2003 Acura MDX

[SirRobyn0]

Well I need a distraction from the BS going on in my life right now so I thought I'd start this thread just to discuss my unexpected new car! I wasn't looking for a new automobile this thing just fell into my lap and I couldn't say no.

It's a 2003 Acura MDX, that was owned by a customer of mine. When I first serviced the vehicle it had 70K on it, and today it has 212K. He has kept the body and interior in VERY good shape, and he's had me do whatever it needed mechanically. He was always the kind of guy that would authorize whatever it needed. He just bought a new VW Touareg (yuk), and he did not trade the MDX in because his adult son was interested in it. He had it in the shop to have two things fixed, before giving it to his son. It was due for timing belt, and the battery has been going dead on him. So he authorizes the work and one of the guys gets to it. Because he'd dropped it off late in the day, one of the guys tore down the timing belt stuff and then went home planning to complete the work the next day. Next day I come in and there is a voice message from the owner asking if we'd started the work or not because his son went out and bought a car and now doesn't want it. A short conversation on the phone with the owner, and he wants us to stop work, he doesn't want to deal with selling it and can we have it hauled off for scrap! I reminded him if we complete the work he could sell it for far more than the cost of the timing belt. Nope he's not interested, he just wants it to go away. I asked if he'd sell it to someone at the shop. He said nope, but he'd give it to one of us if any of us wanted "that old beater". I did the right thing and asked the mechanic that had torn it down if he wanted it... Nope. So I said I'd take it. That conversation occurred this yesterday and hour later he was in the office signing the title. I tried again to get him to let us finish the work so he could sell it. Nope, he doesn't want to "deal with" selling a "beater" car.

So now I've got this thing. I finished up the timing belt job yesterday afternoon and put a new battery in it. I'll drive it a bit at lunch today just to get a feel for it, but I can't take it home yet. Monday I'll drive the Jeep in, leave the Jeep at the shop and drive the MDX for the week. Then I'll drive it around as my daily driver, on days I don't need the square, for the 4 - 6 weeks it'll take for the title to arrive. That'll be my trail period. I'm not really a MDX kind of guy, the exterior looks are ok I suppose, but I don't need or want all the bells and whistles on this thing, but my Jeep is sooo worn out. My Jeep was pretty beat up when I got it 100K ago, and the MDX is in really nice shape. Plus I don't own anything that gets any kind of reasonable gas mileage. The truck gets 11 on my commute, the Jeep does 12 (5.2L Grand Cherokee) the MDX ought to be 17 - 18ish on my commute according to the user data on fueleconomy.gov That's nearly 1/3 better mileage than the Jeep. Plus it's a little bigger and has more foot space in the front, which is important, for me do to my foot issues. And my dogs (danes) will like the added space in the back, and the rear heat & A/C the Jeep doesn't have. The MDX has a roof rack, and a trailer hitch, that looks like it's never has a receiver in it. While I wouldn't think of it as a good towing vehicle I have been known to use a hitch carrier and or roof carrier on trips. So it's not a vehicle I really want, but it does check all the needs boxes as far as replacing the Jeep which is what it would do if we keep it. If it works out well, I'm sure it'll grow on me. And if we hate the thing I'll sell it, and have some extra money to put into the truck and Jeep.

Pictures!

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I should grab an under hood pic for ya'll. It's got the 3.5L V6 and the 5 speed auto transmission AWD, all the bells and whistles inside including sunroof and heated seats.

 

[ChuckN]

I’d rock it, why not?

The Toyotas and Hondas we’ve had have been absolute champs. The Sienna I have has the character of a kitchen appliance, but it is dead reliable. If it works for you and no car payment, no downside?

That said, I’d like to print some “my other car is a squarebody “ stickers for those of us who have the need to redeem ourselves for our daily drivers.

 

[mxer147]

Sweet, a camper special with the back seat removed.

 

[77 K20]

Nice score! And looks to be very clean. And why the hate of VW Touaregs? I have 3 of them. They serve their purpose... All depends on what you are used to.

 

[scrap--metal]

Nice score! I like your "trial period" idea while waiting for the title.

Like you, I have no desire to own a vehicle like that, but I have enough sense that I wouldn't pass on that offer either.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I’d rock it, why not?

The Toyotas and Hondas we’ve had have been absolute champs. The Sienna I have has the character of a kitchen appliance, but it is dead reliable. If it works for you and no car payment, no downside?

That said, I’d like to print some “my other car is a squarebody “ stickers for those of us who have the need to redeem ourselves for our daily drivers.

I agree with all of that. I definitely prefer older American rigs. To me it's the Jeep vs the MDX, as the MDX appears to be better suited for most of my needs, it's just like you said it feels like it has the character of a kitchen appliance. It's not my style at all.

