MikeS

The reason I upgraded to Acura in the first place was the reliability and continued great service my Honda Accords in the past have brought me. When it was time to upgrade Acura was a logical choice.

Over the years of ownership of the TL it has been plauged with minor but irriatating problems, i.e. seat squeeks, sunroof squeeks, rattles here and there.

I have taken the TL to Acura for every service interval and oil change and the latest just downright pisses me off! I went to Duval Acura in Jacksonville, Florida for the 60K service for a price of $375. For that price they were supposed to replace every fluid in the vehicle. a variety of adjustments and a boatlaod of inspections. I also complained of a brake squeel when stopping.

I picked up my car, paid for the service and was advised the brakes were fine and had plenty of pad left. The fronts were replaced at 30K under warranty along with the rotors (for those of you with 2001 and below it was a service bulletin for weak ass thin rotors).

I leave the dealership and at the first stop light hear the break squeek again. The next week I took it into Goodyear that regularly services my other vehicles. Get this, the Master Tech called me back to the service department to shop me a few things. First, the power steering fluid was brown and did not get replaced, I had a broken motor mount, the brake squeek was caused by incorrectly installing the pads without the greasekit it comes with and get this my belts were fraid and worn. The irritating thing about the belts was that for about 15K miles I have been complaining to Acura about a ticking noise coming from the engine. Once the belts were replaced the noise went away.

I had Goodyear take care of the items needing attention and went back to Acura for some satisfaction. I left a message with the Service Manager who in turn had his Service Advisor call me (chiken sh**). I told him how dissapointed I was and I demanded satisfacation in the way of refund. He called me back two days later and get this mailed me a $75 coupon off my next service. What bullshi*, they never fully performed the service contracted to in the first place let alone the credit did not cover the $115 charge to replace the sterring fluid.

All in all I love our TL, but Acura is completely letting me down when it comes to maitaining and servicing the vehicle. Makes me wonder how much other stuff they missed over my 4.5 years of ownership.

Needless to say I will not have Acura maintain the vehicle any longer. What a bunch of losers!!!

xasnxkiddox

This is why I won't let the dealership touch my car unless it's warranty related. Now don't get me wrong, many people are very satisfied with their dealership and the service they receive. I have yet to experience a dealership that neglects my car and is careless about inspecting everything and making sure they're supposed to change everything that is needed to be changed, along with upfront costs and no bs. But I still would rather have myself doing most of the maintenance/inspection stuff. There's nothing better than having peace of mind and satisfaction knowing you did the job yourself and it was a job done right. Plus the labor charges are just ridiculous when you see at the bottom of the invoice that the labor cost 2-3 times more than what the parts actually cost (usually).

But not everyone has the time and/or the knowledge to service their own vehicles. There's a bunch of other reasons like safety and warranty concerns so they bring it to the dealer or a mechanic. I say either go to a different dealer and see how their service is or ask around and find a reputable and trustworthy mechanic. It pays to shop around .

EzEee

Sorry to hear all the dissapointment and hassle you have been through. In my opinion Acura is going to know your TL better than most. The Acura dealer that i go to is fantastic. Mabey try going to another Acura dealer, after all this is the dealer jerking you around not Acura.

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

Eh, they say Acura techs know your Acura the best, but I find that hard to believe. Out of tech schools, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc, get the best candidates right away. Then it's domestic dealerships, and I think this is where Acura stands. I don't think their techs are highly trained like they say they are.

For example, when my booster and rotors/pads were replaced at 27k, the master tech performed the tasks. Long story short, I nearly drove off the road afterwards because the brakes seized. They did the work wrong, and they didn't even do a test drive after a brake job.

In that aspect, I can trust my old Chevy dealer better than Acura. They never failed to tell me what's going on, and to make sure that everything was done right. Ken (service advisor at Mike Savoie Chevrolet) even tossed me the keys to his car when they put in incorrect pads by mistake. Hey, it happens. But the point is that he admitted fault (although it wasn't his), and gave me his car to drive around in for the day because they didn't have any loaners.

I would never ever see that from my Acura dealership, judging by the level of servces I've received so far. They are not friendly, treat me like some dumb kid who doesn't know anything about cars (service advisor tried to con me about the booster leak noise.... idiot), they are deceitful and unreliable... and in one case, life-threatening.

