TXTL

I know this subject has been beaten to death BUT we must act as a group if we have any hope of Acura switching out tires. I addressed the letter to Client Services but also CC'ed my local dealership and the President and CEO of Acura (Takeo Fukui).

Below is a copy of my letter. Let all take the time to write or call. Please don't copy letter exactly. Everyone should have their own reason for wanting new tires. Let's flood Acura with letters.

**************
January 13, 2004


Acura Client Services Office
Mail Stop 500-2N-7E
1919 Torrance Boulevard
Torrance, CA 90501-2746

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to express my frustration with the tires selected for the 2004 Acura TL. This is now my third Acura and sixth Honda product. Of all the cars purchased from Acura and Honda, all have had high quality tires. The Bridgestone EL42 tires on the 2004 TL are well below Acura’s standard. During my three months of ownership, I have had the tires balanced and aligned. To this day, I still experience flat spots after a few days of not driving, a very rough ride, and hydroplaning while raining. My prior 2002 Acura TL-S had Michelins and I never experienced one tire problem or felt unsafe during rainy driving conditions.

After reading many of the surveys at tirerack.com, I found that many 2004 TL owners have the same feelings towards the EL42 tires. The new TL is a beautiful car inside and out however it’s obvious that Acura tried to save a few dollars by putting inferior tires on their “Flagship” product.

Being that I am a loyal Acura / Honda customer, I am asking that Acura stand behind it’s “Precision Crafted Service” and replace my EL42 tires with similar Michelins tires.

Name and Address Here

2004 Acura TL
VIN#
Mileage:

I can be reach by phone or mail should you have any questions.


Sincerely,



Name Here

CC: Takeo Fukui, President and CEO of Acura
CC: Your local dealership GM

LED Master

TXTL - Thanks for your time and effort.


Do you have an address for Takeo Fukui in Japan?

TXTL

I sent it to the North American Office. When I go to the office today, I'll log on and give the address.

TXTL

I got a call from Acura customer service today (1/26/04).

It was a follow-up call to my letter about the EL42 tires. They said that many people have complained and that Acura is trying to decide what to do. They also recommended that a complaint should be registered with Bridgestone.

I have been added to a list about the tires. Should Acura decide to make a change, they will take care of registered complaints first.

The more complaints the faster Acura will react.

Call or write TODAY!!!

LED Master

I have complained to both Acura and Bridgestone.

Hopefully others will

PLUNDAHL

I called today (for the second time) and their response was that a "couple" people have called! Can you believe that? I registered my complaint more than 2 months ago (I now have 3000 miles). I'm still holding out in hopes that they will take care of this. Please take the time to write or call.

Tread

A Bridgestone tire dealer told me that the best number to call at Bridgestone is the:

Bridgestone Technical Center in Akron OH - 1-800-847-3272

Hours of operation are from 8am - 4:30pm EST.

These are the people who take care of the technical issues.

Don't call customer service, that is a waste.

Good luck to us all.

LED Master

Bump

FirstAcura

I just called the Bridgestone/Firestone complaint line listed above.

They took the call right away as well as my complaint. He stated others have reported the same thing.

He also directed my to the nearest Firestone dealer and stated they will take 'corrective action'. What that means is anyones guess. I will visit the store first thing Saturday morning and report back my findings. If they replace the tires I am going right down the street to trade them on some Falken's.

Crossing my fingers.............

LED Master

You got more than I, let us know what they do.

TXTL

Yesterday (2/24/04) I received a call from my service rep at David McDavid Acura in Plano, TX. To my delight, Acura has decided to replace my tires due to rough ride and flat-spotting. They also have the module to fix the memory seats. Wow! Acura does listen!!! After calling and sending letters, I was about to give up.

The service rep told me that they are going to replace with a newer version of the EL42.

Good luck to everyone else!!!