My only real concern is one of the reasons we bought the Jeep was it's ability on the beach. The the 1996 Grand Cherokee's AWD is more akin to full time four wheel drive.

Sweet, a camper special with the back seat removed.

Ya, we have a 05' Chrysler T&C we have done that with, and yea there'd be enough room in the MDX!

Nice score! And looks to be very clean. And why the hate of VW Touaregs? I have 3 of them. They serve their purpose... All depends on what you are used to.

Thanks, I don't hate them at all Touaregs but they are not the right vehicle for me. Also I don't like working on them, but which would apply to most VW's. I generally try not to own vehicles that I consider to be hard to work on. Which is one thing that the MDX has going for it, those 3.5L engines in the MDX frame are pretty easy to work on for the most part.

Nice score! I like your "trial period" idea while waiting for the title.

Like you, I have no desire to own a vehicle like that, but I have enough sense that I wouldn't pass on that offer either.

I drove it around for about 45 minutes on my lunch hour today, and if I'm honest, and it's hard for me to admit this..... I rather enjoyed it! I discovered a couple of problems, one is that it tends to want to pull to the left when I put the skinny pedal all the way down, and it seems like the fan for the rear heat and A/C is inop. The climate control, which is a set it to desired temp and forget it type, worked far better than the one on the Jeep ever did, and what I mean by that is the Jeep always seemed to hunt for temp a little bit. It would blow heat to the desired temp, then the air would turn cool, and then hot, and it would do that for probably about the first 15 minutes or so. The Acura just warmed up the cabin and kept it there without me noticing squat for air flow changes.

 

[Soundmound]

If you decide it's not for you, I'd be interested.

 

[Grit dog]

Congrats on the new whip! That thing is super clean. And can’t beat the price, or Honda reliability in general.
I’d call it a real score and if I was a betting man, I’d bet you guys will be driving it for a good long while!
Agree, they don’t have a lot of “character” but there are way way uglier vehicles you could have had dropped in your lap. It’s just a nice respectable mid size suv.

 

[SirRobyn0]

If you decide it's not for you, I'd be interested.

Ok, then you'll have first crack at it if we decide to sell it.

Congrats on the new whip! That thing is super clean. And can’t beat the price, or Honda reliability in general.
I’d call it a real score and if I was a betting man, I’d bet you guys will be driving it for a good long while!
Agree, they don’t have a lot of “character” but there are way way uglier vehicles you could have had dropped in your lap. It’s just a nice respectable mid size suv.

Thanks. It's actually so clean inside, I kept thinking to myself when I drove it a bit on Thursday that I'm going to be putting my dirty boots on the floor and the dogs in the back, and it's sooo clean now! lol.

I hope you are right, about us liking it and keeping it. We like to take weekend trips when we can and I don't feel like we have a really good car anymore. My wife's 05' Chrysler T&C is still nice enough to be in for a trip, but we have had enough issues with it I don't trust it like I use to. And the Jeep is kind of the same. Neither have left us stranded though. I'm looking forward to running around in it next week and seeing how it goes.

 

[Grit dog]

@SirRobyn0, and the cost of nice older used cars around here seems to be perpetually more expensive than it should be.
I literally never pass on a deal on an older commuter. Because they are generally a money maker or at a minimum, basically free transportation after selling it.
Last 5 years or so I’ve bought a handful of “nice” “beaters” and with what I’ve made off selling most of them I might be close to $0 out of pocket now. (Not counting my time and basic repairs etc, fortunately haven’t had any major failures to upset the $ thing)
01 Tahoe 100k miles, $5k purchase $8k sale put 25k miles or so on it.
Another 01 Tahoe, $5k purchase, $4k sale, but it was subsequently crashed once, dented and had some issues. Put about 20k miles on it.
99Durango, under 100k, $3500 purchase, $6800 sale, put about 15k miles on it. Would still be rocking that one still, it was in VERY good shape, but the Camaro came along.
99 Camaro, 6cyl 5 speed, 64k miles, almost new condition. $4500
Still have that one.
So up about $5k minus maybe $1500-2k in tires and parts etc. But all but the crash wagon got complete fluid changes, tune up etc.
That’s been my way of having a cheap winter vehicle for my wife and now cheap kid vehicles. And both kids did/do drive ALOT of miles.

Also bought a Versa a few years ago for my sister that I didn’t end up giving her….long story. Flipped that one for $1000 more iirc.

Kicker is, is you almost need to check CL once or twice a day and then be right place right time and it’s random what/when you’ll find something. Generally when it’s time for a new beater it takes a couple months of CL surfing before something good that’s underpriced pops up.
Fck Marketplace. I’ve trolled Marketplace ad nausem and have never found a deal there. I still do, but never expect to find anything.
I always just search CL in about a 250 mile radius and make sure to get the Portland area in the circle. Search by owner, “low miles” is all I ever search. Except sometimes “needs” pops up some potential deals but 99% clapped out junk, and rarely “grandma” or “grandpa” brings up nicer old low-decent mile stuff.
I only look for low miles (relative of course) as you can knock out another 20k miles or more and they’re still “low miles” when you sell.

