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Classic Cars Buying Luxury used cars
411 messages, Last post on Jul 13, 2009 at 10:22 AM
You are in the Classic Cars Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: circlew (May 23, 2009 7:10 am) 
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Replying to: circlew (May 23, 2009 7:10 am) The rear end is just as bad 
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Replying to: andre1969 (May 23, 2009 9:27 am)
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (May 23, 2009 10:55 am) A guy at my job recently bought a 2009 TL, SH-AWD or something like that. He got the one color that I think these cars look semi-good in, a deep, dark metallic blue. I sat in it once. Nice car, but it just doesn't seem like a $40K car to me. In contrast, before that he had an '04 TL and then a slightly newer one when that one got totaled. I think they were around $30K, and for that price, they seemed like a bargain. The new one seems sort of like what Detroit started doing in the 1970's...making the cars bigger, but in a useless sort of way, where you got more bulk without any additional interior room.
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Replying to: andre1969 (May 23, 2009 3:12 pm) As for the '09, I agree with you, shifty and andre. It wouldn't be on my shopping list
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Replying to: hpmctorque (May 23, 2009 7:37 pm) I rode in it once or twice, and thought it was a nice car. When that '04 came out though, he just had to get a new one. I know Acuras hold their value pretty well, but I'd still imagine he took a pretty big hit by trading after only one year! |
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I apologize for being off-topic, but I'll add to my comments about the TLs by saying that to improve over the '04-'08 generation, Acura should have switched to RWD for '09. If any manufacturer has the ability to wrest the top sport sedan crown from BMW, it's Acura, in my opinion. Why? Acura beats Infiniti in refinement and tops BMW in reliability and cost. For those needing or wanting AWD, SH-AWD could be bases on RWD architecture rathere than FWD. I was hoping that Honda-Acura would follow Nissan-Infiniti's model of FWD for the family haulers and RWD for the luxury division's products, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (May 24, 2009 7:27 am) Yeah let's try to swing back on topic here. Thanks! 
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There's probably more than one sweet spot for buying a used luxury car, but I've concluded that the sweetest one is to buy one just before the typical five year factory warranty expires, with no more than 30,000 miles on the odometer. I would include one that's a few months older than five years, with a few more than that number of miles, if the owner (in the singular, because it gets harder to gauge how the car's been driven after the first owner) had been meticulous about maintenance. By this point most of the depreciation has been borne by the original owner, but the car still has ~80% of it's useful life ahead of it. As we've noted in this discussion, the depreciation on used luxury cars has accelerated significantly during this recession, especially for those who can pay cash, so it's a great time to buy. What I'm not sure of is the sweet spot for selling or trading the hypothetical 5 year old, 30,000 miles car. I'm thinking that age is less important than mileage, so maybe age can be disregarded, and one should follow shifty's suggestion (if I'm recalling correctly) and bail out at ~80,000 miles. Do I have the sale part about right? What about doing the necessary maintenance and repairs and going to 150,000-200,000, so you enjoy the full benefit of your expenditures. I mean, why spend the money, only to sell at, say, 110,000-120,000 miles? Your thoughts? |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Jan 02, 2009 12:32 pm) Replying to an old post, I know, but I had it bookmarked... I'm not sure how commonplace this situation was back in the "good old days," but today I don't see many used cars for sale, luxury or otherwise, where the owner has just invested a lot of money in repairs. It's usually more like "1998 Luxomobile for parts" or "2001 Cloudmobile transmission needs fixed [sic]." I can see buying a used car and flushing all the fluids, replacing wiper blades, and changing the timing belt, tensioner, and idlers, where applicable (a grand or so, I'm guessing), but buying something that's not driveable sounds like a losing proposition.
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