Yeah, that was a rare fail in the fit and finish of the otherwise very polished RL. I remember my door panel being a little floppy/loose and I just knew if I pulled it exactly the wrong way, I'd pull it off. As you are aware, more than one of us has had exactly that happen.

 

are you talking inside door handle or entire panel?

my handle pulled off, but fixed with super glue

now the arm rests, that's a different story

 

this piece

 

don't you call that a handle rather than a panel

 

The handle is attached to the door panel and it felt like the whole thing was a little loose. Either way, I suppose.

 

I see. Mine just broke off at the bottom and top ends of the handle itself. The panel does not seem loose. And as I said, super glue has held up so far. Feels more solid than before

 

The panel, which consists of the arm rest and the handle.

 

Agree. Most of these people are griping about features that have just started showing up in cars the last couple of years. While we're at it I should go over to the TL forum and start a thread about what was lacking in my 2001 TL, or maybe to the Vigor forum (is there even one anymore) and complain about what was lacking in my '93 Vigor.

Now if most of these features that everyone is complaining about don't show up in the RLX, now that is something to complain about, but just like the 2nd gen RL was bristling with technology at the time, I'm sure the RLX will too. I just haven't fallen in love with the looks like I did with the 2nd gen.

 

Honestly, just the center arm rest "leather".

 

When I say "From the beginning" I mean that the complaints I have are things that have been wrong since the car was new. The hunting for the right gear at 40 mph is a problem that has been there from the beginning. The poor dimming of the mirrors is poor design, from the beginning. The inability to choose a number in my iPhone, dial it and hear the phone ring over the speakers (you have to wait until the call is picked up) is bad design.

I could go on, and I have. No car is perfect and I think all agree that the pluses far out weigh the minuses. It's still interesting to hear people's minuses.

 

I actually agree with every one of your complaints. They were issues that bugged me (not too much though) about my RL when I had it.

 

Not to side-track here, but did you have your RL listed for sale in West Bloomfield back in late January?

 

Nope. I traded my RL in at Cadillac of Novi in March.

 

Oh OK, my bad. I remember talking to a guy that had an '06 Carbon Grey RL just like yours listed around that time. Things just didn't pane out at the time. Hence why I asked I was gonna say, what an odd coincidence that I run into you again.

On that note, if you ever see an OBP RL rolling around, say hi, I think I'm friendly. At least that's what I'm told.

 

I'll look out for you. I do still smile when I see another RL on the road. Aside from the damn door handles always needing to be replaced, I loved my RL. It was an awesome car.

If the CTS coupe hadn't come around (I fell in love with the style), I probably still would have the RL. As for future, I have tremendous respect for Honda/Acura's engineering, I just got done defending them to a snob in the BMW forums that called them 'gussied up Hondas', but the styling is leaving me cold. The RLX just isn't doing it for me.

I took a big risk this year. After 19 years of owning Acuras, I went out and replaced my RL with a CTS Coupe, and we traded in my wife's 2004 Toyota Land Cruiser that we owned for 9 years (160K) miles for a CPO 2011 BMW X5.

While the CTS has been solid for 11K miles, and the X5 has been trouble free in the 5 months we've had it, I am not kidding myself that I will enjoy the same level of reliability in the near future.

Every Acura I owned I knew when I first saw them that I had to have them. That was the case for my Caddy too. Not so any more with Acura. If they can reign in their design team I would love to come back some day.

The need to hire more people like the ones who designed the NSX.

 

For me its the output of the headlights. I feel like Im always looking at road thats out of scope. Hell, I cant see a pothole until Im about to hit it. I drove a cruze the other day and the output of those lights demolished mine.

 

Is it the output, or the aiming/focus? Also, high beam or low beam?

If you are talking low beams, there have been quite a few complaints about the low beams cutting off too short. After Matt posted about the AFS module issues, I started to think about the system as a whole. It is very likely that over time, some of the AFS modules are sticking in a state that points the headlights down due to corrosion. If that is the case, then the feature, which is a little unneccessary to begin with, is worthless, and we should be changing out the potentiometer for a constant impedance like Matt did to keep the headlights level.

If you are talking about the high beams, Hondas come with shit bulbs. The reflectors aren't that great either, but an aftermarket bulb will do much better. You are actually the second person to say that a Chevy had better output.

 

+1

RL low beams are not bright enough and the cutoff line is not very sharp n distinctive. I particularly notice this when new bimmers pull up next to me and the ground infront of his car is about 1.5 times more lit up than area infront of my car.

 

^ odd.
I find the low beams bright on my 2005. Perhaps not compared to some of the later model cars, but much briighter than any car I have owned to date.
The problem I see is that they are aimed somewhat low, especially driver side. Going downhill and approaching a flat or uphill segment is the worst condition. And that seems to be exacerbated by the fact that there is a distinct cut-off line across the top of the beam

 

I have 4 months old Morimoto 5K bulbs, while the color is perfect, the brightness is better than the OEMs I switched out but not on par with some RDX, new TSX n some Benz n bimmers. I'll swap in Osram CBI in 5K next summer.

 

I don't understand the "RL HIDs don't give off enough light" statements. Something must be wrong with your bulbs, lenses or assemblies.

Lumens are not a subjective measure, and the number of cars on the road putting out more lumens than a stock RL is too small to make such an argument.

 

I'm also suspecting something wrong with the lens distance n angle in regards with the bulb and the shield. Also I don't understand why Honda did not equipped USDM RLs with the same lenses as the JDM clear lenses. That makes a lotta difference.

 

My biggest peeve is the RL wiper design is bar none the WORST I have ever seen for winter conditions with snow/slush/freezing rain. The multitude of little "hinge" surfaces along the rubber insert housing which in non freezing conditions would allow the insert to hug the glass contours better just get completely plugged and frozen with icy crap such that the blade no longer touches the glass, and unlike more typical oldschool wiper designs you can't just smack them against the glass to break up the ice. And the "winter position" doesn't really help other than allowing you to lift them off the glass to prevent them from getting frozen in place.

And I have yet to find a "winter" blade insert for the car (these typically have a sheath over the otherwise exposed hinge backings of the rubber insert to prevent the ice formation)

 

Have you attempted this service repair update?

TSB 07-009: (2005-2008 RL) Windshield Wiper Doesn’t Clean Snow or Slush From the Windshield

 

That's pretty much all of them. I can't wait for the new RLX to come out.

Edit: The door handles!

 

Wow didn't know that was out there - checked the details though and I am not confident it's going to improve things. From the TSB it sounds like it's just replacing the wiper arm with a new one - is it just the same part number so not actually a different design? And the TSB specifically mentions driver's side, while on both my 06 and my friend's 05, both driver and passenger side are horrible at clearing snow/slush, great with just rain. Whenever this happens to my car and I check the blades, there is always ice buildup inside those little "V" hinges just under the inserts which then deforms the blade contour against the glass, so I am not sure increased tension/pressure with the arm design is going to help much.

 

my guess is that they improved the tension spring replacing the old part under the same number.

 

Cool. For more traditional wiper arm designs there are cheap add on tensioner springs called "Sur-Wipe" that you clip onto the arm where the pivot is. Like $10 a pair. They worked great on every car I used them on over the years but they wouldn't work with the RL wiper arm design.

 

I've used those on off road trucks but I wont be clipping that onto my acura.