Alright, I apologize in advance if this is long, but I deperately need some help...

I have an 05 TL AT w/NAVI that I purchased approx 1.5 months ago. Here is the list of problems that I am having or have had with the car.

1. First day I got the car, my passenger door courtesy light was flashing to the beat of the music, so i brought it in the next day and they took the door panel off and fixed the connector.
2. Vibration at 2500 rpm - dealer replaced heat shield.. problem fixed
3. Brakes squeak - dealer attempted to fix, and the brakes still squeak.
4. Navigation randomly reset while driving around a parking lot looking for a spot.
5. Key got stuck in the ignition one night for about 30 minutes
6. Headlights are different colors. One is blue and one has a yellowish shade to it.
7. Feel a grinding from underneath when driving at a low speed and pressing the accelerator lightly.
8. Rear deck rattles a lot
9. Rattles coming from the passenger door, glove box, seat
10. Rattles coming from somewhere near driverside headrest/seat belt area.
11. When engine is cold, you feel the car vibrate in a random beat
12. Bluetooth works randomly, but doesnt show the battery level or signal strength.
13. CD's are currently stuck in the CD changer, they will not play, they will not eject. Every time I turn the car on it cycles through all the CD slots and then nothing plays.

I REALLY DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO AND I NEED SOME ADVICE. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT MY DEALER CAN DO ABOUT THE CAR. I DONT WANT IT ANYMORE, CAUSE IF I EVER TRY TO SELL IT AND SOMEONE LOOKS AT THE SERVICE RECORD THERE'S NO WAY THEY'LL WANT TO BUY IT.

I LOVE THE TL, IT LOOKS GREAT, AND IM SURE THAT MINE IS ONE IN A MILLION W/ ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS. I DONT MIND GETTING IT REPLACED WITH A DIFFERENT ONE.

I ALREADY TALKED TO ONE OF THE SALES MANAGERS AND HE TRIED RIPPING ME OFF (PISSED ME OFF EVEN MORE). HE SAID THEY'LL TAKE IT BACK, GIVE ME ANOTHER 05 TO REPLACE IT, BUT I'D HAVE TO PAY $4,000 DIFFERENCE (WHICH WOULD BRING MY GRAND TOTAL TO $37,000 FOR A 2005 NOT AN 06).

ONCE AGAIN IM SORRY FOR MAKING THIS SOO LONG, AND I APPRECIATE ANY ADVICE OR HELP.

 

after reading all those i was like WOW.....oooo and ur dealer thinks those problems were normal? give them a chance to fix them. if not, u can lemon law it to get ur $$$ back. u have to do it quickly tho. i don't know what the lemon period is. you've got to let them fix them to record all those on the service record to give you leverages. we can probably help you with minor rattles on sunroof or door seals as nothing a little armor-all can't fix. but the rest of the stuff u mentioned really need to be logged into ur service record. i'd suggest u spend more time at the dealer first then come back to update us. wouldn't hurt to ask people about how lemon law works.

 

daaaaaamn that's a lot of problems....

 

If the dealer does all of this, and it's all on the service records, won't i have a hard time selling the car in the long run. Personally, If i was buying a car, and saw that it had been serviced 5 or 6 times in the first 2 months, I wouldn't buy it. am i right??

 

You either have a very sick puppy or you have been building an elaborate scam with periodic problem reports over the last 4 weeks. Assuming the reports are real, you need to keep a cool head and take a rational approach to getting them resolved. The problem you reported should not be there, but you have paid good money, and now you need to work on retaining your investment.

If you have already blown the rapport with the sale rep you should try to get the service manager onside. Categorize the repeatable problems and work to get those resolved first. Then try to deal with the infrequent problems.

Your age may work against you in trying to get the dealer to take you seriously. They will certainly take your money for the purchase, but you need to establish credibility in problem reporting (unfortunate fact of life).

Finally, if you cannot get satisfaction from you current dealer, take it to another dealer and start from scratch. Do not drag your case history and dissatisfaction along to the new dealer. If that does not work out then it's time for ACS and lemmon law.

