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2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
Disappointing but not unexpected the announcement of discontinuing the TLX. I think it got a bit too expensive and the limited room in the backseat area didn't help. It is a sharp car with few buyers. Alas
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
Sedans all going away.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
In almost 14 years of ownership he's spent $16,000 on maintenance and repairs, giving a cost per mile of just over 6 cents. He says this is the lowest of any car he's ever owned.
So far I've spent $2700 on maintenance driving almost 90,000 miles on my 2018 TLX, which means my cost per mile is only a little over 3 cents. So half the cost per mile!
Anyway, he takes good care of this ILX, but it's also parked outside mostly in the hot Arizona sun, plus once in a while he drives it on dirt roads, has driven it all the way to Alaska and back, etc. He says he plans to keep driving it to 300k and beyond as his daily driver.
Driving to Alaska does sound like it might be an interesting adventure someday. Doubt I'll ever do it, but maybe I'll think about it at least.
When we sold it in 2013, it had around 205K miles
I'd estimate that I spent an easy $0.50 per mile on it, in those two years..
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The answer Acura management has come up with is to pivot to hybrids, but apparently they won't be arriving until 2027 or so. Two years from now seems like a long time in automotive years.
As an Acura fan it's discouraging. Still love my TLX, but currently Acura makes nothing that interests me. A 2025 TLX Tech FWD lists for $47k, and discounts don't seem large. Admittedly I got a steal, but in 2018 mine was about 29k + fees and taxes. Started out as a lease and then I bought it out. List was 37K on mine, but a 10K price increase in 7 years seems steep to me, even for a more powerful vehicle.
I have 2 dealers sending frequent solicitations that they really want to buy our current RDX (and at 28K miles and over maintained, why wouldn't they?) Just no point in putting cash into a deal for a new one that is almost identical to the current one.
at least we don't have to worry too much if Acura goes out of business, since it's just a glorified Honda anyway!
new product is desperately needed, and going big on hybrids seems like a really smart idea.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
For the next five years Edmunds guestimates that I'm going to need to spend about $8800 to keep my TLX in top shape through the year 2030. My guess at the moment, however, is that if I keep it that long I can hold combined maintenance and repairs to around $4000 or so, but maybe I'm fooling myself about that. Part of how I'm planning to deal with that is by spreading out the items in the 100k service over about three years. The Maintenance Minder code for spark plugs is 4, and I'm not planning on changing the spark plugs until that code comes up. Maybe it'll come up like clock-work at 100k, but I'm wondering if like with the oil changes the fact that more than half of my miles are on the highway might extend the life of the spark plugs a bit? Who knows. It does seem like Acura collector Tyson Hugie drove well over 100k on the iridium spark plugs in his 2013 ILX, which is now at 250k.
So far I've been driving an average of about 12,500 miles a year for my first seven years. I really don't know if I'll keep up that level of traveling or not in the future. My guess is yes, at least for a while, but again I don't want to jinx myself, and since I'm now sixty it makes it even more uncertain what the future holds.
From all I've read, however, it seems like a well-maintained non-turbo Acura has the potential to have a life-span even longer than a Honda, maybe even to 200k. Honda's legendary 2.4 engine is strengthened and upgraded in a few ways for the TLX. Looking at engine tear downs, for instance, you can see that the Acura piston rods are stronger and heavier than those in a Honda engine.
PS If that depreciation chart is more or less on target, in five more years my car won't have that much resale or trade-in value left. It's worth maybe about $14k now, and so if it has 11k more of depreciation by 2030 it might have a value of maybe 3k. Shocking. But if I drive it that long and keep going with my current annual miles it'll be at around 150,000 miles. I paid around 29k for it back in 2018, and it's maybe a unusual way to look at it, but that would mean only around $2k a year. But now I do feel like I might be jinxing myself. So...knock on wood lol.
https://www.edmunds.com/acura/tlx/2019/cost-to-own/
Increased intake flow:
Intake valve + 1 mm oversize (Intake valve head measures 36mm, but valve seat still measures 35mm)
Intake cam High lift lobe with 0.9 mm more lift and 12 degrees more duration
Throttle body increased from 60–64 mm
Radius on some intake pipes increased from 70–80 mm
Increased exhaust flow
Exhaust Head pipe increased from 60–65 mm
Higher flow catalytic converter
Main (single) exhaust pipe increased from 54–57 mm
Rear (twin) pipes increased in diameter from 42.5 to 45 mm
Block improvements:
Additional air passages in crankcase for reduced pumping losses
Others
Stronger connecting rods
New crankshaft with more counterbalance weight
Revised pistons with more valve-piston clearance
Under-piston oil squirters
From about ten minutes in on this video.