They can go to hell.

avs007

Out of curiosity, does Acura have any certification programs for their techs? I know GM does, maybe that's why their techs seem more knowledgable/skilled etc.

FWIW, I hate my local Acura dealer as well. They refused to perform the tranny recall on my wife's TL, unless we had the recall letter in hand. (Even though our VIN pops up on the Honda website). When they finally agreed to do it, when we brought the car in for other reasons, they tried to void our warranty because they didn't have records of us ever bringing our car in for regular maintenence. When I pointed out that the owners manual explicitely states that you do not need to specifically go to an Acura Dealer to perform the recommended maintenence, they backed off that claim. Then they tried to void our warranty, because the fluid smelled very burnt, and that we "neglected" to change it. Again, I pointed out that the manual recommended a change at 60,000 miles, and we had only half that many miles, so they backed off that claim too. What a PITA. So now I usually drive the 130 miles down south to a different Acura dealer,as they are much nicer. When the local acura dealer had our car for 3 days, they didn't even give us a loaner. The one down south always gives us RL's when we go there.

AsianRage

Out of curiosity, where do you live? I live in Everett, and there are an Acura Dealership less than 30-50 miles of each other.

fsttyms1

id say find a different dealer. 2, you should have gone back to the dealer with these findings and raised hell! its not a acura problem its the dealer.

my dealer has never once done any wrong with my car (the few times its been there for warranty work) they have been the most proffessional and courtious dealer ive ever been to. i know they are alot better than the local lexus dealer. which lexus is supposed to be the best

avs007

I'm down in the Portland Area. So there are only two acura dealers here. The next closest one is in Eugene about 130 miles south.

AustNMike

I agree....find a different dealer. David McDavid in Austin has great service. They first replaced the front rotors and pads (under warranty) and then they did the jet-kit on my girlfriend's '01 CL and gave her a loaner for 3 weeks. And she handled that visit all by herself. If they would have given her shit about any of that crap, I would've definitely gone up there to raise hell. You can take them to small claims court if you can something in writing from the Goodyear place saying they didn't perform work billed for. That is fraud in any state.

As far as Lexus, and I speak from experience, they always corrected everything I needed on my IS300 and gave me a brand new IS to drive, the same color, every time (3). I would say Lexus has the better service (no questions asked warranty repairs) in Austin.

AsianRage

That sucks dude. Ever think about migrating up north?

tmac02tls

I personally have never had problems with Acura of Portland. In fact they always have a loaner or else they pay for a rental thru enterprise.

What's funny is that I didn't even buy my car through them. I have 02 tls and had tranny replaced last week at 54k without any question. They even loaned me a fully loaded 05 tl to cruise around in.

Next time ask for Andy and he should be able to hook you up.

acutee

It is unfortunate it also happens to you. I had my car serviced by acura from 3 miles. I once always thought dealer service would be a peace of mind, but I was wrong. It unsatisfactorily turns out that the services they said they would do and on the invoice were never done on the vehicle; even the carbin air filter they had it installed wrong, fluids were not changed. Most of dealers has only one main mechanic, and if you are lucky to have him working on your car. The rest, I think, are just hired "no experience required", and our cars will be in line for work and learn on the job for no experienced mechanics....Oops, sorry whoever's car...that's what they call it.

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

I was still shoveling snow when this thread was originally posted.

fsttyms1

Maximaboy1

I wouldn't have gone to Goodyear to do that repairs taht the Acura dealer failed to do in the first place. Your Acura dealer should have done the repairs that weren't done again for free, in addition to a coupon off next service. Additionally, you should notify Acura Client Services of this incident.

5%Tint

Stay away from acura of oakland. they tried to rip me off crucially, charging me 260$ to inspect the transmission and CEL, when it was still under transmission warranty. what the fuck is up with that???? i glady drove out of there

jusbransun

i work at an acura dealer and i started as a tech assistant then went to be a salesman. from all the knowledge ive gained from all aspects of the biz u should always have a warranty and know how ur car works dont just be blind to the fact of which parts do what. also u should find which dealers in your area have won the ACURA PRECISION TEAM AWARD. I work at Rosenthal Acura in Gaithersburg MD, we are the U.S.'
4th largest acura dealer and we are the only dealer to have won this award 9 years in a row. to get the award you must have 95% customer satisfaction with sales, service, etc. everything. ask for info on your local dealer to see where they stand on customer service.
they might just suck and not be up to parr

Ken1997TL

There is an Acura dealership in Salem, its combined with Lincoln and Mercedes.. I get my work done there and have had NO problems.

bitemeeh

I honestly think it isnt Acura in general, just the dealership's service... I wouldn't base Acura's name at the bottom of all the mishaps that happened to you and your car... not all Acura cars are problem-less and with new models/technology implemented within the car there are some deficiencies to be expected. Take it to another Dealership and you might or might not get better service. It really all comes down to who manages the dealership.

splattman

I know many on the Acura forums love their vehicles as if they were their children. They can't hear anything bad said about their car. This post is not for those people.

