Ok, here is the deal. I was cleaning my car earlier today, and when i was cleaning my left tail light, i noticed a tiny dead spider trapped within the light fixture. And to make things worse, there is this huge bumble bee in there as well!! Now, i may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but i DO know that if a freaking bumble bee can get in there, water must be able to as well. I am due for my 7500 mile check up, so when i have that done, im going to request that they install new taillights on my car. has anyone else experienced anything like this? Its not that big of a deal, but, if acura cant even get the lights right, what other things have they screwed up? My drivers side lumbar support broke today as well. Everytime i push back into the seat, it makes a very loud cracking noise. As you can tell, today was not a good day for me and my TL

 

Hey, I have ants in my pants!! Lets start a club!! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I definitely know how you feel. If bugs in my taillights were my only problem, I'd be thrilled. I've been very disappointed with the quality of my TLS.

 

Whats wrong with the quality? Just curious. Compare it to a G2 legend. Many think the legend was better made(quality) than newer Acuras.

 

Made in USA, and Made in Japan...

They do make a difference... not only on cost, but quality as well...

 

Maybe you should put a resident lizard in there to eat up the spiders and bees. :p

I've never found anything in my taillights. You must have a giant crack for a bumblebee to get in the housing. Did you ever remove a bulb and leave the car unattended? Do you have a hole in your housing? Did the silicone around your lens peel away from the housing? Do you have an ex-girlfriend who is well-versed in the voodoo arts?

 

Just can't resist the old American cars are crap baloney, eh??? One doesn't win JD Powers quality awards and produce 50,000 cars a year by producing garbage.

My '96 TL 3.2 did not have bees or spiders, but I found some tekkomakki (or was it a large carp?) in there one time. I was throughly disgruntled.

Puhleez, use some commoon sense- your car obviously has an atypical problem. It doesn't take an Einstein to see that...

I think it is very unreasonable to demand new taillights - let the dealer diagnose the problem and correct it. If that involves replacing the housing, so be(e) it. I too think there is either a bulb assembly looose or out of the light housing, or a crack in the housing itself, perhaps from an assembly glitch, perhaps from a large piece of something in the trunk.

 

The quality of MY TLS, compared to Legends I have owned/driven in the past, is much lower. I already stated my tranny problems as well as a water leak, warped rotors, and all the other minor squeaks and rattles. None of these things were ever present in the Legends. I don't think the difference has anything to do with where the cars are made. It is my belief that it is due to Acura cutting costs. Over the years, Acura has managed to pack more features into its cars while not dramatically increasing the price. This is what has always made Acura so attractive. Meanwhile, most other manufacturers have increased prices. I may be wrong, but it just seems like something had to be cut somewhere.

 

For those of you who have owned Japanese Acuras with no problems and now American-built Acuras that ARE having problems, I can see where you'd draw the conclusion that the country of origin is the source. I often blame my M Roadster's piss-poor quality on the fact that it was built in South Carolina rather than Germany. Still, please allow me to offer a dissenting opinion. My CL was built in Ohio, and it has been perfect. Perfect! I have not had a single thing go wrong with that car in 3 1/2 years and 41K miles of ownership. I am a picky son-of-a-gun and I will take my cars in for service if the smallest thing is out of whack. Based on MY experience, I think Acuras built in America are just as rock-solid as the ones built in Japan.

 

RL: We are all aware of your miseries, and sympathize. But the weight of evidence suggests that current TL's are every bit as good as previous, and if some tradeoffs are made for full content, people are voting in support of same with their dollars! The only way to dispute that is to say that the surveyed TL owners are so geezery that they would not know if they had a wheel fall off, bees in their heads (let alone their taillights), and lose bladder control frequently. In fact, both the TL and Acura generally have higher Customer Satisfaction levels than previous years, including the Legendary years. I personally have had no rattles, and a few squeaks are what I expect when I keep my tires at 35 PSI, run performance rubber, and use lowered springs. I have had 3 of the current TL's, and other than a few minor problems and the annoying seatbelt recalls, each has been trouble-free. So our anecdotes are a wash, which was my point. I sure hope your 3rd tranny is the charm though.

 

RR: I agree with you. I was just speaking of my experience. However, I never put much faith into the customer satisfaction ratings (no matter what they suggest. That's just me. I like to form the bulk of my opinions base on personal experience) which seem very subjective to me. Especially since I remember one year not too long ago some kind of Buick was number one in customer satisfaction. If you look at the typical Buick buyer, they're average age is somewhere 60s and they're loyal to Buick. Compared to the Buick they had 10 or 15 years ago, the one they have today must seem absolutely fabulous. But compared to a Lexus, Infiniti, or Acura, to me it would seem like junk.

Of the 2 Legends I've had, they had a total of over 400,000 miles on them and never had anything go wrong. NEVER!! One was a 90 which cost close to $25000 and a 94 that was aroung $30000 -- very close to the price I paid for my TLS. Yet the TLS has many more features and amenities and is 8 years newer. While other cars have been climbing steadily in price, Acura has done a great job of remaining the same. RR, you're certainly more knowledgable when it comes to cars then I am. So what would you say has allowed Acura to do this? Obviously, shifting manufacturing to the US and sharing platforms has something to do with it. But what else?

 

RL: Good points all - and I agree that my previous gen TL had better paint.

I think there are a number of factors that allow better cars while keeping prices steady:

1) Technology advances - multiplex electrical systems for one - these allow reductions in wiring, weight, and build time. They also are more reliable and easier to diagnose problems. So, cheaper and better
2) Computer Assisted Design (CAD)
3) Finite element analysis (FEM) huge advances in the availability of supercomputing power and software allow stiffer chassis using less steel, reduced number of welds, etc. All drive down mfg. costs, and thus the cost to the consumer
4) The shift to US mfg allows scales of economy, and American workers are more productive than Japanese workers or German workers: this has changed in less than 10 years!
5) As a result, the "time to value" interval is reduced (that is the time from conception to profit). This means Acura makes back its money quicker, amortizes the tools and dies, etc. and all of this figures into the pricing equation.