vitocorleone

Such a small detail, but this one thing alone may prevent me from being able to get the TL and ending up with the TSX (certainly a good car as well!). We only have one car, and sometimes we need to carry things that are longer than can fit in the TLs trunk. Even moving to the TSX would be an adjustment, coming from a 2dr Integra. *sigh*

Any idea as to WHY acura would leave this feature out of the new TL?

jyg tl 3

cutting corners on some things , giving us DVD audio, like I care, blue tooth, . like I care. crappy tires I do care.

SlntSam

Who knows...that's too bad though. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

What other cars are on your list?

Do you think the TL's passthrough would be sufficient, or no use at all?

elbodude

Something about making the car more rigid by keeping the seats from folding down.

SlntSam

Alot of people here are saying that this is a BS excuse. I tend to agree. The Prelude was really stiff and it had fold down seats.

Chitown-TL

This was pointed out in other forums and I would have tend to agree but then as has been pointed out that BMW offers it as either a standard or optional feature and their cars are great handling cars.

It was something I considered when buying the new TL but I realized I rarely used it when I had it. I did get perturbed when I mentioned to a salesperson (not the one that sold me the car) that I was concerned about not having a fold down rear seat and she said "Well you can always rent a van or truck when you need to haul something long", now that was a stupid reply.

hasema

ITs not because of regidity. It is because of noise insulation. You notice the cabin is so quite? try to find fold down seats on an eclass, sclass, 5 series bmw, or an LS. You just won't find it.

RavenHwk

In the backseat, there is a small door behind the armrest that can be opened to insert long things (like ski's) from the trunk into the interior car space.

Not an optimal solution, but I wouldn't let this one keep you from getting a 2004 TL ....

It's a cool car!

DNA

I test drove an BMW 530i Premium/Sports with fold-down seats and it was more quiet than the 04 TL. (Less tire and wind noise on the 5).

Saintor

Even the Lexus LS430 has no rear folding seats. Why don't you get a trailer instead?

I have this for at least 10 years (my Accord EX has it, non splitting), and I used maybe once or twice. This would never defer me to get a TL!

brandomc

Buy 2 cars...

1. TL

2. SUV - Toyota Sequoia

Kidding...Wife has a Sequoia and we use that to carry big items.

As for crappy tires. My friend has a '03 M3 with Michellins and when he saw my TL, he wished he had my tires. He hates the Michellins...

Avirex34

Yea, I think you guys are looking way into a minor detail. I had my car for 2 yrs, and I think I only used that feature twice...for my hockey sticks.

SlntSam

Actually if you look at any summer or performance tire reviews on TireRack it seems that everyone complains about how crappy the factory tires were.

vitocorleone

If the darn car didn't cost so much I'd have plenth of money left over for those skis to slide thru the pass-thru! j/k While I truly don't put the seat down in the Integra all that often, it's certainly more than twice per year (maybe 5 - 10) for the last 5 years. Renting a truck is easier said than done when you live in a downtown area of a decent-sized city rather than the 'burbs. There's really no good excuse for not having fold-down seats. Now it'll just be weighing that one large negative vs. all of the positives come May or so of next year when I can actually buy one!

HacksawHilliard

Have any of the previous TL models come with fold-down rear seats? I know my '02 didn't have one.

Just wondering since this seems to be a pet-peeve with some. Why complain about something the model line has never had?

NOX 3.2

The Mercedes E-CLASS give you Split Fold Down Rear Seat
(a $530 option).

"2004 Packages: 325 Rear Seat Package
The 60/40 split folding rear seats give you added flexibility in carrying passengers and oversize items, and include a ski sack in the center armrest pass-through"


In my 04 TL, right now I'm using the small door behind the armrest to load crown molding into the car, I couldn't do it if it wasn't for that little door and split front seats.
I'm installing crown molding in my whole house (& having fun cutting odd angles in my compound/miter saw!).

If you REALLY want the fold-down seats, I'm pretty sure they can be modified to do so, you can pay for it, and the rest of us can save that money on the price of the car.

See? everybody's happy!

jmichaelp

I had a fold down rear seat for 15 years and used it maybe twice... having this would've been a plus, but it's no big deal! How often would you really need it?

Joe5.0

My CL-S6 doesnt have fold down seats, and yeah it's kind of a annoyance. I havent come upon a situation where I need to fold them down, but when I have a subwoofer setup it will be annoying. The back seats really do kill a ton of sound, thats for sure.