fmarcella

Hey guys,

I must be a glutton for punishment, but I have to ask this since I recently purchased a 2004 Acura TL (ABP, non-navi) that was the dealer's courtesy vehicle (loaner car) for about 9 months. It had 20,000 miles (mostly highway since the dealer -Clinton Acura, Clinton NJ- is in a rural area near a major hihhway). There was no way I could have afforded a TL otherwise. At the time they were going for at least $28000 (non-certified). Got mine for $25700 (certified pre-owned, extended warranty). It looks/drives like new, but after reading posts on this forum for a month, I have heard the occasional "I totally pushed the loaner car to the limits" or "messing with the sports shifter on the way to work I had it red-lining for about a mile".

Anyway -tell me your loaner car stories. Don't hold back -I am a Red Sox fan stuck here in NJ and am used to abuse.

tzakiel

I took my TSX loaner to the local skate park and did some vertical stuff with it. However I quickly became bored and drove it into a marsh up to the windows. I told the dealer it had been stolen.

ndx2

I got "off roading" in loaners/rentals. I also abuse the e-brake.

Basically, I do everything that I would never do in my own car. I've never done anything that caused/would cause a long term/permanent damage, though... if you have extended warranty, you shouldn't be too worried.

Enjoy your TL.

jaboc

i had a wdp tl for about 4 days when my mdx had to undergo some changes and i beat the crap out of it, i floored it about 60% of the time... i know i know it's bad but o well it was fun.. then i bought a tl for my birthday a month ago now i floor it very rarely unless im being rev'd at by a g35

Iceman23

I've stalled my loaner TSX twice...

ericajackhannahjamie?

fmarcella, don't listen to these guys.. I'm sure you'll be ok with your dealer's ex courtesy vehicle. Whenever I get a loaner, I take care of it

ndx2

rbf351

i drive it as hard as i possibly can

pretty much i go by the words 'drive it like you stole it'

BukvaMan

i got it to the point where it started to smoke under the hood

misterlien

Waiting for my car to get ready for 1st pickup they gave me a loaner for a couple of days.
Drank up the gas SUPER fast and broke the back end loose in a couple of turns.
No damage what so ever. Just awesome fun.

trancemission

I just recently had a TSX.........meh, wasnt worth doin shit to

NFLblitze1

if your a TL owner....and you ask for a TSX loaner? would they do that? ive always wanted to test drive the TSX

Iceman23

well at david mcdavid you only get to choose between the tsx and the rsx

trancemission

in dallas you get whatever they give you. it all depends on how early you drop your car off. i either get a TSX or RSX.........shit one time they tried to give me a minivan

EDIT: damn Iceman you and I are on a role!!

Adobeman

You guys are killing me.... can't stop laughing.

Thanks for all the ideas for when I get my next loaner. I was prepared to simply drive it. Guess that's all "out the window" now.

Slinks

Also a red sox fan who used to be stuck in nj for a couple years (moved out & back home to mass in 04)...
Anyways, I started my car shopping while I was still in nj, and actually got a tl for an extended test drive for 3 hours from clinton acura. maybe it was the same one? same color & non navi they let me drive around.
anyways that car that i got was the only real loaner/extended test drive i ever had.
I started driving it on the highway. At one point I hit the breaks and came to a complete stop at the side of the road (there was no one else close by). Put the car into first gear, and hit the gas till redline, then I shifted out of first and into the sportshift mode (when i did that it shifted to 2nd automatically), got it up to redline in 2nd and then shifted to 3rd, got it up to redline in 3rd but was too afraid to go any further so i shifted to 5th and eased off the gas. I tested the breaks a few times (went from 100 to 20 as quickly as i could -- didnt even skid out of control either). And I kinda repeated that a few times. Got bored after about 15 min, so I tried the offramp a few times (on & off the highway), each time going a bit faster to test the handling. Handled pretty well, I was able to take the ramp at 60+ after a few tries. Got bored with the clean roads so took it over to a rural local road, which was pretty beat up and just floored it, trying to hear for rattles. Then I wondered what would happen under adverse conditions, so my friend poured some oil on the road. needless to say, at 80mph, the car didn't handle well when it hit the oil and spun into what i think was a corn field. I kinda got lost in the field and wasn't sure which way to go so i kept going straight. turns it it was the wrong way, but in about a quarter mile later i was back on the road. I think i ran over some big rocks too along the way.
anyways i ended up bringing the car back to the dealer and they told me to never come back, so that ended my relationship with clinton acura.

