They say that history repeats itself if you wait long enough. Well, my oldest son Josh is now a licensed driver and is about as far along in his life journey as I was in the first or second entry of my COAL series. Maybe in another 25 years, he will be writing his own COAL about this car.
I’ve already written about my early adventures in car shopping for Josh, where I went out tire kicking and ended up coming back with an Audi TT Roadster. Since that turned out so well, I decided to go back to the well at KDK Auto Brokers last summer when the time came to get Josh’s car for real.
My budget was about $7500, but from prior experience I knew that just about any used car in that price range would require several thousand dollars of work, my real budget was about $5000.
Josh was pretty specific in that he wanted a sedan: No SUVs (I raised him well). No Kias or Hyundais (I swear, sometimes it’s like I’m looking in a mirror). No penalty boxes like a Chevy Cobalt or a Ford Fiesta (yes, before you comment below, I know that neither of these cars are really penalty boxes, and I rather like the Fiesta myself). And while Josh would have really preferred a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi, I knew from previous experience that a German car in that price range would be a maintenance nightmare. Not on my dime.
No, I decided I would feed once again at the trough that had treated me so well before: Honda and Acura. After owning three Acuras and two Hondas, I’ve probably owned more products from Honda Motor Company over the years than any other manufacturer.
I soon zeroed in on a 2005 Acura TSX for $5,000. Although the 197,000 miles was definitely on the high side, it had a clean CarFAX with no accidents, and most of the mileage coming from a single owner.
High mileage cars represent an interesting dilemma, and there are lots of opinions on them that I’m sure will be expressed in the comment section below. But is boils down to this: The essential tradeoff one makes when purchasing an ultra-high mileage car is reduced price for increased risk.
I like to think it is possible to hedge one’s bet if you are smart, by getting the price benefits of a high mileage car, while somewhat reducing the risk. You may not be able to have your cake and eat it too, but you can at least take a few nibbles. And in the age of CarFAX, it is easier than ever to make an informed gamble on a high mileage car.
So allow me to present my rules for purchasing high mileage cars:
- Pick a car with a reputation for reliability and durability. This is important for buying any car, but it is doubly so for a high-mileage example. Do you think that trouble-prone VW DSG transmission is going to be any less trouble-prone with 200K miles on it?
- Pick a car that is inexpensive to repair. This is a corollary to #1 above. High mileage cars are going to need repairs. Period. The Domestics still rule in this arena in terms of being the cheapest to fix, but Japanese and Koreans are pretty close in this regard. Anything else I would stay away from.
- Look for long periods of ownership on the CarFAX – Especially by the original owner. This is one area where car buyers are more responsible than lessees. An owner who plans on keeping a car for many years and miles has a vested interest in keeping it running and has likely taken very good care of it. Leaders are more like renters. While there are some that take good care of their leased cars (I like to put myself in that category), we’ve all heard the stories about cars being turned in off-lease with the same oil filter they left the factory with.
- Highway miles are easier than city miles. Take two identical cars with 200K miles. One is 10 years old and has gone 20,000 miles per year. The other is 15 years old, averaging 13,333 miles per year. The car traveling 20,000 miles per year has likely had an easier life than the one going 13,000. Why is this? To achieve high annual mileage figures, you almost certainly have to do most of your driving on the highway, which involved hours on end rolling at the same speed on relatively smooth freeways. This is easier on the brakes, transmission, and engine than 13,000 miles per year of urban stop and go driving over pothole cratered city streets.
Author, teaching Josh how to wash his car
So armed with this insight, I test drove the Acura. While it was loaded with lots of power accessories, they all still seemed to work. The leather interior was still fully intact, and quite frankly it looked like it had only half the miles as the rest of the car.
The cratered front end, by contrast, betrayed the true mileage of the car. Beyond that, the paint was still shiny. The headlights were cloudy, but that was easy enough to fix.
A year in, repairs have been of the minor variety: Oxygen sensor, Serpentine belt, fluids and tires. I added a Bluetooth adapter to the factory head unit.
While it is still too early to know for sure if my gamble paid off, Josh has been driving the TSX for almost a year now, and it has never left him stranded.
Josh is largely satisfied with the TSX, but in true Halter fashion, he’s already dreaming about his next ride. He’s dreaming big (370Z or Boxter), but I’ll let him have his dream for now: I’ll leave it to the cold reality of auto insurance to bring him back to earth.
But we all need to dream, as dreams can drive and motivate us. Some dreams, like my 1970 Lincoln, can take an entire lifetime to realize. What will be Josh’s car of a lifetime?
As a former owner of many 10+ old used cars, I will say all the high mileage purchases gave me less problems than low mileage ones. I figured a couple hundred thousand miles was enough to straighten out the kinks and a car with that much usage had to be taken care of
The reliability and durability wise.
In high mileage cars, the reliability and durability relating to the powerstrain is most important, and the rest is less a priority.
However I do have a Buick LeSabre with so many little things broken, even though the powerstrain is great. I’m glad it’s just my winter car.
For a high mileage car, one big thing is to make sure all the fluid/filter is fresh.