 

it's really hard to believe you have all these problems all at once cuz most of us here do own one. we don't know if it's real or not, no disrespect. we'll treat it as real at first to try to help you until we smell something fishy. then watch out for ha.

as far as letting dealer to fix them, what other choices do you have? you keep bringing up the selling thing. i don't think that's ur biggest problem right now. let's say you get all these fixed and the car runs another 4 yrs w/ no problem at all, who cares about your service record 4 yrs down the road? i've sold many cars privately and none of them buyers asked for that stuff.

so quit thinking about all your delimmas and you have two options:

1. get them to fix them or lemon law it (go buy a chevy or somethin')
2. sell it now and take a loss (i heard impala is very good)

let us know which dealer you went to and the name of the service manager there. just to increase credibility + what manager has to say about all these. some of us do know some people in the acura/honda world. maybe "someone" can help you out.

 

[QUOTE=ttliang]it's really hard to believe you have all these problems all at once cuz most of us here do own one. we don't know if it's real or not, no disrespect. we'll treat it as real at first to try to help you until we smell something fishy.[\QUOTE]


Ok, Time for me to Chime in on this...

MikeM05TL happens to be my Brother, I am on the 2nd GEN forum for about 1 year now and have owned my 2nd GEN TL for 2 years. I can vouch that these problems are serious and that he's not BS'ing anyone. I have driven the car myself to see what he's been telling me and these problems do exisit. I am trying to help him as well, but I am limited to what I can actually do seeing how I don't own the car.

I've been to the dealership with him on two different occasions with his problems and all the dealership keeps telling him is give us time and let us fix the problems. As he approaches 2 months of owning the TL... i think that's plenty time to fix reocurring issues. I was there when the key was stuck in the ignition and he was on the phone for about 30 min. and not getting anywhere. I saw the headlight issue and it seems like the HID is already dying [turned yellow]...so the issues that he's mentioned are Legit.

So guys... Please Help him...

 

Ok, Time for me to Chime in on this...

MikeM05TL happens to be my Brother, I am on the 2nd GEN forum for about 1 year now and have owned my 2nd GEN TL for 2 years. I can vouch that these problems are serious and that he's not BS'ing anyone. I have driven the car myself to see what he's been telling me and these problems do exisit. I am trying to help him as well, but I am limited to what I can actually do seeing how I don't own the car.

I've been to the dealership with him on two different occasions with his problems and all the dealership keeps telling him is give us time and let us fix the problems. As he approaches 2 months of owning the TL... i think that's plenty time to fix reocurring issues. I was there when the key was stuck in the ignition and he was on the phone for about 30 min. and not getting anywhere. I saw the headlight issue and it seems like the HID is already dying [turned yellow]...so the issues that he's mentioned are Legit.

So guys... Please Help him...

 

[QUOTE=Means17TL]Ok, Time for me to Chime in on this...

MikeM05TL happens to be my Brother, I am on the 2nd GEN forum for about 1 year now and have owned my 2nd GEN TL for 2 years. I can vouch that these problems are serious and that he's not BS'ing anyone. I have driven the car myself to see what he's been telling me and these problems do exisit. I am trying to help him as well, but I am limited to what I can actually do seeing how I don't own the car.

I've been to the dealership with him on two different occasions with his problems and all the dealership keeps telling him is give us time and let us fix the problems. As he approaches 2 months of owning the TL... i think that's plenty time to fix reocurring issues. I was there when the key was stuck in the ignition and he was on the phone for about 30 min. and not getting anywhere. I saw the headlight issue and it seems like the HID is already dying [turned yellow]...so the issues that he's mentioned are Legit.

So guys... Please Help him...

 

I believed him.. I think the others on here that didn't are just being butt heads... whatelse is new

 

Okay, I've deleted your other problems because I have no advice for them. But here's what I know about the ones listed.

#6 - HIDs are yellowish when they are new. It's just a characteristic. I noticed this on a 400-mile old 05 TL loaner I had, and I see it a lot on the newly redesigned Toyota Avalon especially since those have D2Rs. After about 200-300 hours of usage they will color-shift and be the normal HID color you expect. You may see one as blue simply because the projector is affecting the lighting, or one may have color-shifted already - the next will do so soon, give it a little while longer.

#7 - 2nd and 3rd gen TLs will run roughly for the first few minutes when you start them up and they are cold. Cars are least efficient and emit higher emissions when the engines are cold, and the roughness you feel is the emissions control system trying to regulate it. It's a LEV characteristic (or the new TL may be ULEV, I'm not sure, either way, though).

#13 - The headunit needs to be replaced. You should receive your CDs back in the mail within a few weeks, or at least I did when this happened to my 2nd gen. It's very simple.

