Hi all. My first post here. I just bought a 2012 Acura TL Tech yesterday and reading about the safety star rating today has me a little concerned and mad at the same time

Here is a summary of what happened. I negotiated a decent deal with the dealer but when I pulled the carfax on the car I was going to buy, it showed that it was delivered to the dealer in Feb 2012. The car itself seemed fine but I wasn't comfortable going for a car that had sat for the last 5 months. I figured I should have a choice since I was buying a new car. They had one more car in the same color/trim and it was delivered in June. I tried to convince them to give me that car instead but they insisted that the invoice price had changed on the newer delivery and they could not give me the same deal on it. I categorically asked them why was there a change in the price if it was pretty much the same car? They gave me some BS about exchange rate, etc and I would need to pay $476 more if I wanted the new one. They again assured me that nothing had changed and I was better off getting the one from the Feb batch as it would save me money. It didn't make any sense to pay $500 more for a few months so I settled on the 1st car. But today I was reading this forum and find this>>>>

http://www.examiner.com/article/acura-tl-chevy-malibu-earn-higher-nhtsa-safety-ratings-others-may-also-improve

So as it turns out Acura made some changes to improve the safety rating from 2 to 4 for Frontal collision why was I not told about this by the dealer? I would have gladly paid the extra money. This makes me so mad, I wanna go yell at them. My car is a day old. What can I do here if anything

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

there was a huge long thread about this before, do a search and u should find it.

 

Yes, I did read that and that's the thread that made me make this post. My question was if i should even bothe taking this up with the dealer? Are they not supposed to advise customers of any changes on safety especially when I specifically asked them if there was any difference?

 

Does someone know what they have changed ?

 

What VIN number does it have to be after to be built after April '12?

 

It is interesting to note that the NHTSA test results are very different from the IIHS test. Who to believe? The drastic change in the 2012 Federal ratings was due to a change in testing procedures where a female passenger dummy was used for the first time. Apparently the car did not protect a female passenger as well as a larger passenger. As to what changes were made in April, I have not been able to find out. My guess there was some change to how the passenger side airbags deploy or a redesign of the seat or dash structure. Attached are a comparison of the two test:

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/sa...l=TL&year=2012

 

From the safecar website:

Frontal crash test results are valid for 2012 model year FWD vehicles manufactured before April18, 2012 (before VIN 19UUA8F59CA031781) and 2012 model year AWD vehicles manufactured before April 20, 2012 (before VIN 19UUA9F75CA010093).

 

The above was for cars before April 18. here is the one for the improved safety rating:

Frontal crash test results are valid for 2012 model year FWD vehicles manufactured on or after April18, 2012 (on or after VIN 19UUA8F59CA031781) and 2012 model year AWD vehicles manufactured on or after April 20, 2012 (after VIN 19UUA9F75CA010093).

 

Thank you guys. So mine is built before April then.

Wish I knew this info a week ago.

 

You are still better off than me. I had the option of choosing between the two cars but the dealer said he could only give me the better deal on the earlier inventory. I asked him multiple times if anything had changed since he wanted $500 more for the newer one but he insisted it was the same. Had I known it was a safety issue, it was a easy decision for me to pay the extra money. Car is 1 day old and I am so hopping mad It's probably not a big deal but the fact that I had the option to choose but didn't know about this makes me even more mad Don't know who I can blame?

 

So I dug deeper and have found the two crash test safety report. If you guys have spare time, you can read the full report But this report does prove that the difference in the Pre April and post April batch exists. There should be no doubt left for that.

2012 model year FWD vehicles manufactured before April18, 2012 (before VIN 19UUA8F59CA031781)

Report#7569
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/databas...e=v&tstno=7569



2012 model year FWD vehicles manufactured on or after April18, 2012 (on or after VIN 19UUA8F59CA031781)

Report#7869
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/databas...e=v&tstno=7869

 

Crap! I think my new TL was made before April...