Excessive blowouts don't mean a car can't be a smooth driving one

 

means shitty roads

 

On another note, any major differences in ride, handling, acceleration between a '10 & '11 RL?
Not really sure how much 5speed vs 6speed A/T makes other than minor gas mileage

 

Why even check them out. You've already crossed that one off the list because of "long term reliability". If you're going to throw the E350 into the list, why not a BMW 5-Series or Audi A6? I'll take a 5-Series over an E-Class any day but I drive an Acura because I don't like to throw endless amounts of money at my car for repairs.

I also don't understand why you'd be thinking about an Altima when you already have an Accord Touring in your garage. The Accord is hands-down the best car in its class while the Altima is middle of the pack. I couldn't imagine you'd be happy with the Altima for very long.

 

Yes. It lowered the 0-60 time by half a second, which is a substantial difference.

 

I began my search with price, under $30K, and mid-full size sedan parameters. After researching and driving new VW CC, Volvo S60, Kia Optima, Nissan Altima I began rethinking a used RL.
Despite being "used", no rattles, nimble, get-up-and-go with velcro traction. If the Accord Touring offered SH-AWD, I'd strongly consider having two.

 

To be fair, the N/A Benz should be a great deal more reliable than a FI BMW or any Audi. MB isn't too far behind the Japanese in reliability, and they lead the Americans. However, their maintenance still demands a premium $$$.

 

Honestly, with the way BMW structures their CPO, it may not be a bad idea to get a CPO 535 or 550 X-drives if OP doesn't intend to drive them past the CPO period, which appears to be a pattern based on the sig.


On the maintenance note, a 500$ oil change is not something I'd like to pay for, even if it's 15K miles Didn't really add to my negative impression of the E350.

 

Is that a legit price or are you way over exaggerating? I can't possibly imagine an oil change on an E350 actually costs $500 or anything near that. If it does, I would love to know why.

 

I remember looking at my friend's service B dealer receipt, and it added up to almost 500$. Now I looked up what Benz's service A and B call for, take a look:


http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w208...b-service.html


So you're paying for an "thorough" inspection...

 

Not saying its worth it, but they do use a full synthetic vs the dino oil that Honda uses.

 

$475 for MB full synth? definitely worth it, at least for the dealership.

 

In my admittedly amateur opinion, synthetics do not justify the, 4-5X, cost over dino if changed at prudent intervals.
I change every 3-4000 miles w/filter @ $20-25 vs every 10K @ $100(minimum).
The superiority of synthetics is marginal and I have to wonder why the price hasn't dropped significantly in the past 30 years?

 

It is a NON-SENSE to compare RL with Altima. Regardless of package Altima has!!!

 

This is all old school and incorrect thinking.

If anyone paid $100 for a synthetic change, they got robbed. You can get 6 qts and a filter for less than $40. If you run the full life of a synthetic, the cost is less.

Why change every 3-4k? Today's engines run 7k+ intervals on dino.

Sounds like the lube shop gets a lot of your money.

 

I will ask the question again. How many cars have failed because of infrequent oil changes?

Even with Dino changes every 10k miles the car will outlast the owners interest. Throwing money at synth or high frequency changes is money from your pocket to someone else's.

 

Well, Toyota did have a class action suit filed against them for the "sludge monster" years of the 1MZ...

 

My compliments on a good, thought-provoking question. You've pushed me to do just a bit of fresh research about my own compulsion for frequent changes. So far, I haven't found any quickly available evidence that your direct question isn't right.

That said, there are couple of incidentals worth mentioning:

•With infrequent oil changes, there are incidental risks. They can be managed, but many motorists won't bother. The biggest is failure or clogging of the oil filter after it goes unattended for that long. Another is running low on oil because few people check the level.

•As for the oil itself, it will gradually deteriorate in three ways. Two I knew about: it will gradually carry more and more crud, and its additive package will gradually deteriorate. The latter is a bigger factor with conventional dino oil than with synthetic, which naturally does a better job of staying at proper thickness anyway.

The third is interesting and a new one on me: Oil gradually gets permanently thicker with age, especially when exposed to winter temperatures -- whether it sits on a shelf or is in the car. Reason: It forms waxes, and once it warms up again, those waxes remain as waxes. This matters because the worst thing that can happen to oil is thickening, since the moment of maximum engine wear is the seconds after a cold start when the oil is too thick to flow readily. (Props to BobIsTheOilGuy.com for this info.)

Returning to your original question, I'm one of those few owners who doesn't lose interest very quickly. My last car was a '92 Maxima twin-cam that I bought new and kept for 17 years until it had 170,000 miles. I'd have kept it longer, but its valvetrain was deteriorating (despite frequent oil changes!) in a way that was prohibitively expensive to fix. Adjusting for eras, the RL was just about the only car I found that I considered a logical successor to my beloved Max. I just invested in a timing belt for it, and if economics and mechanicals allow, I'll keep it longer than that.

 

Just a side note: I was at Wal-Mart earlier today and made a point of going to the automotive section. Mobil1 (which I believe is still MB endorsed) 0W-40 "European Formula" was priced the same as the 5W-20 I use. I'd venture to say that you can keep a DIY oil change under 50$ on that car, since I don't know how much a filter costs for those cars. Just saying, a 400-450$ margin seems like outright insanity for an inspection that they probably don't even do...

 

But how many free "Mercedes Benz" water bottles do you get to drink from in your garage?

 

I'll be finally buying an RL this week. It was an hands down winner IMO. These cars truly are the best Acura has made. That's coming from someone who who sees hundreds of all makes and models in my profession. Nothing compares. I mean that in terms of quality and reliability. I've done DAYS of research on this car and I can't find one reason why I shouldn't buy it.

Biased? Yes. Smart move? Hell YES!

 

SH-AWDis offered on the Crosstour though.

 

Crosstour:

AWD = Yes
SH-AWD = No

 

I did wonder about the differences in the AWD systems in that iteration HOWEVER, the Crosstour holds no allure for me

 

No torque vectoring in Honda's AWD system. VSA can control individual wheel spin with the brakes (IIUC), but the system cannot transfer power to individual wheels.