Anyways hope your happy with your car. it was a blast to drive.

edit: forgot to add. i also took it from drive and downshifted it to first while i was on the highway to see if it had the same kinda protection as in sport shift mode or not. anyways i was disappointed at the lack of smoothness in the shifting down like that.

Slinks

also on the way to the dealer i stopped by a barnes & nobles to see if the car was really the chick magnet i'd heard it was. anyways as soon as i got out some hunny started eyeballing the car, so i got to talkin to her in the store. we ended up goin back to the tl, and had some crazy sex in the backseat. i think her buttprint may still be there?

Scribesoft

Hmmm... Was she the dirty librarian type? .. and I mean "dirty" in a good way

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

i had a TSX loaner last month while my car was in for recall service... lets just say i killed half a tank of gas in a day... lots of SS driving and lots of hitting redline... the suspension was awesome... i chriped the tires a few times.. was fun..

lumpydog

It's an unwritten rule - you must test the loaner. The amount of thrashing is inversely proportional to your age. I've eased off on the amount of whaling on loaners as I've gotten older. As a guy, who can resist seeing what she's got? At least a few times..? At 37, give me a loaner and I'll at least mash the pedal down once from a stop.

Your TL was probably "tested" a few times - maybe not at all - who knows. Many people believe hard driving is the best way to break in a new car. The only real possible problem might be braking abuse - if so, you might have problems with warped rotors - something that would easily be identified prior to warranty expiration - and should be addresses under warranty with no argument. It's highly unlikely that you'll have warped rotors...

These are the worst case scenarios... They're not that bad.

Assume your TL was driven hard, change your oil early and enjoy.

bo0sting2mch

hmmm well...my whole family drives acuras and since they take their cars in for service(exept mines) loaners are available....let just say that i pop open the intake box and take out the filter to make the vtec crossover sound louder and rip the **** out of it....

hcekc

I had the dealer's demo car for 1 afternoon and I floored it like crazy, hit 100mph a few times on the freeway (it was smooooth), checked out the sport shift, but I forgot to redline it. Maybe next time when I get the chance again. Then took it to a deserted road and slammed on the brakes at 60mph several times. Oooh the ABS is really nice! The TL stopped straight. Then I tried doing donuts, but couldn't with front wheel drive or can you?

About a week before we bought the TL, the internet manager took us out on in the demo and told us that he would NEVER buy a demo. He's seen the abuse that customers subject the TL to. Hopefully you didn't get one that was abused. Good luck with your TL and congratulations.

UglyPsycho

Buying a loaner vehicle is ok. The dealer always tune and fix everything before selling it. Most of the time they are certified so you dont have anything to worry about.

fmarcella

Thanks for all of the feedback. It has really put my mind at ease, knowing that there are responsible Acura owners out there.

Btw -Slinks, I was detailing my car yesterday and noticed a corn stalk in the air scoop -now I know where it came from. I don't know what I'm going to find in my cabin air filter, but I'm afraid to look. Also, I use my child's car seat to cover the buttprint left behind by that skank you picked up at Barnes and Noble.

Go Sox

Still stuck in NJ

fmarcella

Also,

I'll be dropping off my TL to -you guessed it- have some rattles fixed (since it was a loaner, no one bothered to have these fixed, or maybe they couldn't hear the rattling with all the off-road driving and red-lining). I have been doing some lanscaping at home and I plan to use the loaner to uproot a few stumps in my back yard and to haul some mulch in the trunk.

Meek32v6

iTrader: (7)

I had a 03 Max GE i think( the fast one with HID's)
I gated shifted the whole time i had it. Taking up hill on ramps i would leave it in first and burn first all the way up the hill. pretty cool. I didn't think they were that fast. I was punishing my friends 00 TL from 30 mph rolls and we did it a couple times out of shock how much it really pulled. I wish i had got some on tape