As a high mileage traveling salesman, I 2nd Tom’s #4. Most of our sales fleet cars go 800-1,000 miles week. The highest mileage units are take-home cars. The pool cars typically are much lower mileage. With a fleet pool car, you never know who or how it has been driven. The take-home cars typically have 1 driver who takes good care of it. Why not? You spend a lot of time in that car and the company pays maintenance. You have every incentive to keep it up. Many of our guys later but their company cars for personal use. I’ve bought several of my old company cars when my boys started driving. At around 250k miles, they had little value. Even fairly mediocre cars still had lots of service left. I think any well maintained modern car is easily good for 250k of highway use. Most will go much longer. I retire in about 18 months. I hope to buy my company car, a 2014 Chev SS then. It should have about 200k miles and won’t be worth much. The components I’ve seen as having the most wear on highway cars are suspension, tires, belts & hoses – all fairly normal replacement items. On the other hand, I often can reach 250k without needing brakes. When I plan to but a fleet unit, I try to time a major maintenance interval a few months before I buy the unit. Perhaps because of personal experience, I’ve never been afraid of high mileage cars – unless they’re Crown Vic’s or Chargers looking like cop out taxi units.
Ah, the simplicity of the earlier Acura grill. I have heard of owners of later TSXs changing out the beak for a JDM Accord grill.
Totally agree. This is the best looking Acuras ever.
Kid was probably smart to rule out the Fiesta (and newer Focus), for whatever reason; the DCT automatic hasn’t exactly showered itself in glory which is why depreciation on them is so bad.
That means manual ones are a lot of car for the money, but they’re unicorns on the market despite a higher-than-Ford-expected take rate; I expect the people who bought them new know (or find out quickly) how undervalued they are and decide to keep them.
Used manual trans vehicles are getting hard to find. I think owners are hanging on to them because of their automotive value to them, not financial value. I’m seeing this even with vehicles that are common as manuals … older Cherokees, Rangers and Toyota pickups. Ditto with 4 cylinder engines in these vehicles.
I have bought a couple of high mile cars, with pretty good experience. Both my 96 Odyssey and my 99 Town & Country were nearing 200k at purchase. Both fit your criteria of a long term owner and both cars looked and drove much younger than they actually were.
As might be expected, the Honda cost less in repairs than the Chrysler, but I maintained and used them as presentable primary use and not as winter beaters. Beater use would have kept the Chryslers cost down as there were several issues I could have ignored.
On the flip side, my daughter is driving a 98 Civic with maybe 65k on it (grandma’s car) and it has been quite trouble-free too. It can be hard to beat a good Honda.
I learned to wash cars when i was 11. My father built a new house in Northeastern Ohio with a two car garage equipped with 2 french drains and hot and cold water. I asked why the hot water and he repled “so your hands don’t freeze while you wash the cars.”
He would say, “you have just enough time to wash the cars before supper”. In the winter I was in my own cloud caused by warm water and cold air. My go to product was Dupont 33 powdered car wash. I dried the glass, but the remainder was dry by morning. He drove to work through the slush and the slop, and I repeated my washing.
I never minded car wash duty. My 4 buckle boots kept me dry and I learned not to stub your cold fingers. 60 years later, I still wash my cars, but in Southwest Florida.
Memories! I remember helping Dad wash the old ’55 Morris Oxford. As a travelling salesman, he washed his car every week. He was only 5’6″, so had to open the door and stand on the sill to reach the centre of the roof. He started me off doing the chrome, then as I grew the sides, until I could take over and do the whole thing while he sat upstairs listening to the races. No way a fair division of labour, but I thought it was great fun being given the responsibility of backing the car our into the small yard without hitting the staircase.
We never had the luxury of hot water though!
The problem I’ve found with older cars of luxury brands like Acura and Infiniti is that they still charge a fortune for the parts. A $1,100 muffler on a 18-year old Infiniti? Luckily, an aftermarket muffler was “only” $400.
Luckily the TSX is based upon the Accord so it likely shares a lot of parts with its much more common cousin. The flip-side is that an older Japanese luxury brand car is that they tend to still be very reliable so the repairs aren’t that often.
Best of luck with the TSX – I always considered the first generation the best looking of the bunch.
The ’86 Jetta I bought in ’91 had about 110k highway miles on it, quite a few for a 5 year old car. At $2000 it was a good deal, needed tires, AC dehydrator and charge, rear brakes, belts and a front wheel bearing and CV boot. Initial repairs cost about $300 at that time. Since I bought it it was a daily work car in lots of bumper to bumper traffic, but has held up well with over 300k miles on it now. Even paint and interior are still very good. Stick shift gas engine. I agree highway miles are very easy on a car and are a good bet for a low priced car with a lot of mostly trouble free miles left on it if the car is a durable model to begin with. Easy to work on, parts are cheap and easy to get thanks to the internet ( Mk2 built until 2013 in China).
Today it’s mostly an around town grocery getter and longer trips are reserved for the Titan, but I still would trust it on a longer trip if needed.
