles on it, I think the asking price ought to be a little less than $8,900 unless the owner can prove the highway mileage thing.

(As far as the point made by bshevchuk, of course everyone's entitled to do as he wishes with his cars, but I think that worrying about the 100,000-mile figure on an Acura is a needless worry. We're not talking about 1960s or 1970s-era Detroit crap. I wouldn't hesitate to buy an Acura with 100,000 miles if it were in good condition, as proven by my prior purchase back in 1995. Acuras have only gotten more reliable since then. Of course, the car in this thread is closer to 200,000 miles than to 100,000, so it's definitely fair to give it much closer scrutiny.)

my opinion is don't do it. I bought my 04 at 77k miles and that was almost the borderline for me as far as a used car. 178k is way too much and there is too much history with if that you may never know about. Maybe if they sold it for a couple grand less i would buy it. Just remember any part could be going bad.

I've seen TLs with around 200,000 miles for under $10,000 a month ago when I was in the hunt for a car. At $10,000 your not gonna get a very good TL without high miles. If the owner did a timing belt job at 100,000 miles, your about due for another one. If they didnt, your at risk on any given day it would break. If your looking for a budget car and YOU CANT fix the car youyrself, stay away from luxery cars. Front break pads/rotors installed by you is around $300. Its around $800 at the dealer. Tires for a civic is around $100/tire. Stock tires for TL is around $250/tire.

Yeah, if you buy those shitty overpriced Mich MXM4's.

Good tires for this car can be had for about $120/ea. or sometimes less. I have 225/40/18 Kuhmo Ecsta AST's on my TSW's and they were $109 each. This is my third set of these tires and they have never let me down.

Just go low pro 19's. :teef:

Brake jobs for the auto are $120 if you do them yourself. Average tires are $110. Good tires can be had for $150.

I would not worry about the miles if:

Service records are accounted for, and...
Service was done on time, and...
Tranny fluid is red and not burnt, and...
Brake fluid is not blackish, and...
Owner is an adult that has driven the car like and adult, and...
The price comes down a bit - maybe 7500 or so, and...
Most importantly, you have reasonable expectations about the car.

As suggested above, have your mechanic check it out if you get serious. One of the big things that I would look at is the magnetic tranny plug - if that thing has a big 'fro, then I would walk away. It would be worth 3Q of ATF that I would have to put back in to look at that plug - cheap insurance on the cost of a new transmission.

Also, when I went after my TL, I looked at the wheels. Excessive brake dust on the front rims shows a possible lack of maintenance/care if from nothing else, just washing it every now and then while paying attention. Also, if they have been run into 50 curbs, then it also says a lot about the driver/owner. Of course, new looking rims don't mean that the car has not been run into 50 curbs, but at least somebody had the wherewithal to change/fix them.

Lastly, some of the issues that people don't like about older cars, such as increased road noise, squeaking, wind noise, etc. are sometimes time-based issues and not necessarily mileage-based. The rubber/plastic/etc. is not that old and should still seal and work appropriately unless it was parked on the sun for 6 years.

If you can wrench on these cars, then service and repair bills are very reasonable. I can wrench on them, and do, so this is a totally different perspective. I would happily buy a car that needed work, beat the price down for the "shop cost" of the work and then do it myself.

I have an accord with 360K that meets all of the above criterion and outside of a new sensor or distributor here and there (and a tranny at 60K under warranty), it runs like it has 125K miles on it, except for the road noise from the weatherstripping all wearing out lately. These cars will run for a long time if maintained and driven properly.

178k is too much milage. I would only pay around 7-7.5k only.

I think a lot of this depends on whether you can do the work yourself. A bunch of little things may not cost the DIYer much but they can be a large bill when paying someone else to do it. I see little things like compliance bushings which cost $16 each come out to nearly $1,000 with labor.

im selling my 04 tl auto with navi for $11,200 if you're interested, it have just under 105k miles. :)

Think about its additional lifespan, though - 50K? 75k? - before it starts costing serious money to keep on the road. That's not to mention any future resale value - is a car with over 200K worth anything really?

Find a TSX or an Accord for the same money, IMO.

Keep shopping...be patient

+1

This

best post.

178k miles is a sh*tload of miles....if you buy and try to sell it later, not very many people would be willing to buy a car with that kind of miles....i would be patient, possibly save another couple thousand and buy a TL with lower mileage :2cents: GL

There's a guy on here with 200k miles on his '05 TL and it's still running strong. A few of us are around the 150k mark on our '04's.

I have 146,800 pretty trouble-free miles on mine, but to be honest, I may be out of the car in the next 20-30k miles or so. Of course I've been saying I'm going to get out of this car since about 130k. lol. I would like to get up to 200k miles on it, but I'm kind of nervous about the transmission even though it hasn't caused me any problems yet. :wish:

Your other concern is that with a car with that many miles, how well was it taken care of? Did they do the 2nd timing belt replacement? If not, there's a chunk of money right there off the bat you'll need to hand over.

My suggestion is to get something with fewer miles than that. Maybe around 75-100k or something.

i don't want to ruin your buy but i bought a acura tl 04 with 130k for $9.5 (maintaince-water pump- timing belt- were aready done) i believe is the sweetest TL anyone could have found for that price.

it was converted to a type S 07-08

Type S headlights
type s bumper
type s chrome grill
type s tail lights
type s side market
type s a-pec full body kit lips
oem 07-08 fogs lights with hid
tints windows
H&R suspention 1.5 drop
G37s wheels and tire

The car drive like a dream and even though it has high mileage it feel 2x than my friend 07 base with 36k.

so be patient and shop around check graiglist all the time that's how i got mine.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rdmc/mycar.jpg

As long as all service records are accounted for, I wouldn't be worried about the high mileage.

