Used Car of the Day: 2002 Acura RSX Type-S

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Today's UCOTD speaks to my personal biases -- I have a weird thing for the Acura RSX. Even this beat-up 2002 Acura RSX Type-S catches my eye.


The car has been in storage for three years, so it will need some work to get running. But it does have the six-speed manual transmission and just 78,000 miles. The seller says it runs well, or at least did, but obviously, the battery is dead after three years of storage.

There are cosmetic issues -- faded paint, a crack in the rear bumper, and door dings. But otherwise the car appears to be in good shape and is stock, save for a car alarm.

The seller is based in San Francisco and asks $7,000.

Click here to check it out.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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5 of 18 comments
  • Tassos Tassos on Sep 02, 2023

    Different day, same sheet.

    Obsolete, Overpriced, and Uninteresting to collect.

    Unsafe at any speed to drive (little PASSIVE safety, poor active safety).


    Another gem found, just for youuuuu, by 0.000 Tim.

    • See 1 previous
    • your underwear LOL ...


  • Jeff Jeff on Sep 05, 2023

    I have a stock 02 type-S in my garage that is way nicer albeit with more mileage. I still drive it a few times a week and it still makes me smile. I was recently offered $10K but there isn't anything as fun you could daily for that money.

    • Theflyersfan Theflyersfan on Sep 05, 2023

      That's awesome that you still have and drive yours. Keep the miles down and the condition good and that $10K offer will likely go way up in a few years. The only thing that I saw wear badly was the leather on the seats. Everything else held up great. Same experience? Even the original stock tires lasted a lot longer than they should, and the paint - sometimes a Honda issue with the darker colors? No problems. That, and the S2000, makes me wish that Honda didn't have to turbocharge everything because the thrill of the high redline and the scream of the engine combined with the vibrations in your feet...it's missed in a lot of today's cars that tend to feel more clinical...more sterile, perhaps. I can compare driving the NA Miata vs. the current ND MX-5. Sure I have more power, more safety gear, and even a little more room (but still no real interior storage), but I don't have the surgeon's feel steering of the NA and NB. And I can take an educated guess and say the same thing between the missed RSX Type-S and the current Integra. I've driven an Integra Type-R and the S2000 - the word "savage" comes to mind when it comes to how they like to be driven and what they give back, and how I wish Honda would give us one more car like that again.


  • AZFelix With both fuel lines and battery packs, Lamborghini owners can soon wager on which part of the engine will instigate the self immolation of their super cars.
  • Namesakeone The realities of the market have spoken: with a little help of a lingering recession (in that most families need a car for every purpose, rather than affording multiple cars as once was true), and with a little advertising-prodding from the manufacturers, the SUV and crossover have, in turn, replaced the station wagon, the minivan, and now the sedan. (Or maybe the minivan replaced the station wagon. Whatever.) I still like cars, but the only votes are the ones that a.) come to new-car dealerships, and b.) come with money attached. Period.
  • MaintenanceCosts "But your author does wonder what the maintenance routine is going to be like on an Italian-German supercar that plays host to a high-revving engine, battery pack, and several electric motors."Probably not much different from the maintenance routine of any other Italian-German supercar with a high-revving engine.
  • 28-Cars-Later "The unions" need to not be the UAW and maybe there's a shot. Maybe.
  • 2manyvettes I had a Cougar of similar vintage that I bought from my late mother in law. It did not suffer the issues mentioned in this article, but being a Minnesota car it did have some weird issues, like a rusted brake line.(!) I do not remember the mileage of the vehicle, but it left my driveway when the transmission started making unwelcome noises. I traded it for a much newer Ford Fusion that served my daughter well until she finished college.
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