Hey thanks for all of your sentiments. Acura gave the dealership the OK to give me a new car. The car is identical to the one I lost. I did not get nav or anything like that. But this was interesting. We signed the title over to the dealer and they were going to pay of the first car. Then they sold us the second at cost. They refinanced the car with the same bank and rolled over our down payment. So actually the second car cost a lot less. Plus the APR was .05 lower too. So I figure we will save 2300 bucks minus the first car payment we made for a total of 1800 dollars over the life of the financing.

I pray that this car holds up. I must admit I am keeping a close eye on the car. Any funny smells or problems will pop up on my radar and cause some concern. Already I notice the center armrest doesn't close well and some of the drivers side trim is less than perfect. I will let the dealer know these probs when I go in to get my splash guards. Positives are the sunshade on the moonroof is quiet when the roof is open and there are no squeaks from the chairs. One thing that annoyed me was the car had 73 miles. Apparently it was tested before Acura gave them permission to give me a car. But I guess that is minor. I did ask though for them to thrown in an extended warranty. I have not heard yet because apparently this is up the service Rep for Acura. But they were not optimistic that he would okay it.

Overall I would say that Acura and the dealership handled it well. Not perfect mind you, but I guess it is rare that any business bends over backwards in a situation like this. There are issues of liability and they have to tip toe to minimize trouble. Let just say that I am happy I did not buy a KIA or Saturn like those replies on the first post. I would not call this event painless but it seems to have worked out.

On the issue of the cause of the fire, I do not know yet. I believe Acura is going to take the car and look into it. I am not sure if they will tell me what was the cause though. I told the dealership that I would like to know what they find out. But who is to tell whether or not Acura will disclose such findings. My insurance never got involved so they did not look at the car. I will try in earnest to find out what the cause was and let you guys know what I find out.

I hope none of you go through this. I was worried about the need for a lawyer and the possibility of having to pursue some line of litigation. But in the end none of that was necessary.

Thanks for all of you support.
James

 

That was quick, I expected a week or 2 before the approvals came through

Enjoy your new car, and don't dwell too much on what happened (easier said than done, I know). It was probably just one of those freak occurrences.

 

Well at least you got something out of it and they dealt with it very quickly. Cross your fingers and toes...

 

Glad to hear it's working out. Sure hope you have better luck this time.

 

Thats really good to hear! Good luck w/this one.

 

Sounds like you're well on the road to "recovery". Best of luck with the new car!!!

 

Wonderful! Glad they didn't make you go through hell before they did the right thing.

Good luck with this one :p

 

WOW! Good job! By the dealer and by Acura!!!

I'm impressed, and very glad for you that you got a new car!! I wonder if they already know what happened, and that's why you got the car so fast. Tech error?

Anyway, who cares? Just be glad that you did not have to go through hell to get it.

Great, cool........ Woo Whoo!!!

:-jon

 

I'm glad things are working out for you..

At least some dealers try to keep their customers.. maybe it takes a fire or two for the dealer to start wanting to keep their customers..

Yeah it would be very benificial if the problem was identified for possible future buyers.

btw, could you maybe post the VIN and DOM of the char-broiled TL-S?? This will give an idea of which cars to watch out for. And if this was not an isolated incodent, could potentially save lives.

 

Hey Just wanted to let you know about a CL-S that also caught on fire from an electrical problem..

check it out..

http://www.acura-cl.com/cgi-bin/ulti...c&f=1&t=009083

 

Cool. Glad to know that got resolved for you. Damn, though, Acura took care of that fast. I read your first post about it, and that wasn't too long ago. I am surprised by the speed that this was resolved with.

 

Wow, Acura sure took care of the problem quickly, and with a Rep on site too. I wonder if Acura has actually heard of these fires popping up around the country and are trying to keep it hush-hush and trying to find the problem before it turns into a scandal.

Anyway, congrats on your new(er) ride! The moonroof squeaks were fixed some time ago; the new TL's apparently use a different material for their weatherseal that doesn't squeak as much.

 

I almost cried when I saw your baby all burnt up. Glad to see Acura stepped up to the plate quickly, and resolved your problem. Bets are the dealer f****d up your car during service, and thats why they are paying for it.

BTW, I have found that Honda are very concious of making their customers happy. I definately think they work hard to do so and are quite fair on reasonable customer requests such as yours.

Congrats

 

Enjoy your ride, don't smoke

 

sounds good!

 

Glad for a very fast resolution of the issue......
hope this new car work out fine for you this time!

 

Wow..that was fast. Congrats on the new ride. Try to forget that ugly incident as fast as you can and enjoy urself driving a brand new car all over gain.

 

I'm going to the pessimist here, although I am happy that you are back on the road again.

They should have done more for you and I do hope they constantly apologize to you about this situation. Make sure they throw in that extendend warranty. I would expect more, since this was a fairly new car, but hey I tend to keep a grudge which is also not that good.

Glad to hear that all is OK for now.

 

There are two things at play here. The "legally" vs. "morally" correct thing for Acura to have done. Legally, they did not have to replace the car. They could have made ratpack file a claim through his insurance company. Morally, the fact that they replaced the car so quickly and provided ratpack with some cost savings on his financing was the right thing to do. It would be nice to have gotten a "free" Navi or extended warranty but let's face it; ratpack wasn't physically or emotionally harmed or even terribly inconvenienced in this incident. He took in a car with 3,800 miles on it on July 24 and drove home with a car with 73 miles on it on July 28. I think he made out pretty well and also think that Acura handled the incident very appropriately.

 

Sorry I did not reply sooner. I have been out.

I will try and get the VIN to post, but I am not sure if I still have it. I had to give up the title to the old car. I don't know how to get the DOM. Is it in the VIN #?

jl

 

congrats on your new car!! glad to see that acura took care of it. by the way, where in ellicott city do u live? im in turf valley.

 

Glad your back on the road again.