Dr. E in TN

I agree. However, I was wondering if anyone knew a way to replay all of the initial set of feature messages that came with the car in the first few weeks? I hope you guys remember. I didn't realize at the time that each message was a one time "feature explainer" and deleted them quickly. I would love to be able to go thru them again. Does anyone know how to get them to replay?

jhr3uva90

I have no idea, although I think the DVD that comes with the car could give you the same information.

Dr. E in TN

This is true. However, is there any way to get the car itself to go thru the learning tutorial options again? Moderators and experts, please help!

CL6

I believe that there are help files which give pointers and the like. You have to go through the set up menu to re-activate it I think.

Owner's Manual!

atomarchio

I've had my RL for 2 weeks now and love the car. The brand name and advertising is what gets the customers into the dealerships. When I bought my car, there were about 20 of them on the lot. Am I the only person who bought an RL in Ohio this month? They seemed shocked that I was actually thinking about buying one. Like it's the first one they've sold :-)

jhr3uva90

That kinda says something about Acura and its dealerships. . .

atomarchio

Bet I could to that dealership right now and they would have 19 still there...

jhr3uva90

I'm sorry, but I blame the dealerships for that one. Do they want to sell those cars? It seems like there's no incentive to sell RL's instead of TSX's or some of the other models.

atomarchio

Is it the dealer's fault that Acura does not create a demand for their supposed "flagship" sedan?

I think it's asking the dealer sales person way too much to convince the customer to buy an RL when they're looking at a TL or lower. I knew the minute I walked in there that I wanted an RL. Most people already know what they want when they get to the dealer.

Ultimately, it's the responsiblity of Acura to create brand awareness.

But at the same time, I love my RL though and IMO was by far the best value combined with the best technology. However, people like us to do not makeup the normal car buyer.

If most spend 50K on a car, they want someone saying "wow" and being impressed. If I would've bought a GS300 or BMW 5 series, I would've had my entire neighborhood all jealous. The RL gets you little attention to people who don't know cars well.

I've had my car for 2 weeks and most people think I am still driving the TL..haha

Have to respectfully disagree with you here. I think the blame is clearly Acura's for not creating brand equity in the RL. You can get away with it at the low end (and they clearly have), but not at the high end!

Bert Kanne

As someone who sells Acura's I am really disappointed in the advertising for the car. In the latest Autoweek magazine there is an ad for the car but all they really talk about are features that are pretty much on the TL; there is NO mention of the SH-AWD in the ad!
When you compare the car to the Lexus GS430 (same power in a V8 and NO awd!) with optional Mark Levinson sound, Nav, Moonroof, satellite radio and power rear sunshade the RL is around 8K less!

atomarchio

So why does Acura continue to do nothing about this? Other than drop the price?

jhr3uva90

I don't know what Acura can do about the sales people, considering that Acura doesn't own any dealerships. They have increased magazine advertising, though. They are probably increasing TV ads as well.

I hope Acura doesn't ignore the current RL like the did the previous one. They are going to debut two new SUVs in at the same time, which will consume a lot of their resources. I hope that doesn't adversely affect the RL.

atomarchio

In a nutshell, the issue with RL is strictly brand equity! Not the sales people.

The sales people are motivated by what's going to make them the most $ with the least amount of effort. This is not a knock on sales people. I've been one for almost 11 years. It's just how we are :-)

Good sales people don't spend time trying to sell customers on a product that's too difficult to sell. Right now, I consider the RL a very tough sale.

jhr3uva90

True, Acura has a brand equity problem. People who can afford expensive cars don't buy Acuras and vice versa.

But isn't odd how a customer can go to a BMW dealer and the sales person knows all about the 5 Series, yet a customer can go to an Acura dealer and the sales person knows little about the RL? It's like a vicious circle: sales people don't put forth effort to sell the car, people don't buy the car, so sales people don't put forth effort to sell the car.

lindros2

The Acura brand definitely has slipped since the late 1980s.

I read an article in ESPN Magazine today where Barry Bonds used to have a "white Acura Legend." What happened to the value of Acura that no athletes drive these today? Not enough bling?

I think the RL could sell even at $55k if it had larger wheels (bling), harder visual edges, and a V8. Clearly one of these is more difficult to accomplish than the other two...

jhr3uva90

I don't any $55K Acura would sell, regardless of what features it has.

And the old Legends got a lot more attention when they were the only Japanese luxury cars around. Things have changed since then. However, the TL (which costs what the Legends used to cost) sells far better than the Legend did. Overall, Acura sells far more units than they did in the 1980s. The RL is the only weak link right now.

