I need some advice from you TL'ers who own an Anthracite model. I was at the dealership yesterday checking out some of the non Navi stock (I have a 6psd Navi on order) and was looking closely at the Anthracite model in the sunlight. I noticed something that troubled me (since I have an Anthra on order) at the seams of the doors it appears that all of the metallic elements were not present, leaving only what appeared to be a grey lip. Also looking closely at the center of the door there was extreme inconsistency in the metallic flakes that were present. More specifically there were what appeared to be metallic spots, or locations where there were signifincantly more flakes.

I checked the whole car over and found a number of these "spots". I had a buddy with me who agreed as well and said he would not want a car with paint like that (I agree with him).

If this were one car I would chalk it up to a bad paint job on this specfic car, but there were 2 Anthracites side by side and they BOTH had the door seam issues, as well as the spotting.

Have any owners noticed this with the paint?? I know there have been some complaint threads in regards to the paint quality (which Honda has ALWAYS had problems with) but I want to make sure this is not inherent to this color. The NBP that was parked next to it was beckoning me to change my order as it exhibited NO paint flaws!!!

Any info is appreciated!!

 

hmmm mine looks fine..

 

My anthracite looks fine too....no problems like you mentioned.

 

Check the VIN numbers on the cars that you looked at. It may be that the cars with the paint inconsistency were older VINs. I say this because I was at an Acura dealer recently and noticed that on a '04 TL with an older VIN (12000s or so) the door seams weren't consistent (when the front door closed the rest height was higher than the front of the rear door). So I checked this on a car with a VIN in the 35000s and every thing was OK.

TL-Rocket

 

Thanks for the replys on this. Both the cars were brand new which makes me wary. I may have to forego the Anthracite, and in turn get the black one.

 

I apologize for changing the direction of this thread, but when you mentioned getting black it made me wonder if the TL has the same paint-swirl issues in the sunlight as most if not all black cars have.

 

Isn't that the swirl ("spider-web") problem that you get if you go in a circular motion with a rougher cloth?

 

If you really want the Anthracite, you always have the option of refusal if it comes in with defects in the paint.

I scheduled my pick-up in the afternoon and did my walk around outside in the daylight so I could give it a good once over. My paint's fine.

 

I think that's exactly why most black cars look that way.....the spider-webbing from a poor wash/detail job.

 

I agree with Narnia. If you order the Anthracite, and you notice that the color is off, you have the right to refuse it (however frustrating it is, to wait longer for a car). I looked over the paint job on my car very closely, and it was fine as far as I could tell.

 

Again thanks for the responses on this one. This wait is killing me and after seeing those 2 anthra cars on the lot (one of which had Navi) I got a bit nervous. Another issue is that I have always owned black cars. Nothing in this world looks better than a clean black car. The wife is trying to weene me off of black and put me into the Anthra so maybe I am just looking for excuses, but I have to say that a 3rd party confirmed the same things I saw on the 2 cars.