Somehow I Bought A Beautiful Acura MDX For $1000 And Sold It For Five Times That

Sometimes you nail the bullseye. The perfect car. The perfect price. The perfect everything. And then you do something really stupid. You aim again. This time at the wrong target. And that stray bullet of used car buying ricochets right back at you and blows your financial brains out. This 2001 Acura MDX is a rolling Y2K-era piece of perfection. A piece of perfection that apparently did a number on the prior owner, financially. But for me, that meant opportunity.

The Carfax history was amazing. A new transmission less than 8,000 miles ago. All the maintenance done at an Acura dealer where the price of everything triples compared to an indy shop. Thirty-nine service records. No accidents. Nearly everything maintained by the dealer since day one. This was a good seed at a charity auction where most vehicles are worth more torn apart at a junkyard than kept together for a future owner. 

When I saw it online with about a year’s worth of pollen covering the outside, I knew I had to visit the Georgia mud pit where the auction had buried it. 

[Ed Note: Meet Steve Lang, who has written for Car and Driver, among other publications. His Car and Driver bio reads: “Steve Lang has been an auto auctioneer, car dealer, and part owner of an auto auction for nearly two decades.” This is a man who knows used cars. -DT]. 

I grabbed two jumpboxes, a thermos filled to the brim with coffee, and my best pair of boots. An hour later I opened the door to this MDX and found..

Those seats were magic to me. Clean. No tears. Nothing that would reflect a car with over 190,000 miles on it. 

In fact they took my mind away to an idea I had when I first saw these SUVs 20 years ago. The idea of a “forever car” —  a vehicle you can keep for decades instead of years. From college, to marriage, to the time when your next generation drives. 

MDX’s can offer Mileage Impossible levels of longevity. This first-gen Acura MDX had most of the bones and internals needed to make that a reality. It’s not perfect. Not even if it’s a Honda in disguise. You have to change the transmission fluid every 30k and add a transmission cooler if you’re doing severe driving. And you have to “invest” in quality parts.

But it can be a keeper. If you keep the looks up, these Acuras can absolutely glow.

My job as a dealer is to never fall in love with anything I ever buy. No exceptions. Every car you purchase is an investment. If you’re self-disciplined, operating a successful dealership is a lot like owning a good restaurant. You always get to sample beforehand. But then you let your customers enjoy that new tasty dish. Your goal with everything you buy is to put food on the table. For your family and for your customers. If you’re really good at whipping up a unique recipe, you eventually work with other businesses who buy several vehicles. Wholesalers. Courier businesses, and others who need fleets of vehicles instead of a single one.

This generation of the MDX became my first “fleet” purchase.

One guy who wrenched Hondas out in the West Coast, and became one of my regular customers, even turned these MDX’s into a corporate/hotel transport business until Uber and Lyft became universal. So I knew I was probably going to buy it. The recipe was too tempting. The question was how. For that I had a system that dated way back to when I was an auto auctioneer and observed the most successful buyers in my business. The smartest knew how to hide or “hold” the bid at the right time…

At the auto auctions the prices start higher than the reserve and then go lower and lower until someone bids. Once the auctioneer gets that live bid, the price rockets up until the car is at or above the sellable range. 

Between the sky high reserve and the opening bid there is a gap where many dealers will sit on their heels. For example, if a vehicle has a $2000 reserve, buyers may not typically get on board and bid it up until it hits $1000. Or even $500. It all depends on the car and the type of inventory that’s sold at that auction. 

Since this was an inop (i.e. it hasn’t been registered for a while) and charity sale (low opening prices), with a high mileage vehicle known for transmission issues (like most Y2K Hondas with the 5-speed automatic), I thought the first live bid would be around $500. 

I would aim to “hold” the bid at $1000.

So I took a space to the side where the online and live bidders couldn’t easily see me (but the auctioneer could). When he went down from $2000 to $1000, I stared at the auctioneer, made a fist with my right hand that means “I’m in” and then folded my arms to make it seem like I was making a natural motion with my body to those at the sale who may see the movement out of the corner of their eye. 

Seven seconds later, that MDX was mine. $1000 plus an (oof!) $300 buy fee, and $75 to transport it to a mechanic for two problems I found: the rear seat-back cable and the broken 20+ year old dash information display, which is made out of cheap Y2K era developing-world plastics and Ebay-only unobtainium. This was going to be someone’s workhorse instead of a showhorse. 

So after replacing the cable, we just added a quality radio unit that an audiophile friend of mine had available. We then put a phone holder where the patchy screen of doom was, detailed it with a solid six-hour job, and added a nice set of floormats that matched the interior. 

I put it online on Facebook and Craigslist for $5000. It was 2022. Today this would be a $4000 SUV. 

On the Facebook listing I first submitted it as “$5995.” Then I edited it and changed the price to $5000. Over the years, I have found that by giving any car a substantial initial markdown it sells that much faster. Posting it on sites that have similar “For Sale” interests also helps.

For Craigslist I advertised in three different markets. I’m in Northwest Georgia. Three different cities (Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga) are within two hours from me. Although Craigslist is losing its luster, those three cities now encompass about 10 million customers. If you live near other major metros, it’s always worth advertising in multiple markets. 

Unless your older car is rare or has super-low miles, I find Facebook and Craigslist to be the only good places to sell a 15+ year old vehicle. 

Lowballers texted me. Scammers PM’d me. Finally, I had a guy come from Atlanta. He drove it a half-mile and made a low-ball offer. I told him to pull over and I’m driving it back. He quickly changed face; apologized, and the deal was done thirty seconds later. I always tell folks everything about the car, don’t charge bogus fees, and don’t haggle or play games. Most people enjoy this no-nonsense approach. A few don’t, and those few who consistently bother me end up paying more for the aggravation. 

Sometimes I wish I could fall in love and keep a vehicle. These Acuras are becoming light on the ground, and I have done enough work with them to make one my own for a long time.  But if you have even the smallest hint of OCD in your blood, you just have to kill that urge. Otherwise you end up with a warehouse of crap.

This MDX had gone from crusher fodder to road warrior. It was a beautiful victory, but not everything I buy has a happy ending!

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