I just had an experience that disappointed me greatly.

My rear view mirror leaked out some sort of fluid. (Whatever makes the mirror dim, I believe.)

The fluid dripped onto my console and whatever it consisted of ate into the console around the shift gate and pitted the surface. The fluid must have some sort of acetone type base I'm guessing.

I purchased the extended warranty for $980 plus tax when I purchased my 2000 TL just under 2 years ago.

I was told by the dealer and by Samantha Jones (yeah, right! Jones!) from the National Office of the President in Torrence, CA this afternoon that the mirror isn't covered under my warranty, therefore they won't replace my destroyed console.

They tell me they'll sell me the part for around $75 and install it for a total of $200. Or, I can take the entire console and part of the dash apart and install it myself.

I will give them credit for replacing my defective mirror (which has never dimmed properly in my mind - but that's a different thread), although I disagree that the mirror shouldn't be covered under my thousand dollar warranty as it was defective.

My console looks like someone put cigarettes out on it.

Ms. "Jones" told me I could go no higher than her and my options were finished.

I disagree.

Option 1: Make sure every Acura owner on the forums knows how well Acura takes care of their owners when Acura's defective parts destroy other parts of their car.

Option 2: Better Business Bureau Lemon Law web sign-up.

Option 3: Arbitration letters through the warranty.

All you Acura lovers hope you never have a real issue with your vehicle.

Ken1997TL

There is a huge difference between a vehicle brand and a dealership..

Some of you are painting with a brush that is far far too wide and jumping to conclusions based on some very limited (and unfortunate) experiences.

splattman

RE-read my post.

I really am not that upset with the dealership. The service guy told me that ACURA won't cover my console. He has dealt with it before. The dealer replaced the mirror out of "goodwill." I'm not happy that the dealer wouldn't fix my console as I really do feel my vehicle was damaged by a defective ACURA part. However, I am extremely dissappointed in Acura/Honda, the company.

Especially after doing some research here and finding out that numerous posters have had the same problem with the mirror leaking.

I called ACURA's customer service number and ended up with a Samantha who told me she was as high as I could go at Acura. She said she worked in Torrence, CA at the National Office of the President. She immediately refused to do anything about my problem.

Acura obviously is aware of the problem and is basically telling me "tough." They are the big giant corporation and I'm just the little consumer guy.

My car looks horrible with big pits in the console. Due to ACURA's faulty part.

I disagree completely with your reply. This is totally on ACURA.

Tell me what "conclusions" I should be jumping to?

ACURA's faulty part leaked and damaged my console. Period.

As a moderator you are obviously very attached to Acura's.

I hope you never have a similar problem. Or maybe you work at a dealership and won't ever have to worry about it?

Ken1997TL

I dont work at a dealership and I've dealt with Acura before on warranty issues with varying degrees of success. You can always go up the chain of command at Acura and send letters, believe me they get results.

And by the way, I wasnt referring directly to you, more so to everyone in this forum as this subject has been raised ad naseum.

4HondaOwner

I once had a bad experience at an Acura dealership where the service advisor tried to add on a $500 expense to replace two window motors that were fine. I was lucky enough to find a local mechanic who works on all of my Honda's. I can go over and see my car on the rack, I can see the parts that John takes off and the best part of the deal is I pay cash and get reduced rates. Now i am looking to replace my Legend with a 2002 TL Type S with 82,000 miles. Navigation and pearl white paint. I hope John's first repair is not transmission work/review.

Severin

I've had terrible service at BMW dealerships with my BMW (sold that POS). However, I've been satisfied with my Acura dealership so far (much better than BMW service).
In general, I don't trust anyone to do anything to my car. I only take it to them for really hardcore stuff the dealer needs to handle (computer issues, hvac, etc).

acutee

Great thing to know. Thanks for sharing.