I've owned 3 Intergras, one with leather and have always been more than satisfied with the quality. I went to the Acura ride and drive in SF and have seen the new TL multiple times. Deposit Silver/Ebony/6MT/HPT/ end Nov Delivery. My general likes/dislikes are similar to those on the forum with one exception which I think was mentioned here earlier.

LEATHER- I was gettting into an Ebony interior on a dealer lot (20 miles on OD) and the leather on the bottom side of the drivers seat had wrinkles like it had been ran through a clothes dryer for a week. Let me tell you it looked horrible and made the car look cheap and aged. Upon closer examination I grabbed the side bolster and gave it a light squeeze and the leather produced the same wrinkle pattern I saw on the lower part of the seat. When you do this you will notice that the leather almost seems like it has a thin film of material on the surface. i can tell you that any seat that gets use will end up looking like this unless you NEVER come in contact with the side bolsters. I'm not a leather expert but this looks as cheap as heck (Like a $100 leather jacket sold in DT NY) and really turned me off to the car! Who wants a car with a sleek interior that has seats with hundreds of wrinkles? Is this Typical Acura leather quality? I just sold my CLK with 40k Miles and the leather looks brand new and I sid on the edges of the seats when the door is open! I know that there is a huge price difference but even a new C230 has the same leather look as my CLK! I hope that if I go ahead with my purchase I will not end up with a car that looks like car with cheap american leather. This is not acceptable for a car in this price point! opinions? This condition is most oblivious in Ebony. Check it out.

STEREO- Yes it's great what Acura packs in the unit in terms of features etc, but with all factory stereos (even good ones) one of the areas that kills performance is the very cheap speakers (04 TL's made in Mexico of inexpensive materials. I owned a custom install shop for 8 years and I can tell you that I've pulled out hundreds.
I removed the tweeter cover on the TL (because I noticed it was loose) and the tweeter comes right out- unfortunately its 4 ohms so you will need to match this for a replacement or get a five channel amp and new speakers. Placement is poor as noted elsewhere but changing some or all of the speakers could help the system quite a bit- if done properly. The system sounds OK. Of course DVD Audio sounds very good but it should! The system does lack mid and high resolution (even for factory) and could use some after market improvements. If I go forward with the TL
I will let you know about mods.

P.S. Iv'e seen the 18' wheels onan a-spec and think that they're ugly only because they are very dark grey with no silver option (the 80's is over Acura). If they were lighter I would go for them.

 

U sure it was the a-spec u saw adn not just a kit and wheels? What did teh steering wheel look like?

I had same worries about leather. My car is 9 years old and leather looks newer than one of the Acuras I saw. Somebody said cause it is softer, more suple high end, I am no expert. Might conditioning help strengthen them?

 

Was a pre-production a-spec. No wheel to see on this one. Don't buy the soft leather line. The Acura is soft on the outside only. True supple leather would not wrinkle like that. If you look close you will se that its the surface that is wrinkles! Look at Lexus RX leather or any premium car. Look at a cheap leather sofa and you wil know what I'm talking about!!This is a hugh turn off for the car as I can live with all the other small issues!

 

Better condition before you leave the lot and every week. I'd almost rather have fabric. I've even seen better synthetic leather on massage chairs!

 

What type of tweeters would you recomend to replace the factory?
I was aslo disapointed with the high end of the stereo.
The leather seating issue worries me now, have they made the
leather to plush and causing the pre-mature wrinkles. :devil:

Not good on the leather, I am sure this will change shortly if the
Acura gets enough complaints. but for us getting the first off the line it could be a problem.

 

Since we have a car stereo expert in the midst, I'd say one of those guys giving ANY factory system even an "ok" is probably way better than I'm used to.

It would be great if you could take the time to recommend some aftermarket speaker replacement for the Acura that provides best "bang for the buck" improvement, and what they cost. I don't know much about stereo equipment, and I don't trust lots of the local shops.

Thanks,

Ryan

 

I second that thought.

I also would appreciate any speaker choice help. I know that amps and head units are messy for amateurs like me to replace, but is is safe to say that speakers are easy? Just pop off the cover and replace or should I have a shop do it?

 

I think speakers are pretty easy as long as the replacements are the same size as the factory ones.

 

neversat, sorry, I have not seen the wrinkles in the side bolsters in my ebony interior and I have over 400 miles on it.

Only thing I have seen is that untill a few hours pass, the bottom seat has a round mark from your butt, but does disapear overnight.

 

There may be some slight modification needed. keep in mind the stereo was enginered fro the acoustics for the car- translated- someone famous gives them some imput and they pay them grandly for it so its mostly marketing. Tweeter placement is not optimal because it points toward the glass which could be one reason the stereo response is so flat on the high end. Depending on the tweeter- an aftermarket would sound better but would could be too harsh. I'll have to do some testing if I get the car.

 

needforspeed- Good news. Perhaps the leather has been changed in later production models? Please keep us posted. I would also assume several customers have been sitting on the bottom bolsters while looking at the car in the lot- hence if you never touch it it won't wrinkle. I dont see this as a problem with the seat bottoms though as it seems different.

 

Being the owner of my 04 TL for two weeks and a bit over 700 miles, I do second the thought of neversat on the leather issue. I do find the part where you sit on on the passenger side has already wrinkled, though my car was about 26miles on the guage when I took it out. Don't know because it was a show room model so many people had sit on. Also, some wrinkles (minor ones) on the head rests. Remember when I checked out the IS300, the leather were all smooth.

