i test drove the 6speed and when i first sat in the car i fell in love with the interior.....

for the current owners...i just wanted to know if there are any parts of the interior that you think is cheap.....

 

BE CAREFUL WHEN PUTTING ON YOUR SEATBELT!!!! or else you'll dent the aluminum trim on the center console like me =(

 

The only thing, I would not say cheap, but the logo on the steering could have been better.

 

Personally, I think all of the interior looks great - even the aluminum trim. I do agree that one has to be careful as it dents relatively easy, so just be careful with the metal seatbelt.

Another area that will be a "bad area" is the plastic panels located on the B-Pillars where the seatbelts hang...more specifically when you take the seat belt off, the metal part bangs against those plastic panels and causes little scratches.

I looooooooooooooooove the interior though.

 

The looks are great. Its the rattles I can't take

 

before i was looking at the tsx, a4, volvo s60, the es and ofcousre the tl. basically the interior of the tl made my decision.

 

Is this a new place for us to whine?

Yes, besides seat belt damages the trim, B-pillar stuff, logo over the steerin wheel, there are gaps near doors, hand brake is not in the right place, LCD could be higher, cheap map pockets in doors, noisy glove box, faked wood is not good enough, etc... out of records, I can say a lot.


But, this is just a car. I think 04TL is doing good in its interior setup.

 

hahaha. yes. i noticed the gaps between the doors.

while we're whining, the center armwrest where you put your fingers to open it up, the plastic seems EXTREMELY cheap. i couldn't beleive what i saw when i looked comparing this piece to the rest of the interior. whatever tho, rets's right.^^^
-mischa

 

check out the Maxima, and the Saab 9-3. The Saab could be cool if not for the quality of the plastics and the stupid thing on the console that is supposed to mimic the parking break. SO lame.

 

i LOVE my TL's interior.....i just get weirded out by the soft leather that leaves imprints. Don't know why it does that

 

If not for this forum, I would not have noticed any of the faults people bring up, other than the rattles which, on second thought, actually just started bothering me after reading about them on this site. I know I could be anal about things but maybe people on here just takes it way to the next level of analness. :p

On that note.... I love the interior...make that I love everything about this car.

 

Interior, from what you can see, looks great to me. My problem was the headliner. The headliner is held by center mounted velcro just aft of sunroof. This velcro is about 1" X 2" and is glued to the metal surface. Mine came off so my dealership put some epoxy on it and it seems to stay okay. I'm concerned that the thing might separate when the weather warms up. Some others have noted, but don't see many more posts on this so it must not be a common problem.

 

Its happened to my headliner...I'm getting my whole headliner replaced. There seems to be some imperfections where the headliner came down. Not sure if its from hanging..or if someone was pushing up on the headliner making imprints. Long story short, Acura is replacing the WHOLE thing. Plus...I am having a upulster shop do it. Not Acura. I figured they would have more experience. Let you all know how I Make out...

 

First of all , I like the interior - it fits more like a glove than my 02 TL-S. But I would have preferred the grey plastic wood and cup holders of the 02 to the aluminum and rolltop of the 04. Also I think the look and the feel of some of the materials were better in the 02 such as the dash coverings and A-pillar coverings. All the compartments were felt lined and the hinged items had a delayed precision feel to them which is lacking in the 04. I give pluses to the 04 seats, hand brake, blue gauges, and sunroof controls.

 

Comparing to the 03 TL-S, the 04 has a nicer looking interior, but did cut corners on several things:
1.)No more dedicated sunglass holder, I was told that now the glass holder is in the storage space on door panels, but when I put my sun-glass in there, it rattled in there, & scratched the lens (probably inside of the holder too); when I tried to put sun-glass in it's case & put the case in the compartment, it is too large & would not fit.

2.)No more individual ashtrays with covers on each door, nor a tray in center console. Now I have no place to put small garbages (gum wrappings etc), except in my pocket, which I often forget to take out. The 03 has a nicely padded drawer for small items, such as coins etc. The optional ashtray for the 04 is a cup style unit that occupies 1 of 2 cup holders, so passenger now has to hold his/her cup while you drive.

3.)No more manual over-ride to close sunroof in case it stuck open. All other older honda/acura cars (even the Civic) that came with factory sun roof have this feature.

4.)Sunvisor does not actually extend anymore, the whole shade moves instead. I prefer an extendable one as there're times you do need to cover a larger area.

5.)My female passengers unanimously prefer the vanity mirrors with lights on the sides of the mirror (part of the mirror) & on the visor, not on the roof; where as in the 04, there's a single light above the mirror, on the roofyou don't see as well in the mirror because portion of the light is blocked by the mirror cover, also, the light is shining down instead of coming from the front (I see my receding hairline well, but not the lower part of my face, this is important to the ladies; works great as a reading light for each of the front seat occupant (with visor down & mirror open), eventhough we have the map lights in the overhead console.

6.)No more On-Star (came standard in 03 TL NAVI), was very helpful during accident last year when my 03 was totalled.

 

I've had a 6MT NBP w/parchment for a month now. I really like the interior - one of the main selling points of the car for me. I've not had any problems or issues.

 

I had a 00 TL and now have the 04 TL. I can't really think of any interior feature on the 00TL that was superior to the 04's. I find that the quality of the materials, especially the dash and door materials is far superior. Small things like the seat heater buttons now have a certain grainy texture to them that makes them feel soft, unlike the cheap hard shiny plastic one in the old TL. The stereo not only sounds better, but it looks soooo much better with it's aluminum dials that look like they came out of a home stereo.

Some people have complained that the aluminum trim is too easily dented, but real aluminum is soft not hard. That's what happens when they use a real material verses a fake. Now if it was painted plastic like most manufactureres use instead, it would be getting numerous scratch marks and discolourations over time instead as the paint finish wears off. I really don't think that there are any areas of quality in the new TL that pale in comparison to the old model having owned both.

 

I think questions like these will definitely bring out all the pessimists that have had some problems with their interior. By reading the collection on this thread, a new comer may get (biased) opinions that this car is no better than a Hyundai. But, what is this sample percentage as opposed to the owners that are simply not speaking out because of no problems?

I, for one, donĄ¯t have any problems with the interior. I like the layout of the interior, the easy access to all the buttons, easily readable instruments, great ergonomics, and the interior glow (blue glow is just awesome). One complaint, if it is a valid complaint, is that there are just too many toys to play with.

I think this posts should contain as many, if not more, accolades than complaints so that this thread doesnĄ¯t contaminate a buyers decision.