rhiannon1207

I was planning to take advantage of the 2008 TL deals and trade my 2002. Unfortunately, the 2008's don't seem to be available in the exterior/interior color cobmination that I want. I'm not too upset because the exterior of the 08 TL was never my favorite - sorry, but I prefer more of a futuristic design. Unfortunately, the price for the 08 was good ($30K + tax, tags for TL navi).

I am one of the few that actually seems to like the exterior of the 09 TL, although I think Acura could have done a better job with the grille. I am a bit concerned about buying the first year model of any car. I dealt with the transmission issues with the 02 (replaced in 11/2005). Even though Acura replaced it free of charge, it was a headache trying to "prove" to the dealer that my transmission had issues. Yes, I know - 2002 was not a first year model but I'm just gun shy in general. So, I'd like to hear the opinions of others about buying an 09 TL given that it was just redesigned. If you bought a first year Acura in the past, did you experience more problems than subsequent years? Would you expect most of the bugs to be fixed in the 2010 model or not until the minor update in 2012? Also, when do you suspect we will start to see some "good deals".

Thanks!

sparky57

I've owned both a '99 and now an '04 model. I've had excellent experience with both. After nearly five years and 68k miles, the first thing that just broke on my '04 was the switch on the cruise control. Press it on and it won't stay on. I am presently using a section of a toothpick to wedge it in the on position. The '99 experienced no problems before replacing it with the '04.

I'm hoping they'll tame the beak soon.

I suspect that will take a while. For the best deal, but it at year end when the dealer is closing the quarter and year and wants to get his allocation up.

rw

rhn75

I bought an '04 TSX when they first came out in Oct '03. I had to have both headlights replaced because of condensation build up on the inside (Acura eventually did a recall). I also had to have the CD / Radio unit replaced because of a burnt IC.

I've had the car for 5 yrs (~55k miles) and aside from the above (neither of which is directly tied to the first year of production) which were both covered under warranty the car has not had any issues. To put things into perspective I had a VW that went in to the dealership 5 times (one of which was on a tow truck) in the first 15k miles

I don't think you should worry about any quality issues. They might however make minor changes (for example, a year after I bought my car they made the lights on the steering wheel backlit and they added bluetooh).

TorontoTL

I doubt that you'll have reliability issues with a first year Acura. However, interior fitting quality in my experience with a 2nd year TL and a 1st year TL haven't been great. I think the interiors are better fitted together with fewer creaking and rattling noises as they make more of them.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Rhiannon,

You'll probably be alright buying a 2009 TL. You've got many years of ongoing technology up to now with pre-existing TL's. Now if this was a brand new model of Acura, I would say you have reason to be sceptical. But the TL line is great and I'm sure you'll be fine purchasing a 2009.

KeithL

I belevie it was Consumer Reports that ran a story a few years back showing the rate of issues year to year in a model cylce, and Honda was near the top with year one probelm and they tend to lelve off in year 3, I belevie Toyota/Lexus was better, still year oen issues for all makes was higher that subsequent years, but most dramactially fell off in year 2, Honda stuck out in my mind as taking until year 3, and having owned a 04 TL I can say it was quirky, nothing major, although I missed the tranny TSB since I bought right after it was showing up in production. I am very leary of year one Honda's their interiors rattle and squeak like a haunted house.

KeithL

I agree, my 04 was a haunted house of noises, my 06 was virtually silent, only the back deck needed to be padded, my 07 was not as good as my 06, but the dash made more noises there, my first 08 Type-S had roof liner issues, but my second 08 Type-S is decent, a few B pillar noises and the usual bad buzzy back deck. I hope they can quiet the back deck in the 09 with all that extra ELS power!!

LuvMyTSX

I learned my lesson with my '04 TSX. There are a couple pretty costly issues that plague the '04s that don't occur in subsequent years (namely the A/C failures and printed circuit board issues). If you can wait at least until year 2, then wait.

