vinodc

hey guys,

so i've been in the market for a year now, trying to buy a RL, and often frequent the Acura dealership to see what they have. The owner of the local acura dealership, is actually a very generous man, who donates a lot to the hospital I work at, and met him on a few ocassions.

I was actually driving into the dealership and he surprisingly happened to be at the dealership. we exchanged greetings, just chit-chatted, he gave me grief about my mercedes(jokingly of course) and I told him I was looking for an RL and I just been having hesitations etc....

So before I knew it, he was sharing a lot of information with me, that it seems general public doesn't know, or atleast what the dealers are dealing with at the moment with acura.

his biggest gripe....the GRILL...i know, its been beaten to death. he said in various dealer meetings, its been the #1 topic, and 90% of dealers have requested/begged for it to be changed. He said they were hoping the new TL would really lift acura up a notch, but that grill turned off lot of people.

So as he says, acura was adamant of keeping the grill, but were looking at ways to "improve it". he was hoping the zdx would not have it as well, and he said once he saw the renderings for the ZDX, he knew Acura wasnt listening to there feedback, and was puzzled why, esp he said Acura was very keen on dealer feedback.

He said, the RL will live on...with no updates...he said they were hoping for upgraded tranny(i asked him how lexus, bmw have or are releasing 8speed's and Acura is stumbling to come with a 6 speed) he said thats been an issue of debate for some time, he was suggesting there were design flaws in 6speed, which delayed it for almost a year, or the RL would of had it last year during its refresh. he frankly said I dont expect anything to be changed from RL till 2012, and its possible it will be altogether elminated and replaced with a luxury sport-coupe-sedan(like mercedes CLS). He said RL's problem was, bland design, bad options package from the getgo, and lack of dealer incentives on the RL(as in where they were pushed heavily to sell the TL & MDX)

He said TSX is a winner, and the V6 units will be sold out, acura has a winner there.

The MDX has issues with the new 6 speed coming out, Acura is frantically testing and modifying the transmission, for fear of previous transmission problems. He did say, they will push the new MDX hard, along with the ZDX.

As for the ZDX, he worried the design was polarizing, and said he didn't know how many people would line up for an Acura zdx, since it was a very unique car, but he's hoping people turned off by X6's price tag might cross-shop and maybe lure them into Acura brand.

The RdX, he said he told the GM to order little as possible, because of the huge troubles they had in getting rid of there previous inventory. He was turned off by its poor gas mileage and tight rear seat and said, why would u buy one, when an MDX is only a few grand more, with a lot more to offer. his feeling was, Acura screwed up the RDX and dealers know it, but constantly have to fight off Acura, as they want to keep sending more rdx inventory to dealerships.

The final issue, Acura will be implementing surcharges specifically to the RL models, in the midwest, as it has a higher warranty expense compared to rest of country. he said its stupid, unfair, but they dont have a choice. They'll know in about 6 months, said infiniti has been doing similiar practice for a year now. It will be a fee, added to msrp of new RL's. Which obviously dealers will pass along to customers.

So yeah got a lot out of him, nothing too ground breaking, but he said business wasn't bad, not great, he's hoping holiday season will trigger a boom in sales.

sherman_nguyen

Oh well, this information is great but we have known a lot about acura for about 9 nears. Almost nothing amazing appears in acura. I think they spent a lot of their investment in other stuff such as motocycle, robot, airplane, motor, ect... And i think that why they did not push strongly on inventing or testing new engines. Hope it gets better though.

lumpulus

You would think with even the dealers bitching about that hideous beak, Acura would smarten up and fix it soon, I know it's kept me from trading my RL for somethng new.

nyctl

my convos with my ac dealer rotates around how i can open my own acura dealership.
lol. he always gives me the run around because he doesn't like me inching in on his market. lol

neuronbob

A surcharge, huh? If true this is a brilliant way to piss off potential buyers in a part of the country that would be partial toward buying RLs.

vinodc

You know bob, i thought the same thing. I feel a lot of RL buyers are really Loyal bunch, and maybe acura thinks if people really want an RL, they'll pay it i guess.

But what bothers me the most is, WHY ARE THEY ALIENATING there most loyal customers?!! I mean sure RL is a low volume car, but dont degrade a fine vehicle.

I think overall HMC is a great company, but they keep screwing up Acura in my mind, they never seize the moment to pull ahead, or move up. I'm still baffled how a company is STRUGGLING to bring a 6-speed transmission to the market, while other luxury brands have 8 speeds. Your flagship car having 5-speed = Pathetic.

