Hi guys, I've been reading this board for about five months now.I currently drive a VW b5.5 glx passat I have two more months to go on my lease and I'm looking to get into a 04 TL, I'm in love with the TL,I read the posts everyday on the different topics and i also see that the majority of all you 04 TL owners are very smart and very knowledgeable about cars.I can't wait to get this car, i go to the dealer almost every other day just to look at it.The one thing that kind of bothers me is the tire issue with the vibration problem,to me it is unacceptable to pull out of the lot in a brand new $35,000 car to find out at about 50-70 mph that the car vibrate, i will go insane,well "anyway"My suggestion to all my future fellow TLers why don't you guys start calling your local news and flood them with calls on this particular problem and hopefully the word will get around all over the national media and you will see how fast Acura will respond to this.I hope that by the time I get my TL Acura has this problem behind them because that's the only thing that is keeping me from jumping on this car now or three four months down the road.

thanks guys I enjoy reading this board eveyday...

 

Probably because 90% of TL owners are not complaining. If I didn't read all those complaints about the tires, I would've thought that there is nothing wrong with them.

 

From talking to my dealer, and I don't think they're lying, there really aren't too many people, per dealer, that are complaining about the tires. It's nowhere near the majority of owners. Several different people at my dealer told me I was the first one that complained of flatspotting, and that was only a little over a month ago. They say they DID hear from a few prospective buyers that asked about the problem after reading about it. Personally, I think many owners are just blissfully unaware of the problem and aren't critical enough to notice or care. Possibly partly because only a small percentage of car owners visit forums like this.

It seems to me like ALL of the tires in the affected VIN range would be bad, but maybe that's not the case. If the nylon construction was the main source of the problem, they'd all have it. (Not sure about the new version of the EL42).

Another way to look at it is to just mentally add $1000 to the price of the TL, before buying, for a mandatory tire replacement. Then ask yourself if it's still worth the money. It's still a LOT cheaper than a 330i BMW. After new tires, you can have better tires than would have come stock on the TL even if Acura hadn't chosen the EL42 tire. Or, expecting to have to spend the money on tires, you might be pleasantly surprised when you find your tires are satisfactory.

I guess having to replace the tires once is better than having transmissions fail over and over, which was a problem for some owners of the previous generation. At least we assume that's fixed now. At least the tire thing is over and done with once they are replaced once with a different brand.

Given the existence of the Internet, and the apparent concern that prospective buyers have over buying just due to this issue, it would seem smart for Acura to just "bite the bullet" and FIX the problem for all who complain, even if the problem isn't verified, within a certain range of VINs. Replacements should NOT be with EL42 tires, just due to the bad taste left with owners on those. The ~$800 to fix the problem per complaining customer would repair their reputation for a relatively small amount of money. They are probably losing more than that right now, total profit, in sales they aren't making, or ones they won't make in the future with all the people saying "I'll never buy an Acura again."

 

tlo,

You're in the drivers seat. Spend some time ahead of your car purchase making a trade-in deal with a tire shop in your area to trade in the EL-42's. I wish I would have - I started reading this board at about 500 miles on mine.

 

Also consider having the dealer swap for better tire before delivery. Mine agreed to swap out the EL42's for Michelin Pilot A/S for $560 net. Not an outstanding price but IMHO well worth it. Now, my TL has the kind of performance tire it really deserved from day one.