Anyway, overall, it still looks good, maybe just being too picky?

 

OMG FS-TL ........I love your new 2004 TL Pearl white with Aero kit. Sweet looking car! But I've got some questions for you...how do you like your parchment interior (vs. the quartz), do you think the areo kit that they've put on blends well into the body or does it stick out a little, and did u getta deal on the areo kit? Again sweet car....love the photos. Congrats.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you on this one.

The high-end response is frankly stunning on DVD-Audio. So, it stands to reason that their current placement and quality is suburb for a stock stereo.

The unfortunate thing is that the head unit doesn't get the signal out enough for other sources (FM, CD, XM, etc.). So, the system sounds relatively flat in comparison.

It's one thing for DVD-A to sound great, but that should not mean that everything else sounds merely average.

On my home system, a DVD-A sounds "incrementally" good by a factor of 5-30%. CDs and stuff still sound great. With the Acura/ELS system, it's like DVD-A sounds 50-80% better, which tells me that the head unit is purely optimized for DVD-A.

This is a mistake, no matter how cool DVD-A is... it's still a niche product.

Jon

 

For people that have bought the underbody aero kit --- do you find the underbody kit to be flimsy? The kit at 2 Dallas dealerships seemed very loose. Like they would fall off if driven over a rough road. What are your thoughts???

 

Where's the photos???

 

I have been trying to find pic of the white TL. IT LOOKS HOT!!!. Congrats.

Vtech11 - The link to the pics are under his signature.

 

You did mention the car you saw was a Pre-Production, and many others already with 04TL's have not complained about this, so maybe it was a fault from Early VIN's

 

It was just an early model- not pre-production. i looked at one last night- looks similar.

 

Exactly what I've been thinking. I suspect that the system was intentionally made to sound worse by rolling off the high-end for non-DVD sources. Why? To make the case for buying Acura's TL with its DVD-A system since it sounds so much better. I suspect Acura/Panasonic of stacking the deck by degrading the sound of other sources. There's no technical reason why DVD-A would sound that much brighter than CD's. (Flack suit now on.)

-David

 

Audio system:

It sounds fantastic!

The DVD-A system is outstanding and yes, CDs that are of good sonic quality sound almost as good. If you take an old Elvis Costello CD- which was not technically well in the first place- and play it in this car the sound isn't going to be great. If you take a CD that was made technically quite well, it will sound very good- certainly better than any other from the factory car sound system. When one goes from DVD-A to XM radio there is a big difference in the sound (especially if it's an old recording) because you're moving from a sonically fabulous source to one that's inferior

I know some audiophiles may disagree with me. Remember, it doesn't matter what the specs on an audio system are if one can't discern the difference with one's ears. Dog's might be able to hear the difference, but humans many times can't.

My advice is to go listen to it. Your dealer has a demo disc that highlights the quality of the system. Go to some of the late tracks on the demo disc, the cow bell sound for instance sounds incredibly life-like. The sound system was one of the selling points for me and I haven't been disappointed.

 

The DVD-A does sound awesome... I think XM however sounds a LOT better than the muddy sound of FM by far. Maybe one day XM will broadcast in 5.1... now that will be NICE!

 

And don't forget that most men loose 30% of their high frequency hearing after 30.

 

I noticed the some of the cars on the lot had seats with more wrinkles than others. I'd be concerned too.

 

Hi! if you owned a high end audio store,you would know it takes several hundreds of hours of break in time to get liquid and transparent sound,but true thats not the sound you are going to get fron these $39 cent speakers they threw in the car.The best thing the sound has going for it, in this car is the imaging,which is fairly good with 5.1..... Nice to build a stereo system with the car acoustics in mind,even though tweeters in the dash are just a pitiful way to get good imaging when your midrange are firing in the opposite direction.

 

Some of the most comfortable leather recliners that I have sat in are the wrinkled ones. I think the wrinkles add style and make the seat seem broken in and more comfortable.

 

I own an 03 CL-S6 .. and the leather sucks .. I highly doubt that Acura has improved the quality of their leather .. it'll be just a matter of time and the '04 leather will look just like the '03s

 

What do you use to condition it? You have to take care of leather seats just like leather chairs.

A friend has a 2000 TL and the seats look like new because she takes care of it.

 

When you say take care of the seats are you referring to conditoning them (Lexol) on a more frequent basis??

Also, do you mean the wrinkles on the bottom cushion or the side (hip) bolsters?


Thanks for your input.

 

I've always used leather cleaner on everything including any vinyl. Seat cushions, seat back, all over. I usually do the driver's seat twice as frequently as the passenger's. I am not familiar with Lexol but I have always used a product called "The Tannery",It both cleans and moisturizes the material and makes a BIG difference. The leather is softer and all the dirt is removed. I used it for 10 years on my Bonneville's leather seats and the leather was perfect when I sold it and I know GM doesn't use the best grade of anything.

I can only discuss the one I use but I am sure there are lots of good products. Even saddle soap works but not as well as the tannery. I use it every couple of months on the driver's seat and less frequently everywhere else.

Here is a link that describes it.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/alamo/tanprot6ozca.html

 

There are lots of posts about the leather seat wrinkling issue in my comprehensive problems post:

http://www.acura-tl.com/forum/showth...threadid=64458

Some think the padding may be to blame as well as thin leather.

-Scott