DWeier

I would like to add another entry from the Acura sales person ranks.

I have been selling Acura for 3 years. Our sales staff in one of the best trained in the region. We do some type of training every week ( walk-around contests, videos,
review articles in automotive publications, etc. ) It can be a big advantage in certain
situations, but in truth, I spend more time competing with other Acura dealers ( mostly
regarding price ) than with other brands.

I find the RL a bit tougher to sell than the other models, in part due to the commision / time ratio that was mentioned earlier ( I make a bit more on an RL, but it is more lucrative to pop out RSX's, MDX Premium models, etc ). Even the TL with Navi is easier to present / sell / deliver than the RL and close to the same commision.

The other reason I personally find the RL more difficult is it just doesn't inspire me. My favorite Acuras are the RSX Type-S and the TSX 6-speed Navi ( and no, I am not 25 years old ). The RL with its load of technology / and gadgets just isn't my kind of car.

I do have customers cross-shopping the the TL and RL. The extra value is there in the RL, but you really have to thoroughly present the entire car and hope that your customer (a ) can hang in there and not get glassy-eyed and / or ( b) they really care about most /all of the extra features, some of which are obvious, but many more of which are subtle and often not visible.

I also have not been impressed with Acura's advertising. I see an Audi Quattro driving up
a ski lift and it gets my attention. The ADD commercials that Acura has are a bit better than
the previous generation, but that is about all I can say for them. The one exception is the
RL print ad which has the RL in a hanging glass garage ( real garage ) overlooking a city
( LA ? ).

ilas

Indeed the commericals I have seen (like 2 of them in the past year) have touted navigation and collision mitigation. What yawners, as Acura is trying to hit an under 50 crowd. SHAWD wasn't even mentioned. I did see one magazine article suggesting redefnition of the laws of physics due to SHAWD in a popular science magazine. It was much more engaging than the stupid navi/technology commericals.

Also, since this thread is also discussing features, the lack of rain sensing wipers really gets me and seems to be a ridiculous low cost item for Acura to skimp on.

ilas

My experience with BMW is that the salespeople were just as uninformed as the Acura salespeople. All they could say is that it had the best handling and is German engineered. Oh brother give me a break! The one BMW salesperson that helped me the first time was so incompetent that he didn't even know that the v8 didn't come with awd (maybe he was new, but it was pathetic...he showed me a 535 with leatherette on the sticker but told me it was leather). Actually, the Mercedes salespeople were the best. They really knew their cars and rolled the red carpet out for me. Two of them really knew the competition as well. I almost went with the E350, but the well-known and documented reliability problems scared me away. That said, my Acura dealer has always been great for service, but sales has always been a hit or miss thing. The turnover among salespeople there has been very high.

jhr3uva90

I'd be willing to pass on the rain sensing wipers if they would give me the cooling seats like in Canada!

CL6

This thread is interesting but basically Acura missed the mark. They tried too hard to make the RL a worldwide 'one size fits all' car. They got greedy raising the price so high. They rolled it out too fast. They didn't do their leasing homework.

There'll be a new RL in 4 years so let's look forward to that!

jhr3uva90

I don't think Acura had much say in the Legend/RL, except for the MSRP (which I think is too high). If Acura had more say over the development of the car, it would have been manufactured in North America like most of the other Acuras and it would basically be an SUV. I have a feeling that the new MDX, which will debut in a couple of weeks, is the "RL" that Acura really wanted. That's why I'm afraid that Acura will never give this car the promotion it deserves.

Speaking of commericals. . . I think the RL should have commercials similar to the Legend commercials shown in Japan. I have that in another thread, though.

ilas

Odd that Canada has ventilated seats for cooling and it's bloddy cold there most of the time! What the $#$#$#@$!!!!

ilas

Yes, and even the low budget video of the RL on the Acura US website is better for stirring emotions than anything I have seen on TV.

ilas

Hey JHR...., shouldn't you be taking care of a new baby, or sleeping while the baby sleeps, etc?

ilas

oops, my bad, I got JHR confused with AcuraJim, who said he had a 5 day old baby on another thread. OK, time to go to bed!

jhr3uva90

Nope, no babies here!

In case anyone is wondering, I think Acura gave Canadians ventilated seats was to compensate them for not having XM radio. Personally, I think Acura would have done better by omitting the ventilation and dropping the price. I hear the RL is exorbitant in Canada.

ilas

In fact, I think that the RL is more expensive in Canada than in the U.S. after one converts Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars.

jhr3uva90

Does Canada have some kind of special tariff on Japanese-manufactured cars?