Honestly my friend if you can’t handle a used car, don’t buy a used car 
All the things that you mentioned are common/easy/cheap issues on this particular car. Check Acurazine. If you’re thinking to pay $800 for an oil pan leak (are you sure it’s not the rear main??) then yeah, you should definitely just lease 
let us know how we can help you. It’s up to you to do the research and work to figure out what’s the ‘cheapest lease’ in your region.
4 Likes
Oil pan gasket 20 bucks, 6 pack 6 bucks, pizza 10 bucks, couple hours on ramps… fixed for less than 50
3 Likes
Yes! Actually even cheaper, the gasket is just HondaBond which is about 10 bucks a tube. However the downpipe needs to be dropped which is, uh, not fun after 10 years of rust.
But I’ve honestly never heard of an oil pan leak on a J series that hadn’t had its pan off before. That’s what makes me think slow rear main seal leak based on the $800 quote, which is a relatively common/benign issue and should be done with the timing belt service at 100k when it’s accessible.
I know you NEEDED that Honda knowledge.
3 Likes
Sell it privately, I was upside down $4k on my Subaru crosstrek, and wanted in at a new car. Sold mine for $5k, it had 160k miles.
Let me ask You guys what is best way to negotiate lease? Negotiate price first then mention my trade in? How does 1 get a great deal. Or just see what they have to offer then start negotiating price, money factor, etc
I just leased a loaner 330i and rolled $3600 negative in: Signed: 2019 BMW 330i Loaner.
When I negotiated that deal, I negotiated
the selling price and money factor on it first. I knew how negative I was, so I knew how it would affect the payment and where I needed to be on it before rolling the negative in.
Approaching it this way also allowed me to negotiate how much they gave me for the trade-in separately also.
Have you gotten quotes from carvana/CarMax/shift/vroom on the TL?
1 Like
It doesn’t look good to be honest. Carvana will give me $5200, Edmunds and KB about $5600. Payoff is 9k. I’ll have to sell it privately or keep it. Just off negative equity it will be 95 a month. Not worth it unless I get like a crazy steal. I’m getting a quote on a Jetta R Line but not hopeful. I’m going to have to fix the small issues and just ride with this car until I sell it privately or pay it off.
Take it to an independent mechanic, not the dealer.
3 Likes
May be a silly question- why don’t you look at something used as a replacement for your TL? For example, for what you TL is worth, you can easily get an used, reliable private vehicle of the same age. Or if you want to wait slightly, keep TL for now, take it to a good independent mechanic who can fix it for much less than $800 and then trade it for a new vehicle lease in December when chances to land an unicorn deal go up significantly. Just my $.02
+1 on the posts recommending a good, independent mechanic before trying to lease another car.
1 Like
Thank you everyone for all your comments. I greatly appreciate it. Buying something used isn’t a good idea because I still have to get rid of the TL and will be upside down at least 3500. I can fix it and try to trade it in. I want something for 3 years that isn’t going to give me a headache. In 3 years I’ll be in a position to get a 340im or M3
Why not just fix it and continue driving it until you can afford the M3?
3 Likes
What? That makes no sense. He already has a reliable vehicle but instead of taking care of it he’s looking to dump it. He’d have the same issues with anything else. A fritzy Bluetooth module and a dirty DVD navigation laser eye does not an unreliable vehicle make. 2008 BMW owners would love to have these types of ‘issues’ 
All valid points. I think fixing the TL is my best best. My payments are $235 a month now and to lease any basic car will be 330 because of negative equity. I’ll take it to my mechanic and have him look at it. My fear is that major stuff happens to it.
The only Acura ever built which still looks decent even for its age. 3rd gen TL never disappoints and yes as @chrishs2000 mentioned, a lot of stuff is fixable. Just work on Acurazine. Neither the civic or the Jetta are up to par to that decade old TL. Minus safety features
2 Likes
Gorgeous. Take care of her!! Clean 3g TL’s are starting to bounce back in value from what I’ve seen. Give it a year or two and I bet you have good positive equity.
1 Like
Take the extra money you’d be spending on a lease and make extra principal payments on the TL until you pay it off.
2 Likes
Thank You. I’m going to fix the minor stuff. I really hope it does go up in price
1 Like