Tomorrow I am going to be purchasing a 2005 Acura RL. Car has 151k miles which I know is high mileage but I received the maintenance history on it and was blown away by the amount of care that was put into the car.
Anyway hope to get some helpful info here. I'm coming from a 2006 Mustang GT. Last "Nice" "Premium" car I had was a 2008 Hyundai Azera Limited Ultimate. Needless to say car was a huge disappointment. (no surprise there).

Anyway here's a few pics of the car I'm considering.












I think after looking at the pics the seats could use some Zymol cleaner and conditioner. That'll be the first thing I do.

 

Good:
Wood steering wheel
Wood gear shift knob

Bad:
Chrome on the bymper/s need replaced. About $120 per side
Console armrest leather looking worn... $30 & diy or $70ish to have redone professionally



Overall, looks good. As is, I still think you'll like it better than the stang and Hyundai

 

Good: Decklid spoiler + black interior.

 

Your windshield wipes appear to be parked in the "winter/ice mode"

The owners manual will tell you how to get them to recess. If I remember correctly it is to simply grab the driver's side wiper and push it below the black plastic trim at the rear edge of the hood.

Celestial Silver. Same color I had on my 2006. Will polish up well. The RL had a very high end factory paint job.

Make sure your driveshaft does not have the RL bearing "whine" issue. Usually happens to start around 90k miles, so hopefully this one has been replaced prior

 

2005 is a reliable model, but it is prone to the most issues of the 2G model years. Most common issues are A/C, door handles, and the propeller shaft bearing while Cadi mentioned. Be sure to thoroughly inspect those things prior to purchase.

 

Alright so picked up the car today. Excellent car! I love it! Few things I noticed though I have a concern for.

1) Only the passenger headlight pivots while the driver side does not.

2) Doors do not unlock when going into park.

3) When I try to lock the car using the sensors on the door does nothing at all, this one I'm not too concerned about seeing as I'm use to just hitting the button on the keyfob.

Other than that car is amazing.

 

Quick update, the sensors on the doors will unlock but not lock.

 

Okay so headlights are apparently operating properly.
However I notice with my headlights in "Auto" if the lights are on and I turn the car off the headlights stay on and dings at me until I turn them off manually. Whats going on?

 

1) I think that's normal because mine does the same.

 

That's only when you start the car so if you're parked on the side of the road you don't aim your headlights in to oncoming traffic.

You can pull up to a building or garage and turn your wheels to see if both are working correctly

 

Number 2 can be fixed in your settings. Use the steering wheel ^, i, v buttons to configure your settings on the MID.

Number 3 is due to shorted door handles. See my first post. Either live with them or pay $400 a pop to replace them.

The Auto headlights not turning off is a 2005 bug. That feature doesn't work as it should. Sorry.

 

What about my headlights not turning off when I turn the ignition off and open the doors. It just keeps dinging at me until I turn them off manually and put them back on AUTO

 

Alright so little update, I figured out the MID menu and got the door locks to work as I want them to. One thing that kinda gets to me is that I keep my headlights in "Auto" so when I turn my car off and exit the car it still dings at me but once I lock it the lights are set to turn off after 15 seconds of locking. I guess the "dinging" is normal. I'm just use to the dinging telling me the keys are still in the ignition or the lights are being left on lol

 

Is this "Technology Package" or "Base"?
If Technology package (which I suspect it is) be prepared to cash out good chunk of money to replace tires (because of the run-flat options they have on Technology package) - these can run you anywhere from $1700 to over $2000 per set for all four...

Disregard if it's the base!

 

It sounds like you have a work around though. Can you program them to turn off when you open the door? That's what my Toyota does, but I don't remember if that is an option in the RL.

There are two disctint dings in a Honda. One pitch/tempo is for the keys and another is for the lights. Both can go at the same time to indicate both scenarios. If you don't use the physical key though, you won't hear the key ding. The light ding in Auto mode is a bug.

It's a 2005. Only one trim, and no run-flats.

 

The RL in the photo does not have the Clear Acura Laser Shield in the grill, so it is NOT a CMBS model with the Michelin Pax run flat Tire/Wheel.

The 2005 RL and 2006 RL came standard with Navigation and Genuine Wood trim. There was no "base" model for 2005 and 2006. The only factory option packages were the Collision Mitigation Braking (CMBS) / Adaptive Cruise Control package that included the Michelin PAX system (and deleted the spare tire and jack), and AFS headlamps. The A-spec was the only other package.

In 2007, Acura offered a base RL for the 1st time that did not include Navigation nor the genuine wood trim. 3 levels offered were, Base, Tech Package, and CMBS. Genuine wood for 2007 was included with Tech and CMBS packages.

 

007, I thought the CMBS pack became available during 2005 MY? But I could be wrong.

It is not listed in the 2005 MY brochure. Out of curiosity, I will ask my Acura dealer tech, he would know for sure.
ed

 

There was one trim in 2005. Navigation was standard. CMBS and ACC were not available.
There were two trims in 2006. Base had no navigation. Tech had Nav, CMBS, ACC, and PAX.
There were three trims for all of the subsequent model years with Tech I residing between the base and CMBS trims.

I know that for sure.

 

congrats on the new car

 

As for the headlights on dinging. IIRC, in 2005 you would get the dinging, even if you had the headlights in "Auto" mode. Starting in 2006, it was updated so you would only get the warning only if you had the headlights in "ON" and it would no longer warn if in "AUTO".

My '06 RL worked as I described (no warning in AUTO), but I recall reading in the forums years ago about it changing from '05 - '06.

Congrats on your purchase. My '06 was a great car.

 

Grats on the car. For a '05 with higher mileage, it looks like it's in very good shape overall.

I picked up a '07 RL with 81k this past summer, haven't had an issue to date. I have got 5 problem free months, which is better than I can say about the 2010 Cadillac CTS I bought 2 years ago (what a colossal piece of shit that is all I can say about this car) or the 2011 Dodge Charger I replaced it with (which was decently designed, but too many problems for how much I was paying and having low mileage).

 

A bit of a thread hijack, but what happened with the Azera?

I took a hard look at those new before I bought my RL used. I've never regretted my choice (my wife put it well when she saw the Azera: "It looks like a wannabe"). But I still iiked them enough that I recently suggested a used one I found on cars.com to my out-of-town sister. The car turned out to be afflicted with an O2 sensor failure that I believe was caused by a concealed major problem, so I had her run away from it.

I know that model had a couple of other endemic problems, notably a front suspension problem that caused clunking noises and premature front-shock failure, plus some lesser stuff like fake-wood steering wheel rims chipping and dashboard covers cracking around the airbag. But all that said, a lot of people seemed to own them and like them. What was your bad experience with it?

 

Well when I first bought it I thought it was an amazing car.
Mine had every option available but just overall felt extremely cheap in design and in the way the car itself performed and handled.
My biggest complaint was the "leather" interior very very VERY!! Cheap quality that was literally paper thin. Almost every one of my car's have had "leather" and the first time I put my dog in the car who within minutes cut the "leather" from simply sitting in the backseat. The interior materials are very cheap, and the plastics feel very fragile. Indeed the wood is very fake and also cheap looking as well. I also had the a severe issue with the passenger front suspension that ended up resulted in a couple grand in repairs, then the driver side abs sensor broke which was causing the ABS to engage under any kind of braking.

Nothing real bad, just felt like for the price of the car you really weren't getting your moneys worth.

 

Yikes! Thanks for sharing.

 

Yep the headlights making the car 'ding' in Auto mode is a 2005 bug - I just flick my headlights on/off manually, not that big of a deal!

Chris