 

Hmmm, a one line comment starting name calling, along with an 11 line quote, and no suggestions or recommendations. What are we to think......

 

Damn...looks like I'm the only one without major problems except for the stupid passenger side headlight, which now reminds me of an aquarium

 

Not necessarily. I believe new car owners tend to get the bugs out in the first few months of ownership (e.g., TSBs, rattles, minor issues, etc.); I find it typical on every car I've owned (although I do not find your list of problems typical).

I'd rather have a car that shows that the owner spent the time and got all the bugs out early and then had the car and then sold it. I don't like it so much buying a used car that had very few "problems" only to find out that there are several TSBs that were not applied and rattles that were just tolerated. It's like a new house -- you expect a few bugs that get addressed. Older homes (i.e., say 5+ years old) have been through a few yearly cycles of getting things fixed.

Everytime I buy a new car, I moan and groan because you not only get new car smell, but you get rattles and other known issues that have to be fixed (we find out about the issues by driving the car and reading newsgroups).

I agree with others here -- get things fixed, serviced, etc. and keep good records. If things don't work out, you have more leverage for the lemon law thing.

Best of luck,

Dennis

 

First off, sorry to hear about the problems. I think you can get them all fixed though. Forget about whinning or taking the car back, that isn't going to happen.
This is not personal, it's business so you have to act in a businesslike manner.

#1,2 and I think 5 are fixed. #6 and #11 have been explained. On #13 a new head unit should have been ordered already.

#3 brake squeak, did you read the manual about how to properly seat the new brakes? Disk brakes do squeak sometimes and usually can be fixed to a large degree.

#4 Navi resets itself? what does this mean? On a non-digitized road it may not know where it is. Again take a look at the manual. If it does not work take it in.

#7 May be ABS related, dealer may need more information and it might be 'normal'.

#8 and 9 rattles, known issue, takes time at dealer sometimes multiple trips or diy

#12 Bluetooth, some phones including most Nokias do not show all information on the MID. Where are you keeping the phone in the car and what kind of reception do you have in the car w/o using bluetooth? Check the forum for more information.

I suspect that this might be your first new car, forgive me if I'm wrong. If you were looking for a perfect experience I understand your disappointment. The reason you have a new car warranty is so that they can fix the things that are not correct on or just after delivery. You have to help the system work by taking the car in and giving them some opportunities to make it right.

Give the service department some respect and you should get some back. You might want to try calm but firm in your conversation. Hope it all works out for you.

 

thank you....

David this was not necessary.......


Mike you are the first that Ive seen with this many problems. Thats quite a list. Hope Acura takes care of you. best of luck....

 

Alright, I'd like to thank most of you for the advice and help. Here is the situation right now.

The dealer is taking care of 3,6,9,10,11,& 13 right now. (1 & 2 were already taken care of before.)

4 & 5 Only happened once before, so if it happens again, then i will bring it in.

7. The sales manager and tech can't feel it, will go on another test drive on a day when its not raining.

8. Dealer will look into it... whatever that means.

12. I should start bitching at Verizon for selling such crappy phones... Treo 650...

Car should be ready sometime next week... hopefully it'll be ok...


and one last thing... when i got to the dealer today, they had put 40 miles on my car from driving it yesterday... How many more miles should i be expecting to put on it???

 

That's good news for you, leaving very few issues outstanding (if any), but an unfortunate experience.

With one of my past cars (not Acura) the service manager said that he would drive it home overnight to try and identify the problem. If this is what happend and the guy lives some distance away, the mileage may not be unreasonable.

Given the number of issues reported you should not complain about the mileage as this could make you out to be just one bitchy customer. You will not get the best from them in this situation.

 

and one last thing... when i got to the dealer today, they had put 40 miles on my car from driving it yesterday... How many more miles should i be expecting to put on it???

RELAX! How the heck do you want them to hear noises and make sure they are fixed? It sounds like they have made a lot of progress. Are you happier now?

 

Hey Mike, when you get #7 and 11 fixed, can you post the solution? I'm curious to find out what causes that, I sometimes notice the same on my car. Thx.

 

I recently bought a 2005 used and had the same concerns above, #7 and #11. Sounds like from earlier comments it may be the ULEV which I am not used to coming from a 2000 Si. Anymore advice around these issues or confirmation that others have the same sensations would be helpful.
Thanks!