2003 Acura CL Type S 6 spd MT - NMBA

EDIT: SOLD

NMBA - Not mine but associated...

I went over to my parents this past weekend to pick up my Dad so that he could road trip with me to pick up Nate99Lx 2005 Focus ZX4 ST. My sister was there and asked if I was interested in buying her car instead. I knew she had an older Acura, but never paid attention to what model or any of the details about it. Her initial comments were that it had a V6, 6 speed, and was pretty quick.

It is a 2003 Acura CL Type S with a 6 speed manual transmission. It currently has 177k miles. She bought it from a family friend that lives in Indianapolis with 85k miles on it in 2012. The person she bought it from was very detail oriented and provided her with a 3” binder of the maintenance history but her husband threw it out when organizing their office area (yep, that sucks).

Her maintenance consisted of having the oil changed when the maintenance reminder would come on. She did use synthetic oil. She also uses premium fuel in it. I would assume that most other maintenance has been minimal to none. I am reaching out to the previous owner to see if the timing belt has been changed as my sister believes he had it done. EDIT: Contacted prior owner and no record of the timing belt being changed.

I drove it for the first time yesterday and I did not note any concerns aside from a minor shimmy when braking at lower speeds (felt like brake rotor but not 100% sure). The body is in good but not great shape. I did not find any evidence of rust on the body and I was impressed with the condition of the underbody upon casual review but I would want to get under it and photograph and inspect in detail if anyone here is interested in it. There are some scratches in the paint, a couple of quarter sized spots where the clear coat is peeled up, and a quarter size door ding, and some stress cracks in the front bumper paint. Again, I would want to go over this in more detail and photograph all problem areas to post if someone here shows interest.

The interior is decent but needs cleaned up and there is a stain on the passenger seat. I did not notice any rips or holes in the leather but again need to inspect more closely. I did not see signs of any leaks on the garage floor so I believe it to be relatively good from that perspective.

I tried to help her price it appropriately based on what I could find currently on the market. Obviously the high mileage was a big hit to the value. If the pricing is out of line, feel free to speak up, you won’t offend me. Asking $3500.

It is located in Hicksville, Ohio (NW corner of Ohio, zip 43526).

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will answer them as I can. I won’t make it back over there until the weekend.

Price for this ad is missing. 

Yeah, how much?  That has to be a quick and fun car.

I owned one of these for a couple years and it was a great car. Had to drive a couple hours to buy it when one popped up as a trade at an Acura dealership.

The j-series motor sounds great! Plus nice luxury touches. I think the only maintenance I ever had to do outside of oil changes was replacing the slave cylinder.

Sorry about that - added price to the body of the message as I did not see where I could edit the header.

Asking price is $3500.

Is that a tan leather car? How is the rust on it? Seems like it was a northern car it's whole life. 

In reply to bmw88rider :

Yes, it is a tan leather car. My initial review is that I did not see any sign of rust or bubbling under the paint indicating rust.

The underbody looked much better than I expected for a 15 year old car in the mid-west. My definition of "better than expected" would be it had light surface rust on the unpainted and uncoated parts of the underbody. I need to get it in the air this weekend to get some photos and a more comprehensive report out.

Oof. This is more or less what I've been looking at, and I'm not far away. I'll think on whether I'm ready to pull the trigger or if this is a little too early for me..

I remember this car. It was super clean backwhen the original owner had it. 

In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :

Seriously Bob, you want to drive the beige Hyundai instead of this on One Lap? Seriously? 

That looks very clean for the year/miles. The V6/ 6 speed combo is glorious for commuting. If I didn't already have my Accord I'd be road tripping down to check it out. 

Only things that would give me pause are the potential for needing to replace both T-belt and Clutch. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :

Seriously Bob, you want to drive the beige Hyundai instead of this on One Lap? Seriously? 

NOPE. My H's are slanted baby. 

Erich said:

That looks very clean for the year/miles. The V6/ 6 speed combo is glorious for commuting. If I didn't already have my Accord I'd be road tripping down to check it out. 

Only things that would give me pause are the potential for needing to replace both T-belt and Clutch. 

yeah, at 175k its ready for belt #2. 

In the original post I did not know the status of the timing belt maintenance (or in this case, confirmed lack of). I have reviewed this with the owner and she agrees that a drop in price to at least cover the parts would make sense. I checked Rock Auto and their higher end timing belt kits including belt, tensioner, tensioner pulleys, water pump, and seals goes for $200. I know this doesn't include labor but this is GRM :)

I have adjusted the price to $3500 based on this. Thanks for the feedback.

I edited all previous post to reflect the new asking price of $3500 (was $3750).

My nephew has one that looks terrible next to that one and he thinks his is worth 6000, But there really are not many out there / around here.

J-series TB interval is 105k miles, at least the J35 in our '03 and '10 Odysseys were.  I did the TB and WP on both Odys and it's  really not a bad job, at least as packaged in the Ody it's not.  Our '03 had 255k miles when we traded it in on the '10 in the spring of '14.  It still ran wonderfully, and I'd bet that any J-series with a good maintenance history would reach this mark no problem.

Damn that's a neat car and I really wish I was in the market.   Alas, it's about 3 months too soon for me.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

IIRC from the 10 year I spent there at Acura, it was 90k up through 2003, then 105k after that. 

Edit: the MDX (3.5) made the change in 03. 01/02 were similar to the CL/TL of same vintage. The water pump and timing belt are physically different for hte 04-up 3.2 than the 99-03 TL/CL.

Sorry, needed to purge that little nugget from the memory banks. Hopefully now I can remember something new. Or maybe not forget how to walk. 

PM sent!

A few more photos - interior and underside

Price reduced to $3200.

Price reduced to $3000.

Someone buy this so I don't have to

I like it but I have been casually trying to find one for challenge he money for the last couple years. 

i want it but the timing is wrong.

SOLD - thanks to those that expressed interest. My nephew's Civic took a crap on him and now he is the proud owner of an Acura Cl.