My little accord is at the end of its rope so time for another car. Love the Acura TL so far and found a fairly good one I think.

The good:
1-owner carfax verified, (almost) all service done at the local Acura dealer. PS hose has been fixed. Timing belt changed in 2011 at around 103k miles. No accidents reported. Currently has 160k mi and brand new tires. So 2nd timing belt is due in about 40k. (so 3-4 years down the road)

So the price is pretty good advertised at $8000.

The bad: the navigation is showing the dreaded black screen with disc read error. Acura dealer quoted $600 to fix the job.

I'm gonna try to the DIY cleaning method and hope that works, if not may have to see if I can find replacement internals for the dvd drive or see about how much Alpine replacement/repair is these days (I remember reading it used to be cheap but now very expensive?)

Looks like a fairly nice deal, just the navi broken is quite annoying. May be able to talk down more from $8000?

 

ask me how many times i have used the stock navi in the last 4 years?

none.
it sucks so bad its not even funny.
Sucks so bad Im about to install a tablet.
a tablet with google maps trumps the stock navi 10 fold.

 

LOL, good point. You know looking at these OEM navigations they do look pretty bad already.

Now I really don't care for the GPS function....but what sucks even more is that you get to certain settings, like the clock (which is unable to be set correctly due to the non-usable screen) and I'm guessing certain audio settings that cannot be changed due to the non-usable screen...that is what I am more worried about.

But I guess those are small price to pay. I wonder if there is way to get the screen function back without the navigation function (ie able to set clock, audio settings....)

 

Sounds like a decent deal to me. I was looking at an 06 with 82k before I got my 08 and they wanted $16! I found the 08 for the same price with 67k. That did include tax/license.

 

^on that note, your clock will be correct once a year.

its usually the DVD drive that goes bad.
alpine is the only "authorized" fixer but its pricey at like 365 dollars.

if one knew what went bad in the drive, one could fix it or send it off to a cheaper place to fix it.

 

Dang, nice deal. 8k is just around my budget so I'll stick with that. Especially with upgrading to an Acura I'll have to contend with higher parts/maintenance prices unfortunately. But finally time to get a nice/decent car!

ha, true.

Yeah, unfortunately it's a tough situation. I'll just have to scour ebay and maybe look around for parts-only TLs (would pick n pull junk yards even have TLs like these?) to see if I can nab one for cheap.

Otherwise I'll just try the DIY cleaning method and see if that helps. But yeah I might just go without the navi for a while and I may go ahead and upgrade/do something else with the navi screen area. So I'll have to look into that section of the forum for some ideas.

 

As Justnspace said, it's not the greatest Navi compared to newer ones these days. I mean, it works, but I hardly ever use it. And, if the car runs good, I wouldn't let a broken Navi stop me from buying it. I just let my 4 Cylinder/5MT 99 Accord go and it had 283k miles on it still running fine. Honda/Acura makes great cars in my opinion! One owner, timing belt was done, so it sounds like the owner took care of it as far as maintenance. With 160k miles on it, you should be able to get many more miles out of it. But, from what I've read on Acurazine, transmission care/maintenance is a MUST DO!

 

Since I have read multiple times recently how sucky the OEM nav is, does anyone know if there are significant differences between 04-06 nav and the 07-08 systems? Reason I ask is justn keeps saying it's so horrible, but the times I have used my 07-08 it actually works very nicely and even better than the entune system in my wife's new Highlander. I dunno, I like it, and doesn't work any better or worse than a portable one, or my iphone.

 

My two cents on the navi (car is almost 10 years old)....although it's not the best thing in the world, I like having it because I get an overall view of the streets in an area I am unfamiliar with; something my phone cannot do while safely driving. So for me, it's not useless at all.

 

the hardware is from 2003.

its just totally easier to get directions from google than to fiddle around with the nav.
its very unconventional... with Street name needed to be entered first, then house #.
then, sometimes, it doesnt even find where I want to go. or routes me to a different state. like really, you cant tell I live in Texas?

its just very simple to say "okay google, get directions to so-and-so."

and I'm on my way.

 

I'm not sure if there is any difference in the 04–06 and 07–08 Navi. I have an 08, and the Navi is useful at times, but as I said, it's not the best out there these days. And, I wouldn't let the Navi being broken stop me from getting the car if the car itself is in good running condition. What part of TX. you in Justnspace? I'm in Shreveport, La.

 

^houston. I pass through LA on occasion but never Shreveport

 

If ya'll think the TL NAV is bad, try using an 04 G35. That was the biggest hunk of shit from 1985 I've ever seen. Not to mention the controls were made for RHD. Crap Nissan.

With that being said - how many full desktop computers can hold a candle performance or capability wise to a new smartphone? Technology is exponential in changes...

I used to brag when I had a Trash-80 that was upped to 64KB (yes kids, computers had only KILOBYTES of RAM back in the day) from 16KB.

 

Awesome, thanks for the advice. Looks like navi broken should not deter me from getting a nice car otherwise. Plus it'll definitely give me an edge in bargaining for price.

Taking the car tomorrow to get it mechanically inspected and then see about haggling for a price after that.

I'll just do my own research/work on seeing if the navi can get fixed.

screaminz28, my desktop will blow away 100% smartphones and probably 95% of all laptops. And it's 4 years old. I love to build my own desktop since you can basically upgrade every few years to keep up with the technology.

 

Another quick question: On my local car forum, people are suggesting not to put any bolt-ons (unless I wanna go forced induction, which for me would be way out of budget) on the car since the cost to do it right is too much for the power gained.

So I guess at this point really no sense in getting bolt-on mods?

 

i purchased a 05 TL w/Navi back in dec. 2013 and its true with google maps being so easily available on our phones i probably used the navi not more than 3 times... the ONLY benefit i see the oem navi having over gmaps on our phones and tablet is when you enter a major city.. for example when i hit downtown LA and im near a bunch of high rise buildings the gps can have trouble locating me or can be slightly inaccurate with gmaps while the oem navi will still retain a strong gps lock on my car


$600 is really not worth the fix if thats what it costs to repair or replace the unit
instead if you are up to the challenge i would just replace the navi with a tablet and this mod can be done for less than $300 total.... keep in mind also the 04-06 dont have aux inputs or bluetooth streaming... going the tablet route will give you access to both these options which is another plus over the oem navi.. i just got my nexus 7 tablet installed last week and i love the fact i get gmaps with live traffic updates as well as any other app i wish to use on the android os

heres my tablet setup

 

honestly, the oem navigation is pretty good in function in my opinion. keep in mind, I said FUNCTION, not FORM.
Its always given me accurate directions and loads at an acceptable speed. I dont really like to use phones for navigation because phones use cell towers for signal, which can be spotty in some areas. With GPS, you never have this problem, you have a direct connection to the satellites.

I mean I dont know about you guys but it only takes about 30 seconds to input an address on the navigation, and on the phone its frustrating to look down at a small screen for every direction.

 

Honestly I would not buy any car with 160k miles on it, but that's just me. At that mileage I'd be worried about costly leaks such as the rear/front main seals going out, maybe transmission issues (something these cars are notorious for)