Imagine having a 7-speed in the RL, great mileage, why not drop in a Diesel....i mean sales are low as it is, why not try something new?!!

ACURA....FIX THE RL. we will buy them!

sherman_nguyen

yeah, you are right about acura. But i think that in this kind of market, HMC will wake up to follow their loyal customers' calls.

SpicyMikey

Is there really such a thing as a loyal customer? I have no loyalty to any car maker. I own three Acura's and a Lexus right now. Heavy on the Acura's not because I'm loyal, just because it was the best value for my needs. I'd buy something else tomorrow if it met my needs better.

I think it's really about meeting customer needs that drives sales. You shouldn't love a corporation because it can't love you back. Important to keep that in mind as a consumer and especially as an employee. I learned that one the hard way young.

nyctl

i hear you on that loyalty ish....been with one ac dealer since 98. bought, serviced and sent other people to them to buy cars over the years. they were the first that i went to for any consideration on a purchase. cool with owner etc. decided to look at the 05 rl, drove 2.5 hrs to them for a scheduled test drive. new sales mgr who i remember was a former sales assoc. after the test drive i sit down to work numbers....he wont budge of the price because of what they paid for it he claimed ($29K).......then had the nerve to tell me, a card-carrying loyal customer that maybe this isn't the right car for me.....

i decided right there and then that he was right and moreover that dealership wasnt the right dealership for me either. so FCK u Northeast Acura in Latham NY! You will never see me darken your doors again!

And I was able to get the RL I wanted at the right price.

vinodc

I agree with you here, i was very good to my lexus dealership, did all my work there, pushed tons of business. But the new sales manager thinks a 25year old buying a gs300 was not the right fit for me. (keep in mind we bought two cars from there the last year..) He advised a corolla or camry(from there sisiter toyota dealer). from that moment on, i never step foot in that dealership, well there horrible service manager was another story, and there constant desire to charge me money for stuff they were billing lexus for as well.

Needless to say, that sales manager, now is a sales associate at the mercedes store where ive been taken care of really well. Whenever he seems me come in, he tries to play nice...but I brush him off...he no longer used the word "son" to address me.

But my gripe with Acura is, you see lot of benz/bmw owners that are very loyal to those companies products, but I think that same level of loyalty just isn't there with Acura, I feel mostly due to the lack of product vareity, and possibly the latest radical designs. not to say Acura doesn't have its own following, but seems quite smaller compared to other luxury brands..

wstr75

"The final issue, Acura will be implementing surcharges specifically to the RL models, in the midwest, as it has a higher warranty expense compared to rest of country. he said its stupid, unfair, but they dont have a choice. They'll know in about 6 months, said infiniti has been doing similiar practice for a year now. It will be a fee, added to msrp of new RL's. Which obviously dealers will pass along to customers."

Why higher warranty expense in the Midwest? Climate? Culture? Few dealers, longer towing distances? Owners drive in 2nd gear at 80 mph? Snow? Ice? Meteoroids? Fire and brimstone? Dogs in the backseat? Huge tractor tires carried on the roof? Weight of larger families?

What? What?What?

SpicyMikey

^^ Strong mechanics union in midwest driving up wages thus cost to consumer? I'm just speculating.

vinodc

From my understanding, and what i had him rexplain, as i was baffled myself is that...

Acura is very dilligent on warranty costs, and they keep track of averages across the country, by state, by area it seems. And consistently year in year out, the midwest region has far exceeded warranty claims than any other area. specifically on the RL models. Dont know what extra claims are being made, but in general warranty claims/costs are much higher in the midwest.

This dealer, also owns an infiniti store, he mentioned they also have a similar practice, but he said this would be a first for Acura...if they do decide to implement it.

SpicyMikey

I could see the midwest being harder on cars then maybe Florida. But worse than NY or NJ? That's where I grew up. The roads, weather and people are more brutal on cars than anywhere else I've been by far.

I still say it sounds like a cover story .

wstr75

Maybe the warranty costs are higher because those wild-eyed Midwestern farm boys are driving across plowed fields, doing donuts in wet grass, jumping ditches, going mudding and just generally giving the SH-AWD system a thorough work-out . . . . . . .

TampaRLX-SH

^^^

I wonder if Chas is originally from the Midwest???

If so...the warranty surcharge is warranted.

Chas2

I was waiting for that!

Your memory is like a steel trap!

Hey, tell us about that Accord diesel. Was it the i-DTEC version?

SpicyMikey

Yep mystery solved