 

[Grit dog]

Sorry to hijack your thread but figured it’s worth sharing. Not magic but a little technique to find decent older used cars in a world/market where now with the internet, almost every single person seems unreasonable and high when selling some old car or truck. Because they can see and cherry pick every similar vehicle out there and automatically think theirs “has to be” worth what whatever the most expensive ones are asking priced.
Not like the old days when you could rely on a greater % of people being a little less “informed “ about what their old car was worth!

 

[SirRobyn0]

@SirRobyn0, and the cost of nice older used cars around here seems to be perpetually more expensive than it should be.
I literally never pass on a deal on an older commuter. Because they are generally a money maker or at a minimum, basically free transportation after selling it.
Last 5 years or so I’ve bought a handful of “nice” “beaters” and with what I’ve made off selling most of them I might be close to $0 out of pocket now. (Not counting my time and basic repairs etc, fortunately haven’t had any major failures to upset the $ thing)
01 Tahoe 100k miles, $5k purchase $8k sale put 25k miles or so on it.
Another 01 Tahoe, $5k purchase, $4k sale, but it was subsequently crashed once, dented and had some issues. Put about 20k miles on it.
99Durango, under 100k, $3500 purchase, $6800 sale, put about 15k miles on it. Would still be rocking that one still, it was in VERY good shape, but the Camaro came along.
99 Camaro, 6cyl 5 speed, 64k miles, almost new condition. $4500
Still have that one.
So up about $5k minus maybe $1500-2k in tires and parts etc. But all but the crash wagon got complete fluid changes, tune up etc.
That’s been my way of having a cheap winter vehicle for my wife and now cheap kid vehicles. And both kids did/do drive ALOT of miles.

Also bought a Versa a few years ago for my sister that I didn’t end up giving her….long story. Flipped that one for $1000 more iirc.

Kicker is, is you almost need to check CL once or twice a day and then be right place right time and it’s random what/when you’ll find something. Generally when it’s time for a new beater it takes a couple months of CL surfing before something good that’s underpriced pops up.
Fck Marketplace. I’ve trolled Marketplace ad nausem and have never found a deal there. I still do, but never expect to find anything.
I always just search CL in about a 250 mile radius and make sure to get the Portland area in the circle. Search by owner, “low miles” is all I ever search. Except sometimes “needs” pops up some potential deals but 99% clapped out junk, and rarely “grandma” or “grandpa” brings up nicer old low-decent mile stuff.
I only look for low miles (relative of course) as you can knock out another 20k miles or more and they’re still “low miles” when you sell.

The only real deal I've gotten off market place was my softopper. Other than that, yes CL. Look a lot of farm related stuff on CL and also sell a bit. Whenever I advertise turkeys for meat, or eggs it's on CL, Fucketplace won't let me advertise birds for meat or eggs, because it's against their animal trafficking and abuse policy. Really selling eggs is apparently abuse to them grrrrr..... But what do I know I'm just a stupid chicken farmer lol.

I've never been a car flipper. But I've had a few fall into my lap from one of the shops I've worked at. Most of the time when someone wants to get rid of a car at the shop, the vehicle is done and not worth fixing or very close to it. Come to think of it the only other Honda I've owned was a 1985 Accord, from the shop I worked at, at the time. It needed a head gasket as it was leaking coolant externally from the head gasket and was not worth fixing, it was very rusty, and had a lot of long term mechanical neglect. I drove it as a commuter for about 1 1/2 years simply adding coolant and stop leak to it regularly. After that it sat at the Goodyear I was managing and I let the guys use it whenever someone needed a vehicle to drive for a day or two. Eventually it would suddenly and unexpectedly drop the #2 intake valve into the cylinder. But for the time I owned that car it was gas and oil and drive, even if it was a complete POS.

When I bought the Jeep, the vehicle the MDX might replace I looked at a couple that "were clapped out junk", but I was looking for a deal. I'd totaled a Toyota pickup and got I think $2,500 for it. I wanted to buy something for around $1,500 and have 1K left to fix it up with. I believe it took 6 weeks to find the Jeep. I always tell people you have to patient when looking for a good used vehicle. I put a lot of miles on that Jeep mostly early on. Had no plan to replace it, I'll take a free upgrade!

Sorry to hijack your thread but figured it’s worth sharing. Not magic but a little technique to find decent older used cars in a world/market where now with the internet, almost every single person seems unreasonable and high when selling some old car or truck. Because they can see and cherry pick every similar vehicle out there and automatically think theirs “has to be” worth what whatever the most expensive ones are asking priced.
Not like the old days when you could rely on a greater % of people being a little less “informed “ about what their old car was worth!

