My Acura has nearly 170k miles on it. I had a tricky start with it; it actually stranded me at one point with a known power steering issue. Well, it wasn't known, or at least Acura didn't acknowledge knowing it at the time. It was fixed under my extended warranty so no cost to me (would have been in excess of $2k) and at some later point, Acura acknowledged the issue and began fixing them for free. But that aside it's been pretty good. I truly enjoy driving it. The engine is strong, the handling is beyond anything I could challenge, and the structure is solid. To this day when I hear a rattle I can always trace to something loose in the cup holder or side pocket, never a fit and finish issue.
There are things I don't like. The infotainment is useless. It is from a time before Apple Play or Android Auto. The onboard navigation maps haven't been updated in 12 years. The sound system is weak, but I don't listen much in the car anymore, usually the radio is off (This is a weird development in my personal history and I really should explore it at some point). The ability to seamlessly upgrade your infotainment system like you could have done for a car radio 20 years ago has been improved away. Really, it should be easier, I mean these things are just screens with computer guts. Elon is the only one who seems to understand that these things should be able to be updated at will.
The lesser thing I don't like about it is that it requires premium fuel. It is, effectively, a more highly tuned version of the V6 you can get in a Honda Accord which uses regular. That was not such a big deal when I bought it, but I just paid a full dollar/gallon extra over the price of regular. It gets decent mileage. I average about 25 overall. But that's still putting me out an extra $600 or so per year. Yes, I know I could just use regular and let the knock sensor do its duty, but I need to make the minor sacrifices to preserve the car because I think I'm going to try to get another 40k miles out of it, at least.
I paid 25k in 2015 for it. The equivalent Acura today would be a 2023 TLX with around 14k miles. Those look to be at about $34k asking price. Makes sense because the inflation calculator seems to think that $25k in 2015 is about $33k today. But any time you are making a major purchase, there is the question of opportunity costs. E.g. is another Acrua the right car to spend 33k on, or given I think I can probably get another 40k-50k miles out of it, does it make sense to buy another car at all?
I have been saying my ideal car is a minivan. I could carry all the grandkids. It could do double duty to handle the light hauling I have to do occasionally. (With my Acura in the body shop for the deer hit damage I have a rental Toyota Tacoma pickup. There was no drama taking my bike herd into the shop for spring tune ups. It was just a matter of tossing them in the back. Nice -- definitely something of value.) In my 34k price range, that would mean a 2022 Toyota Sienna with over 40k miles on it. Wow. A Sienna with less than 15k miles would cost in excess of $45k.
Granted, minivans are in high demand at the moment and are very much overpriced versus their SUV counterparts. If I moved up to 37k I could get a 2023 Honda Pilot with about 15k miles. Same with a Toyota RAV hybrid (the gas savings might make it worth it). If I was willing to step away from Honda and Toyota I could find a Chevy Traverse in the $35k/15k miles range easily.
I would very much miss the driving dynamics of my Acura, but sacrifices have to be made somewhere. Maybe the thing to do is keep the Acura and buy a cheap old small pickup for utility purposes. Or maybe the thing to do is hang on to the Acura and rent a truck when I need it.
Maybe the thing to do is win the lottery.
Anyway, the Acura is in the body shop for deer hit repairs. When I get it back it gets a new set of tires and I'll try to get another 40k out of it. That should take me well into 2025, possibly 2026. Maybe I'll feel more comfortable splurging at that point because the car I replace it with will likely be the last car I ever buy.