I've been fascinated by cars since I was a kid, starting around the age five or so. I remember watching car ads on tv even as a child, and being fascinated by the claims of "lowest priced car in America," as well as an ad that I think showed a VW bug floating on water.
Since starting to drive in 1980 I've been more and more impressed over the years with how important having the right car is. A good car can sometimes save your life. The wrong car might be not only annoying but very costly. Even trying to be careful, I've made a fair number of car buying mistakes over the years, including a VW Jetta and a Ford Focus, and so I try to be even more careful now, and try to reason through my car decisions.
For instance, right now it seems to make sense to keep my Acura long-term, like you have. I've long admired Acuras, but for years before owning one believed some articles that implied that Acuras were just fancy Hondas, with engines that were basically the same. But over the years I've learned that our Acura K24 engines are actually better than Honda K24 engines in probably about a dozen significant ways. Learning about these things makes holding onto my TLX seem like a wise move at this point, rather than trading it in on a new Camry hybrid, for instance...
At that point I'm going to see if they'll let me actually talk with the technician working on my car, instead of the service advisor, who is focused on the biggest upsell possible no matter how unneeded.
Anyway, if they let me talk to the technician, I might say something along with the lines of "If this was your car, and you had around $600 to spend each visit for the next three years, what would you prioritize?" My guess is transmission fluid service and radiator fluid next time, but we'll see what he says.
If, knock on wood, the TLX gets to around 102,000 toward the end of 2026, maybe we'll do the valve adjustments, as shown on this video below in a K24 in a CR-V that's very similar. As you can tell, the valve adjustments are tricky and take this very experienced person c. 15 minutes or so. For a less experienced person might be double or triple that....The used iridium spark plugs on this CR-V still look pretty good at 100k. I might try pushing out doing the plugs...knock on wood again.
Just go hang out around the back door at lunch time, and chat one of them up.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
I am skeptical about needing the valves adjusted. I know that the recommendation is checking and adjusting as needed, and wonder how often they are off enough to matter, especially if the car is running fine. But if you are looking to cut cost, I would probably do all the fluids first. Plugs, pull one and see how it looks, or just go ahead and change them (easy on the K24). so new plugs, coolant and trans fluid, seems like a good 1st step.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Original msrp was about $55,000, and yet used the price is probably only a couple of thousand more than a used 1-owner top-of-the-line Accord V-6 from 2017. My guess is that this RLX still has at least 100,000 good miles in it if well cared for.
Interesting to me is the the owner bought it at Huffman Acura, and serviced it there for the first few years, but then switched to other places for service. I've seen this in the carfax records of some other cars, where they go to the dealer for the first few years, and then maybe get tired of the upsells on unneeded stuff and try to save money by going to other places. My approach instead is to filter out the unneeded upsells from the things that are needed, but keep it all at the Acura service center.
https://www.acuraatoxmoor.com/auto/used-2017-acura-rlx-louisville-ky/109287842/
Those always seemed like 5/4 scale Accords to me.
I did that with dealers. Bought from whichever localish place had what I wanted at the best price then took it for service at the most convenient (or best in my opinion) dealer. I never had a service department care.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Was talking to my wife yesterday about my former TLX. We both really liked that car. Should have kept it.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I know it isn’t the same, but I really liked our 06 TL. It was a great balance of sport and luxury.
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
Back in the 80s and 90s I remember hearing about engine failures on turbo Volvos, Saabs, etc., and I said to myself that I'd try to avoid turbos.
But by 2018 when we got our CR-V with the 1.5 turbo I was gambling that Honda and others had solved the inherent problems with turbos, but it doesn't seem like that's the case. Our CR-V engine has the oil dilution with gasoline issue from short trips, but otherwise has been okay so far, knock on wood. But still the greater heat and complexity of a turbo just seems like asking for trouble. A recent article in a car magazine I read suggested that Honda might phase out most of its turbos in favor of hybrids by 2030.
Anyway, I'm glad my TLX isn't a turbo. Looking through the TLX group today some people with the 2.4 are getting well over 150k miles with just regular maintenance. One guy even had 300,000 miles on his 2015 TLX 2.4.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.