Johns

Unfortunately, I agree with this statement. My wife's 04 TSX has had quite a few irritating problems that seem to have been cleared up in the following model years. Still a great car, but with more problems than it should have.

neuronbob

I was an early adopter of the 3G TL--I bought it the day before official release in 2003. I had a few minor problems in the 56k miles I owned it, nothing major.

If you want to buy a 2009, feel safe doing so.

rhiannon1207

Thanks for all of your responses! I'm now wondering whether I should have bought a 2008 but I guess it is too late. The only thing that the 08 lacked that I really wanted was the IPOD control through the stereo. If I can't get an 08, I'll probably wait until at least 2010 to purchase a new TL.

Is anyone concerned about the hard drive in the TL? I'm the associate director of an IT department and it's pretty common to see hard drives fail within a 5 year period of time. That would of course be after the warranty expired.

S2000 Driver

Here's an excerpt from ConsumerReports.com's Consumer Reports Car Reliability FAQ:

"6.9. If you state that first-year models are less reliable than later-year models, how can you still recommend some new Japanese models in their first year?
It is true that some newly introduced or redesigned models have more problems than later model years of that design. This happens even to models from the most reliable manufacturers, such as Toyota/Lexus/Scion and Honda/Acura. But despite the decline in reliability due to the new design, if the new/redesigned model still earned an average predicted reliability, and performed well in our testing and independent crash and rollover tests, we will recommend it. We will not recommend any model that has below average predicted reliability regardless of how well it performed in our testing. Occasionally, we will recommend a new model with no reliability data specific to that design if the model or the manufacturer has a consistently outstanding reliability track record based on our previous surveys."

Skwalker23

Has anyone mentioned the seat change? 05 TL's seats were completed redesigned from the 04's to allow for more support. To me, this is a big changed between first and second year of a redesign.

Oswald Vater

My own experience would agree with those whose comments suggest one takes a risk when buying a 1st-year new models. Automakers are sometimes so intent on getting a car to market that they don't take the time with it they need to. 1st-year model buyers tend to be guinea pigs for later versions.

The difference in quality between my 04 and 08 TL's is significant - rattles vs no rattles and flat-spotted tires vs no problems to name a couple. We also owned a 1996 Caravan and now own 2001 Chrysler T&C (both 1st year models) that could have used more time "in the oven" before being released. I won't even mention the problems we had with an 86 Ford Aerostar.

There is something exciting about having a brand new vehicle that attracts attention from others but the risk of reliability issues is often too great to be worth it.

S2000 Driver

The 2009 TL SH-AWD is not an entirely new design:

1. Drivetrain -- from Acura RL & Acura MDX
2. Chassis -- from Honda Accord

So mechanically, the major components are already in use and field tested.

I would see the greatest potential for reliability issues coming from the slew of electronics used in the Technology Package.

Add to the above that this is an Acura and you should feel confident about overall reliability.

KeithL

I've seen that, but they also ran some article in one of the issues where they compared the aver problems per 100 each year of the typical 5 model years. I'll have to dig it out, it may have been 2 or 3 years ago.

gurneyeagle

I bought my wife an '07 MDX in early October '06. I have not experienced one problem with the car.

I purchased my '08 G37S in late-August '07 and have not had a problem either.

timmahh

To my knowledge the change consisted of an additonal patch in the base of the seats; on an 04 you will see there's two sections of perforated leather[..ish]; the newer ones have 3 sections. My understanding is that the two-peice setup wore pretty badly and stretched, causing a permanent "outline" of the driver/passengers rear-end. With the 3rd piece added there is more flexibility and not as much strain on the material as before.. ?


To the OP - I think you should be fine. The powertrain in the FWD TL is tried and true, I think the only problems you might run into are interior component fit and finish, maybe some HFL issues since this seems like a whole new generation of the technology, but you'll have a warranty so I cannot think of any reason to shy away from it.