No apology needed I find the discussion interesting. I certainly agree the price of a used vehicle has gone to helll. I pretty much decided year before last that we'd be keeping everything we have for the foreseeable future. If I sell the Jeep I'd be happy if I could at least recoop the cost of the rebuilt transmission from the fall of 2022. I'm not sure if I can get close to $3K for a GC with near 300K on the clock....

 

[FireTruck1984]

Well I need a distraction from the BS going on in my life right now so I thought I'd start this thread just to discuss my unexpected new car! I wasn't looking for a new automobile this thing just fell into my lap and I couldn't say no.

It's a 2003 Acura MDX, that was owned by a customer of mine. When I first serviced the vehicle it had 70K on it, and today it has 212K. He has kept the body and interior in VERY good shape, and he's had me do whatever it needed mechanically. He was always the kind of guy that would authorize whatever it needed. He just bought a new VW Touareg (yuk), and he did not trade the MDX in because his adult son was interested in it. He had it in the shop to have two things fixed, before giving it to his son. It was due for timing belt, and the battery has been going dead on him. So he authorizes the work and one of the guys gets to it. Because he'd dropped it off late in the day, one of the guys tore down the timing belt stuff and then went home planning to complete the work the next day. Next day I come in and there is a voice message from the owner asking if we'd started the work or not because his son went out and bought a car and now doesn't want it. A short conversation on the phone with the owner, and he wants us to stop work, he doesn't want to deal with selling it and can we have it hauled off for scrap! I reminded him if we complete the work he could sell it for far more than the cost of the timing belt. Nope he's not interested, he just wants it to go away. I asked if he'd sell it to someone at the shop. He said nope, but he'd give it to one of us if any of us wanted "that old beater". I did the right thing and asked the mechanic that had torn it down if he wanted it... Nope. So I said I'd take it. That conversation occurred this yesterday and hour later he was in the office signing the title. I tried again to get him to let us finish the work so he could sell it. Nope, he doesn't want to "deal with" selling a "beater" car.

So now I've got this thing. I finished up the timing belt job yesterday afternoon and put a new battery in it. I'll drive it a bit at lunch today just to get a feel for it, but I can't take it home yet. Monday I'll drive the Jeep in, leave the Jeep at the shop and drive the MDX for the week. Then I'll drive it around as my daily driver, on days I don't need the square, for the 4 - 6 weeks it'll take for the title to arrive. That'll be my trail period. I'm not really a MDX kind of guy, the exterior looks are ok I suppose, but I don't need or want all the bells and whistles on this thing, but my Jeep is sooo worn out. My Jeep was pretty beat up when I got it 100K ago, and the MDX is in really nice shape. Plus I don't own anything that gets any kind of reasonable gas mileage. The truck gets 11 on my commute, the Jeep does 12 (5.2L Grand Cherokee) the MDX ought to be 17 - 18ish on my commute according to the user data on fueleconomy.gov That's nearly 1/3 better mileage than the Jeep. Plus it's a little bigger and has more foot space in the front, which is important, for me do to my foot issues. And my dogs (danes) will like the added space in the back, and the rear heat & A/C the Jeep doesn't have. The MDX has a roof rack, and a trailer hitch, that looks like it's never has a receiver in it. While I wouldn't think of it as a good towing vehicle I have been known to use a hitch carrier and or roof carrier on trips. So it's not a vehicle I really want, but it does check all the needs boxes as far as replacing the Jeep which is what it would do if we keep it. If it works out well, I'm sure it'll grow on me. And if we hate the thing I'll sell it, and have some extra money to put into the truck and Jeep.

Pictures!

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I should grab an under hood pic for ya'll. It's got the 3.5L V6 and the 5 speed auto transmission AWD, all the bells and whistles inside including sunroof and heated seats.

Hey ! I owned that same car… Same year, Same color. I absolutely loved it! My sister still has it, I gifted it to her.

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[Redfish]

I don't see anything at all wrong with that vehicle. Style is good for weekends and special events. Reliability and comfort are good for everything else.

This entire deal is proof that Good Things happen to Good People. Enjoy it or sell it and enjoy whatever it helps you purchase.

 

[Grit dog]

Well, regardless of my paragraphs of drivel above, I’m happy to see you get a sweet ride for a heck of a deal to ease the pressure on the rest of the fleet. (Esp the square, don’t wanna wear that beauty out!) At this point, I’d keep the Jeep and drive the wheels off of it, I’d say. There are so many of them out there, dime a dozen really that I think it’s real worth is as a solid backup vehicle you can likely still use for years. Plus it’s not a half bad wheeler!
Enjoy the MDX! Cheers