I own a 2005 Acura TL 6-sp navi w/ only 20k miles and up till last Saturday, it was in perfect condition ... The car had been pulling to the right for a while now, so I finally got an alignment done at the dealership. The car was picked up and driven only 10 miles whereupon the lower ball joints failed completely. Luckily, I was driving slowly (~25mph). Just before it fell off, I heard a loud "POP!" and the car skidded to a stop.

I have contacted Acura corporate and the dealership regarding getting a replacement vehicle as neither I, my wife, or son feels safe driving this vehicle anymore. Had I been driving more aggressively, I could have been seriously injured or killed. I don't really know how to continue forth with this problem. Should I contact NHTSA? Consumer Reports? Should I accept the car back?

 

This has happend to another member here. I don't know if anything got resovled. If acura doesn't do the repairs in full go hire a lawyer. This could have turned out worse if you were driving faster.

 

You will have litte or no choice but to accept the car back. Parts fail. You're not getting a new car out of this no matter how much you kick and scream.

Besides keeping the car after repair, the best you can do is start the clock on Lemon Law repair/time count.

OR

Trade it, take the loss and get something else.


You might get a couple free Oil Changes or a little consideration in parts or something, but, as far as "compensation", that'd be about it.


BTW - very curious to know if the alignment had something to do with the failure - tech/human error of some sort. Also, it is not clear, was the alignment done at the dealership?

 

Yes, his alignment was done at the dealership.

I would think once the warranty repairs are done it should be good to go.

 

Reading owns me.

 

mitsu....it just sounds like a bad part.....get it fixed and dont worry about the car failing....its a car.... that piece breaking couldve occured on any car in the world....ive seen it happen on bentleys.....it happens...... a majority of the parts that we recieve now for the cars under warranty and when they are bought are superceded by the newer parts like the type s or the base tl's because somewhere down the line they realized mistakes and took some kind of action to correct it. the most id ask is that both sides be replaced so theres no chance of it occuring on the other side.