If you were getting the SH-AWD model I might be a little uneasy about it because it's a new drivetrain setup for that model [while it might be similar to the other SH-AWD setups it's not an exact clone], and as far as I know this is the first time Acura has had a V6 with VTEC on both intake and exhaust?

mlody

I am really disappointed in quality of TL that I probably won’t consider Acura in the future.
I had 04 non-NAVI 6MT and currently I have 06 NAVI 6MT – both are far from trouble free

My 04 had the most problems:
- rear tire wear – surprised no one mentioned that yet
- 3rd gear problem
- Slave master cylinder replaced
- Rattlers pretty much everywhere – rear sub, door pockets, dashboard, sunroof cover, center speaker, b-pillars

So far my 06 had the following:
- broken sub frame – fixed - warranty
- 3rd gear problem – not fixed
- Slave master cylinder replaced after 25k miles – fixed warranty
- Subwoofer rattle – going to have dealer fix it
- Door pockets rattles – fixed by added padding material
- Center speaker – fixed myself based on instructions on acurazine.com
- Noisy front windows – I saw TSB but not tried it yet L
- Sunroof cover rattle– very annoying – going to try the fix soon
- Ridiculous gaps between dashboard and frame (a-pillar) – can put fingers in the hole
- Misaligned aluminum trim that goes from left to right door and thru dashboard (very visible on the passenger side)


To some it might be really nothing, but for me those are big and annoying things. I would rather have my engine failed and have it replaced and be happy then constantly deal with rattlers who are almost impossible to fix – at least for dealer or all those imperfection that I see every single day I get inside the car.
The only thing I can’t complain about is the service I receive – I know there are many haters on this forums about how Acura service sucks and is crappy – my experience is totally opposite – I am very respected when I get to the dealer, I always get a loaner and most of the time I get to pick what I want to drive, the service advisors are reliable and keep good communication while my car is in the service, hours are very convenient and I can even get loaner for such things like oil change.

Rocketsfan

I was one of the early buyers of the '04 TL (bought it in October '03). It currently has around 107,000+ miles on it. I don't plan on getting rid of it for another year or two at the earliest unless I start having a lot of problems.

There have been 3 or 4 recalls that have affected us - 2 seemed fairly serious from what I recall.

1) I have squealing brakes that the dealer has never been able to fix. On cold days they squeal loud as hell far from a complete stop. When they are cold even on warm days, they'll squeal.
2) The rotors warped within the first 15k miles from what I recall. Fixed under warranty.
3) The roofliner on a lot of our early cars were dropping down - mine was taped down and has never been a problem since.
4) Rattles, rattles, and more rattles. Seems like they duct-taped everything but the windows in the car to try and solve the problems, but they persisted and I gave up.
5) Subwoofer was replaced by the dealer. I told him the subwoofer wasn't the problem causing the rear-deck rattle I was hearing. He said it was. I got a new subwoofer and the rattle was still there. Thanks.
6) One of the backlights on my seat heater switches is out
7) There's a dent on my driver's window trim where I rest my elbow as I drive (talk about cheapness... hehe).
8) Mechanically, the car has been solid - and to me, this is the most important. I don't want to be buying a car every 3 years. I need to get 130,000 miles minimum out of any car I buy.

I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but...

I've learned not to buy the first year from the issues I've run into - but then I don't think 1 year would have solved many of my issues. Overall, from a "serious issue" standpoint, this car has been very reliable. It's all the little things that drove me crazy early on. Like I've said, I don't know if I could buy the first year run of a car again (but damn, forgive me for going off-topic a bit, that CTS Coupe is tempting...)

Rocketsfan

Oh yes, and the silver paint on my AC vent flaps is flaking off...

darth62

The 2004 TSX's actually had quite a few first year problems (sadly, most of which have impacted my car). These include:

Condensation in the front headlights.
Nav/Radio lights suddenly burning out.
Buzzing in front speakers.
Much higher than expected rates of A/C failures


This is all described in the TSX forum, and in most cases, Acura has also issued a TSB.

All things being equal, it is always smarter to buy a second year vehicle than a first year. Of course, first year or otherwise, Acura products are always going to be more reliable than the competition.