Nice TL! :) I have 145K miles, still running good. Some noise in the bottom have to fix, but I bought it for 8K.

see if you can get the svc history and bring a good mechanic. Good luck

no one can answer this question because we can't look at the car...just have a mechanic inspect it and if he says it looks good, isn't leaking anything, doesn't make any weird sounds..go for it if you don't care about high miles..

+1.

-price needs to drop...

That seems like too many miles, i mean for that price its not bad. My 04 only has about 70K and It's still running great. Acuras can run for a long time if they are properly maintained. That being said, i would recommend that you ensure the previous owner performed all the scheduled maintenance. GL pal

Just pay the 1xx.xx to have acura or honda dealer do a 120 point inspection. That money is little price to pay from preventing youself from buying a car that may look like trouble. Odds are it wont be as it's spent most of its life running in its sweet spot on the highway.

178k mi is very high miles, highway or not. Someone's past experiences with Honda/Acura do not necessarily mean that this particular car will be as reliable. At that point, you dont know what may go wrong, regardless of previous maintenance/accident history, whether its garaged or not, or has curbside rash on rims, it becomes a throw away car.

btw i would never make the buying decision based on curbside rash or amount of dust on front wheels, especially for an older vehicle with that many miles. There are drivers that are careless with appearance or dont have time to wash their rims every days but are religious when it comes to maintenance. What's important is the color of oil and smell on the dipstick, engine compression in each cylinder, whether A/C works or not, roadtest if the car pulls to the side, whether stereo works, whether and when last time all filters/fluids/belts/spark plugs/sensors were replaced, when was last time vehicle passed smog test and how much time you'll have before the test need to be taken.

8 grand is a lot of cash and can get you smthg that has more chances of giving you another 100k reliable miles. There are plenty of other choices

178k is crazy.8k for that car is crazy also.... I wouldn't buy it.

maybe this could help you out. in 2001 i bought a honda accord 1994 for $3.5k and it had 247k (you read right). That car was completly stock, i changed the timing belt, water pump and tune up. It ran perfectly fine until i sold it with around 300k. Not once gave me a problem and i used to abuse the engine since it was my first stick. I learned to drive stick and never burned the clutch. sold it in 2004.

spoke to the owner the other day and the car now has 384k and still going strong with oil change and regular maintanence. so if you are buying the car because you like the TL and unlike other members here you cannot afford finance or have bad credit and this is the only way to get it. Do not think about a high mileage tl, it will run like you. I would try to talk him down with the price a little more.

^ until the 5at craps out on him and cost him $4K plus to fix......

Buying a 2004 TL in a few days... did I get an AWESOME deal?
 

Hey guys, I'm getting a 2004 TL black on black 6MT with 93k miles and we finalized the deal for $8400 (private sell). Car drove really good, no weird noises, no transmission grinding, no apparent problem with engine. Usually in my area, the same year/mileage TLs would go for 10k (Montreal), not a big difference.

Anyways, there's two thing I wana know. First, there's a check engine light. I didn't worry too much because the guy said he got it checked and it's the O2 sensor and he WILL go to the dealer to get it fixed before selling it. I know in every car O2 sensors might break but is it a known issue for TLs?

2nd, I just want to know if there is any other specific things or known issues that I should check/know? (except the burning mirror lol...)

The guy seemed nice and honest with me. told me that he didn't do the timing belt yet and did not apply anti-rust (no rust on car however).

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to join the community!

ps: I really like the TL, especially the 6mt :) I love MT sedans with a sporty side! Here's my old (currently for sale) ride, 1999 Toyota Solara V6.

http://i1256.photobucket.com/albums/...87b158b1-1.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...23963399_n.jpg

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFg3Nj...-7!~~48_20.JPG

As far as I know your price looks good, just make sure to look for all the normal red flags on a vehicle. Buying a car is always risky but you just gotta be as thorough as you can and hope for some good luck. Welcome to the family, I have had my TL for about 2 years and I have learned alot from this site. Nice solara btw, TL will be a huge upgrade though. Oh and listen to the veterans on this site, I came from having all low end honda's (accords, crx, prelude, integra, no civics though, i hate civics) and had no idea what it took to truly maintain and upgrade a luxury car like this. They are a wealth of knowledge. Good luck with the new car and put alot of pictures up, we love those lol.

you got a good deal on the TL, your TL won't run into any serious issue except for annoying rattles. The only thing you have to make sure is that CEL is from 02 sensor and not from something else, other than that you good to go.

from my experience i bought cars with cel on and them saying it was 02 sensor which in fact wasnt and was something else i would pay to take it to the dealer to see if in fact its true or not just my thought

That CEL is definitely a red flag. Have it professionally check out instead of taking the owner's word. He might know someone to make that light "go away" temporary and then after the check is cashed, papers are signed... BOOM!! CEL is back on and you realized you bought a lemon. Good luck with you and welcome to AZ.

If he's getting the CEL fixed dont worry about it. I was told my CEl in my teg was the O2 sensor. even had paperwork from the mechanic. Turned out to be the EVAP system when i did my own reading. Sounds like a great price. The ones im looking at right now are all above 12k for a starting price. Those 6MT are hard to find. only 3 within 500 miles of me.

Another Solara owner:thumbsup:

Im looking to get rid of my 06 with TRD suspension once its paid off:whyme: