glennjr15

So as my TL approaches the 10yr mark (September), I've come to a pretty solid conclusion; When the times comes for a new car, I will not purchase another Acura.

Don't get wrong, these past 9.5yrs have been pretty good, but there are several things that irk me on the daily, that have ultimately led me to this decision.

1. The paint quality (or lack thereof). My wife has a black '04 Honda Pilot, and the paint has held up 100 times better than the Acura's. Ashy white flakes/marks are appearing all over the car (most noticeably by the moon roof, window edges, and trunk). I guess this is the clear coat, but I expect much better from a $35K car (Yes, I do wash the car, and no I don't live in a salty environment). Others have reported the same thing.

2. The leather seats have cracked/ripped. It friggin drives me bonkers every time I go in the car and look at it. The price to get it fixed trough the dealership is ridiculously high, and quite frankly, for $35K, the friggin seat material should last!

3. Cracked dashboard. The friggin gall that Acura exhibits in the face of hundreds (if not thousands) of owners complaining about the same thing is baffling to me. I pray that a class action lawsuit comes out of this, because these SOB's at corporate should be ashamed of themselves. Window cover or not, people's dashes are cracking, and they refuse to admit a design or material flaw? There is a special place in hell for the makers of the dash.

4. Door "leather" inserts peeling off/coming un-glued.

5. Driver side window continually comes "off track", despite having been "fixed" once.

I know these issues aren't as serious as a transmission or something, but I'm also not 100% sure what other issues I can look forward to in the future (i.e. - what others have been experiencing). Either way, the lack of accountability on Acura's part has made me decide to spend my hard earned cash elsewhere. I'm kinda sad because I had loved my '92 Honda Accord EX, and expected the same quality build from Acura, but have been let down. Good luck to all, and please feel free to share any of your experiences.

TacoBello

This is actually your fault, not Acura's, lol. You gotta condition your leather, my man. All leather seats will eventually crack and look like shit if you don't condition them. You can buy a bottle of leather conditioner for like 10-15 dollars and it should be done about twice a year. I allow the cream soak into the leather as much as possible, wipe, and do it again several times. Leather becomes buttery soft

Lots if people have had dashboard issues, but many have not. I think it just depends on where you live and weather you took preventive steps to keep it from happening.

It sounds like your car was left out in extreme conditions. I've never heard of anyone else having door card issues either

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

Properly taking care of the paint would have prevented it from becoming what it is now. A simple car wash isn't proper paint maintenance. You need to apply sealant followed by wax to keep the paint protected. This is after you properly clay bar the car and polish as necessary of course.

Same for the interior leather seats. A simple wipe down with armor all wipes or any similar product isn't the proper way to maintain it.

As the leather gets baked in the car during hot summer months it becomes dry and starts to wrinkle and crack. It's your duty to thoroughly clean out the pores of the leather and apply conditioner to moisturize the leather.

Nothing you can really do about the cracked dashboard besides hiding it with a dash cover.

JTS97Z28

iTrader: (4)

Very sorry to see you are not entirely happy with the vehicle. I have had multiple 07/08 3G TL's and have not experienced any of the issues you describe.

You mentioned the paint and clear coat. Are you the original owner of the vehicle? If not are you even sure its original paint? Man, the paint on my TL is downright gorgeous!

Leather seat wear is pretty much something you can expect on a vehicle of that age and mileage. Yeah they may wear faster than some other cars, but every car has different seats and quality of materials and any leather seating surface is going to show age and wear over the years. Sounds like the seats were just used and possibly treated like any daily driven car is treated, which is perfectly fine, but don't expect them to look new a decade later.

Almost kind of seems like the car has been doing some serious baking its entire life in the California sun. As much as we don't want to believe it, these 3G TL's are becoming old vehicles and these kind of minor issues will happen to any car. I personally feel it would be your loss to avoid Honda/Acura vehicles.

glennjr15

Of all the issues, I'll take partial blame for the seats, as I never conditioned them. A heads up about conditioning from the dealership would have been nice. Is there something about this in the manual?

JTS97Z28, I am the original owner of the car, and am pissed about the paint because as I mentioned, my wife has a black '04 Honda Pilot, and we take similar care of our cars. Her paint is fine, and the Pilot has never been clayed. We both typically take our cars to get washed/waxed/sealed, so I don't get the paint issue. I was the second owner of my '92 Accord, had it until '05, and never had any paint issues. I didn't clay that car either, and as I was in college when I got it, hardly ever took it to get washed, and just did it myself at home (sometimes with dish soap, and on other occasions with laundry detergent. I know, I know... ).

Anyhow, as my first brand new car, I know it wouldn't stay brand new forever, but I had less issues with my used Accord.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

Good luck with your next vehicle. Let us know what you end up with.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Got to agree about the seats, with or without conditioning the seat "leathers" are terrible. Worst leather, if it can be called leather, I've ever had in a car.

Also must agree with the dash cracking, ridiculous for a car of any price, but considering the name Acura, guess it's not synonymous with quality. Wouldn't be too bad if they stood behind the deficiency, but they don't. Actually not much different from any other run of the mill manufacturer.

The paint should withstand the day to day environment without weathering. Daughter's '00 Maxima has been outside since day one, no paint problems and waxed maybe 3 times. Our '04 TL is what might be considered perfect inside/out, except for the seat, no rips, just a lot of wrinkles, but the car stays in our temp controlled garaged and rarely used.

If I had the problems you've stated, I wouldn't purchase another Acura either.

zsameer

truonghthe

cracked dash board is the one that bother me most. The seat and the paint are some thing could had been prevented.

EddieOnAZ

I actually painted the hood, roof and trunk lid for a guy with an 02-03 accord a couple months back. He had the exact same problem as you. The clear looked baked and it was showing some white spots all over. I think it's a combination of black paint, parking in the sun and old age.

In my opinion, the only way to have a great car even if it is older than 10 years old is to be super diligent with preventive maintenance. If you are of the opinion that you shouldn't have to do much more than wash it with soap, a car pretty much has a 10 years expiry date. It will still run, but it will look/feel/sound like shit.

I think at 9,5 years it's kind of expected of your car if you only did minimal maintenance (which you did). I'm not saying go back to an Acura, I'm saying either take great care of your next car or be prepared to buy another one in 10 years!

1black_seven

iTrader: (2)

My parents 04 TL only has a cracked dash. I've never had any of those problems with any of my Honda products. But if you want to talk about GM I could go all day.

TheAcAvenger

stumbled upon this thread from the front page...

My 2nd gen RL has your door leather issue. From what I gather, it's not exactly uncommon for us.

TacoBello

Partial blame? No man, it's 100% your fault. Take accountability for your actions, or in this case, lack there of.

Of course there's nothing in the manual about conditioning your seats. Just like there isn't anything telling you when and how to polish your paint and what products to use. There would be a separate manual, 500 pages long, that likely no one would ever read, or if people screwed something up they'd be back at Acura's door wanting to sue. To keep a car looking fantastic is both a time and money investment and there is TONS of good info out there with just a couple mouse clicks.

Spend more time on forums, reading up about maintenance and preservation, my man. Your cracked dash could have been prevented also...

polobunny

It's great that you're bringing the clear coat issue, because it's not TL exclusive but happens on many Hondas. Looks at the 7th gen dark colored Civics, the clear coat is peeling... Also happened on a lot of Accord EX, usually hood and trunk lid first.



Regarding the leather, the leather in the TL as well as other Hondas is thin. It's not the best leather, we all know that. Prevention goes a long way.

TacoBello

The only time you should use dish soap is when you want to completely strip off your old wax off the paint (you need to have wax on the car in the first place though, lol). I do it twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. Many people only do it once in the spring, which is fine too.

Laundry detergent? Seriously? Sigh...

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess your clear coat is swirled to shit, yes? My paint is now 9 years old and has no visible swirls on it, anywhere. Although cars are a depreciating asset, you can preserve the value longer by taking some time...

TacoBello

Thick or thin makes no difference. If it's dry, it will show wear on the surface eventually. It might be the difference between going right through and not, but really, if the surface looks like shit, who cares if there's massive rips in it or not. Still looks awful...

polobunny

Oh I agree, but I still think cracked and not ripped is better than cracked and ripped.

aIRpeACE

iTrader: (2)

agree

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

Partial fault LOL. Sorry no that's all your fault.

Let us know what your next car is and let us know the issues you have with that.

EddieOnAZ

Yeah I condition my leather once a month but with cars as old as ours having perfect leather is near impossible. You just have to live with the imperfections or DIY that shit

dezymond

I'm with the others, many of your issues could've been prevented or at least maintained better. The cracked dash, is a terrible issue, but I'm doing everything within my power to keep that dash away from the sun and its merciless UV rays (sunshade and application of protectants every other week).

I try to take as best care of my car as possible, especially when it comes to cleaning. I take pride in how clean my car looks, especially the interior. I find myself vacuuming it every other day (I have a dog that I take out quite often) to pick up dirt and the hair he leaves behind. I take the time to take off the seat cover every other week to wash it and at the times the seat cover is off, I vacuum and clean the seats. I use leather conditioner on the seats once every month.

When I bought the car off an older couple the seats weren't in the best of shape. Just an hour or two with a PC machine and some leather conditioner, the seats were in better shape then they probably had been in over a few years. I don't have the professional tools to really bring it back to life, but if I order a few products then I'm sure I can achieve that. It's at the condition of where I find that it's protected and that I routinely prevent anything from damaging the seats more than they are already.

As for the paint, the first thing I did when I brought the car home was give it a proper detail. I clayed it, polished it, put sealant, and then wax. I maintain it weekly or every other week by using ONR and Optimum spray wax. A little bit of work goes a long way. During the storm we had here in the Bay Area a few weeks back, water was just beading off my car because of my cleaning routine.

My leather inserts on the door are somewhat coming off and it squeeks when I drive so it drives me insane. For now I've remedied it with a piece of double sided tape, but even now it's starting to rattle. There are a few other rattles I need to figure out. I totally blame this on the previous owners who probably never maintained the car cleaning themselves and left it out in the sun whenever it was out of their garage. I could tell because everything inside looked dry, but at least they took the time to bring it in to clean the carpets for me before I purchased the car.

Just cleaning your car twice a month should help maintain it. Not just vacuuming, but actually putting on some protectants for the interior and wax on the exterior, heck even a spray wax once a month is better than nothing. These are all preventative measures and they really are considered little things considering how much money you spend on buying the car. Even if you plan to sell your car down the line at least you'll help retain its value because you've kept it clean for so long.

2012wagon

We had a 1992 Teal Green Honda Accord EX, manual 5 speed 4 door. We drove the car 221k trouble free miles, original clutch. It had the tan cloth interior. The day we sold it, it looked like the day we purchased it, aside from the miles. Just did regular maintenance.

We bought a 1996 Accord EX Leather, automatic, 4 door. We drove that car, trouble free 271K miles.

Both cars were garaged. I do leather conditioner, I do clay, wax, take care of it.

Our 96 Accord paint was horrendous..fading by the time we sold it. Even though it lived in the same house, went to the same job parking lot etc.

I think the late 80s and 90s Honda had tremendous build quality.

Good luck with your next purchase.

TacoBello

Nothing a good power polish couldn't fix.

Some really crappy cellphone pics, from about 6 years ago, but you get the idea: original, completely faded paint on some '60s era car, brought back to life by my good friend. Paint looked brand new after he was done with it.

Hood was taped off right down the middle, to show before and after.
Left: original. Right: afterwards.






Final product:

2012wagon

That looks good, but wouldn't have worked on ours.

I did that on a faded pink hardtop for my Miata, broughti t back to original red.

Our 96 accord started fading, then peeling. Roof and top of trunk almost looked like how cars in Rust Belt looked.

I am not complaining, to get almost 300K trouble free miles from a cheap 19 thousand dollar car is a good feat.

Just saying 80s/90s Accords were better (in my experience)

Acura-OC

When my toilet was clogged I called a plumber. After unclogging a drain he said that clog could have been prevented only if I didn't take a dump. The irony.

Your seats wouldn't crack if you wouldn't use them. Paint still would be fine if the car wouldn't ever left your garage and dash would be fine only if you'd move to a moderate climate. So obviously it is all your fault.

It is a good car but my last Acura as well.

Jackass

Wha?? Not a single car I have ever owned has ever seen a clay bar. The last 5 cars at our house have never seen wax more than once every 2 years. The only car I have ever owned that got waxed and polished on a regular basis was a black Probe GT. It never looked clean unless it was freshly waxed and polished. Every other car I have owned only needed a proper hand wash to look nice and clean.

Paint
- wash it
- get it waxed every once in a while
- anything more is just because you like it uber shiny

Leather
- clean it
- treat it
- live with it...leather will wear out...some sooner than others

Dash Crack
- yeah, this sucks...my '05 finally cracked this winter

dezymond

Some paints and clearcoats are better on some cars compared to others. Honda paint has never been top quality, imo, but it is very easy to maintain and have look good. You do not need to be an expert to make Honda paint come out looking great.

The fact of the matter is, EVERY car, needs proper maintenance and upkeep of the paint. Even if you just wash your car every other week, a quality wash soap or product will help maintain it. I personally use Optimum No Rinse.

You should really try a clay bar and you'll be surprised at how dirty your car really is. And the difference it makes in the shine and especially slickness of the car after a clay bar is well worth the two times a year I do it.

Even if you just use spray wax after a wash, that's an extra 10-15min. Just spray, wipe the panel a few times, and you're good. It really is that simple and adds another layer of protection that also adds depth to the paint of your car.

TacoBello

and realistically, you never have to wax or clay a car ever.

Wax is only really good for up to 2-3 months. Thats why you have to put a sealant on top, which generally only lasts up to 6-7 months at most. Therefore, you're car had nothing on it for 18 months of the year.

The reason you clay a car is because your paint is porous and it breathes and gets contaminated with micro elements, whether they be dirt, metal (from brake pads), etc, etc. after claying your paint, the paint will feel noticeably smooth compared to the rest. It's a night and day difference and it does wonders if you polish after. If you polish without claying, you won't get as good of a lustre out of your clear coat. No idea why you'd want to trap contaminants under the wax. Honestly man, if you don't know, don't talk.

Wax/sealant also protects your clearcoat. It makes your car easier to wash. Etc, etc, etc....

TacoBello

No... if you don't take care of your stuff, it won't last. You can use your leather, you can park outside of a garage, etc, etc, but you have to actually give a shit about your car and take the dollars and time to make it last.

Look at some of the members on AZ who live in crazy hot or crazy cold climates, and their cars look like they came off the showroom floor earlier in the day, even though they're 5+ years old. It's not magic and luck of the draw that keeps them that way.

polobunny

I ain't an engineer or anything, but I'm pretty sure the gregorian calendar has 12 months in a year.

TacoBello

He said he waxed it once every two years...

sealant lasts about 6-7 months.

24 months - 6 months = 18 months, for simplicity's sake.

polobunny

But but but... you said 18 months of the year!


You know I'm just messing with you. Still agree leather should be treated. Even more so if the leather is thin like it is in the TL/Accord.

robocam

The OP is venting, and I don't think it is entirely his fault.

I have an 06 with ~130k miles on it. I have used no leather products on my seats, and they're perfectly fine. Mine is parked outside in the sun, and I have very nice paint, especially after running a Griot's Garage DA polisher over it and no dash cracks. Aside from rock chips, the paint looks new. I just waxed my car for the 1st time in 6 years (too much trouble, and I don't think I'm going to do it again - from now on, I'm going to use a cleaner wax with my DA polisher). I tried claying it once with a Griot's Garage kit (after it was ~5 years old), and there was virtually nothing on the clay bar. It glided over the paint effortlessly. I think claying is overrated, or maybe the midwest isn't that harsh. The edge of the leather insert on my rear right door has come undone. No one sits in the back, so it's not because of wear.

My point is that I do not "baby" my car (like washing it weekly and putting 2 coats of wax on it every month) the way some others do, and it is "fine," (sometimes I wash it once a year, gasp, but I certainly enjoy the time I spend detailing it when I have the chance) and my leather insert came apart with little to no contact, so I really don't think the OP had much to do with his issues. It's understandable that some might feel defensive, but let's all try to be a little more understanding and supportive. It's entirely possible that some factory defects might be involved.

Having said that, I do appreciate the tips offered by others here. I just might start conditioning my leather if it really helps in some way.

flyromeo3

I'd be happy knowing my 10 year old car is still on the road.

Acura-OC

Plumber says do not shit you say give a shit. Why everything is so complicated.

I am with my plumber on this one, I do not give a shit about my wife's Lexus which is 3 years older than my TL and its paint and leather are in better shape. My 2001 Camry's paint (which bakes outside all the time) is in better shape and I do not give any shit about Camry at all. If your only experience is with the car that you constantly have to give shit about it quiet possible that you like it that way and you might not know how wonderful it is not to give a shit.

anx1300c

iTrader: (2)

^^
Thread is getting very weird.

vietxquangstah

iTrader: (7)

well shit.....

On another note sealant is supposed to go on first. After sealant is applied than you put wax on. Not the other way around. Carnauba wax lasts maybe 2-4 weeks whereas a synthetic wax lasts about 2-4 months.

Sealants anywhere from 4 months to a year.

Permanent coatings like opti coat is another story.

YeuEmMaiMai

2002 CL-S here and after 14 years, the car is showing wear on the seats. I do treat and condition them. Paint is a non issue as I clay bar and wax the car several times a year.

13 year old Subaru same deal, and that car was a mess when I got it in April 2014... Now you cannot even tell it was neglected paint wise...

TacoBello

Sorry, I may have mixed the terminology up..

2012wagon

In my experience, Lexus paint doesn't compare to Honda Paint. My Lexus paint looks 10x better than Honda paint.

Walk up to a mid 90s LS400 and a new Honda, and you can spot the difference.

That said, if youw ant to see horrible factory paint, look at a Hyundai up close