Acurarocks

IF you happened to read the directions for your $30k vehicle. You would have seen that the tires are warranted by the tire manufacturer. If you keep pressing Acura they will clam up. Some bean counter will calculate the cost of addressing this issue will add up to, how much they can mark up the sale cost of a 2007 to cover their expense. When the figure out that they won't be able to cover it they will push it off on Bridgestone just like Ford did it with Firestone.
From what I understand Acura dealers are not equipped to deal with warranty tire issues. No dealerships are really. They all buy from tire manufacurers and send the warranty issues to authorized tire dealers.
None of you seem to realize that dealers are reimbured by the factory for warranty work. If they can't get the factory to repay them for fixing your car you are asking them to absorb the cost of your tires. Given that the average business needs to sell $50,000 in order to clear $100. profit.... They have to sell $500,000 dollars to absorb the cost of your tires. No wonder it is like pissing in the wind.
Furthermore, they are not responsible. I accepted the risk when I bought my TL because I knew the tires were made by the same company that brought you the Ford Exploder. Unless you were in a coma I am not sure how you could have missed that one. I knew the tires were not the best and made of a soft material. When they wore out at 15,000 miles I didn't even think twice. I bought some Michelins and I am good to go. Do you guys really think Acura should be responsible for replacing your tires free of charge? Hell while there at it maybe they should throw in the gas and maintenance charges. Compensate your for the time you wasted blaming everyone. Grow up. If you own a high class car act like you have some class that is consistent with the car you own.
BTW who actually paid for the tires on the car. Ahhhh you did when you bought it. And if it had different tires on it when you bought it that were "better" or more expensive, you would have paid that in the original purchase price that would have been higher. Duh.............nothing is free. The warranty repairs on your car are precalculated based on averages and figured into the price of the car you just bought. Get a grip people.

KeithL

First this is NOT a tire warranty issue, this is a poor choice by the TL product team or who ever to mate those crappy tires on this car! Sure the tires are crap and that is what Acura bought, why after all this time with Michelin did they switch. Seems for 06 they went fully back to Michelin. Bridgestone for its part stepped up fro many of us, they gave me set of LS-Z tires as direct swap, but I believe they stopped that after a while. Can't blame them, Acura got what Acura bought.

DeadLock

I was walking around, and belive it or not, but the G35, 745i, and some other top brands also had taranza tires.....they are probably not all EL42's, but it seems that a lot of companies are using them. I can't blame Acura, and they did have a service bulletin and did offer to change the tires if the car is under 10k miles.......for free........and with a discount if the millege is higher.........I dont see how the tires are their concern, they didnt know their wear, it wasn't up to them to do tire testing, thats what the tire company is for.

They also retail for $170 a tire............so they arent cheap tires at all.

just my thoughts.

Acurarocks

Bridgestone EL42 are OEM on about 5 different car lines. If a tire manufacturer had no car lines as clients they would be at best obscure tire lines. The tires are performance based and quick to wear, a fact of life...performance tires wear more quickly.
Michelins are available on TL navigation models as OEM on the 2006, you want non navi, Bridgestones are your OEM tire.
BTW the guys at Acura matched a performance vehicle with a performance tire. Big surprise.
The TL is strong and heavy... and the performance tires wore down quickly as you guided that 3500 pound car into a 1g turn.... HMM...
An educated consumer is a good consumer.
Are some of you really that broke that tires are breaking your back??? Maybe you should get into an Accord

aitthen

Dayam, calm down. Let's not pre-judge others without personally knowing them. I can't blame people for trying to save a buck or two, especially with gas prices soaring at it's highest right now.

I have the 06 navi running on michelins and my bro has a 05 running on bridgestones. We trade cars on a regular basis and honestly, I can't feel a whole lot of difference, not just that but the tirewear is almost not different whatsoever.

chill_dog

1) This thread was over a year old.
2) The Turanza's are ok - not great, not horrible.
3) The Turanza's are warranted by Bridgestone, not Acura...problems with the actual tires should be addressed to Bridgestone.
4) That Acura did something on their own about the tires is demonstrative of good customer service as they had no responsibility to do anything.
5) Acura chose these tires and should be made aware of their poor choice if you feel it was one.
6) What other cars use them is irrelevant (they are common OEM tires, though).
7) This thread was over a year old.

jmbnova

Seriously people... wtf?