I bought a used 08 Kia Sedona with 152k on it. Decided to get it as opposed to the Odyssey (trans) Sienna (cost) T&C (reliability) and since my own Spectra has never given me probs in 140k. Ended up making a good profit working in the Sedona and parts have been cheap (also pays to be friends with good techs!). Ive been able to do one thing after another using name brand parts from RockAuto. I no longer have my business but ive got a really comfy travelling car for taking friends or borrowing out to my family
Love the car washing management and labor photo.
I was honored when my father started to let me help him wash our cars (1950 Buick and 1953 Packard). When he gave me full reign to do the whole job, including the chamois cleaning of all windows outside and inside, I knew I had earned his trust and respect. He had a brush thingy that attached to the hose for wetting, soaping, washing and rinsing. It fit perfectly between the Buick’s “teeth” for a complete cleaning.
To this day I prefer to wash my cars, even though the Tacoma’s tallish roof requires an extension wand.
Grills are a lot easier to clean these days.
I’m keeping all my oil change and maintenance records to show to the next owner that he’s making a good bet by buying my car when I’m ready to sell it. I intend to run the warranty out and perhaps make it to the end of the payment period before I sell with 120,000 on it after 6 years. About 2/3 of those miles will be highway miles.
I’ve had some great used cars with over 100,000 on them. All were Japanese.
I can relate to all of the points made in this article, especially the caveats regarding high mileage vehicles.
4 years ago, my wife and I bought a 2002 Buick Regal LS. We bought it because she drove it and loved it. It had 95,000 miles on it (which I considered high, but I go back a ways in age. Now, it isn’t a large number of miles at all).
That car was remarkably trouble-free. It had a clean Carfax. 2 previous owners had taken very good care of it. All that we ever had to do to it was maintenance.
2 years ago, we bought Buick #2, a 2003 LeSabre. 32,000 original one-owner miles.
Same bulletproof 3800 V-6. And yet every time I turned around, something was getting fixed on it – new hubs, rust repair, etc. Also, it had a dismaying tendency after driving long distances for the ABS to act up. No codes, of course. My wife never did trust it for driving. I recently traded it off.
The moral of the story here is that high mileage with good maintenance is not a detriment. And low mileage with so-so maintenance can cause equal amounts of grief when it comes to repairs and upkeep.
One of the cars I considered as a replacement for my rapidly aging 97 Civic was a 1st generation TSX. Unfortunately, besides most of them having high mileages, it seems as though 99.9% had automatic transmissions.
Would love to find a low mileage TSX sportwagon. They are quite rare, I’ve only seen 3 or 4 of them.
Re: Car washing………… 2013 Ford Escape // 2016 Subaru Outback
I wash both my cars on a weekly basis, they never require hand washing or soap due to dirt and grime buildup. I live in a fairly warm climate and always avoid driving on dusty dirt roads. What I have found that works best for me is to go to a local do it yourself “soft water” pressure car wash, I power wash and rinse using clear water only.
In the past I would use the spot free rinse cycle but found out it built up a film/haze on all the glass so I quit that. The secret is that I use Collinite 845 on each car twice a year, It’s super easy to apply and wipe off. While car is still wet I drive about 2 miles to a park, by the time I get there the car is 90% dry with zero water spots. Only wiping I have to do is on the tailgate and door jams. The water just blows off thanks to the C-845.
I can highly recommend this product…………..
This is one of the best cars ever sold to the public. The passenger side front door lock solenoid fails on many of the cars as they reach a decade or so old, but that is it.
Agreed. I really wanted one at the time. Too bad there wasn’t a wagon version available. Our TSX (next gen) is so much fatter.
A short and sweet comment – I love the version one TSX, I drove several while working with Acura, both A/T and 6SPDs, and loved the cars. Detractors called them just 4DR RSX’s, but they apparently never drove the TSX. They’re finished very well, the only extra-cost option I remember was getting navigation in addition to the no-cost choice of whether to shift for yourself or not. The advantage to your son is that it’s a real sport sedan, and because it’s a four-door, the under-25 crowd get a break on their insurance as opposed to kids with 2DR Civics and the like who get soaked just because it has two less doors!. I hope he’s been happy with it the past year. Well done.
I love high mileage cars. But the problem I have run into is that the simplest of fender benders total the car. A 2005 TSX is a good deal at 5k but to an insurance company it is worth near to nothing.
Just buy it back from the insurance company and fix the car yourself. Or not fix it depending on how bad the damage is and your willingness to drive a car that’s dented or has a scrape down the side.
I agree it is sad to see perfectly good older cars getting scrapped by the insurance companies after fender benders for easily repairable damage, or in some cases minor damage that is purely cosmetic.
Joining the high mileage corner – until my last car, all my cars were like this, what they call “Autobahn-Wagen” here. Constant speed with all fluids warmed up properly (assuming regular maintenance) can extend a car’s life greatly. In a sense it is akin to the way in which trucks operate and they reach Methuselah-like mileages before tear down and overhaul.
I know this is about high mileage but I’m focused on the greatness of this Acura design. There is a purity, a cleaness to the TSX they have never before or after gotten right. The horizontal, non-gimmicky tail lights have a richness other companies never quite get. Honda/Acura nailed this one.