When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
This came in the mail today regarding my wife's Camry. She's not having the problem described in the letter yet but it's nice to know it will be fixed FREE OF CHARGE if it starts to happen. This is how it's supposed to be done. Man, Acura sucks when it comes to claiming responsibility of it's defective parts.
Yup, and all we get is: "huh I've never seen that problem before. I've been working here for the past 5 years and it's the first car I see doing that."
It's not only about the dashboard too. Many other problems are treated as rare occurrences by the dealerships while they know (and we know) that the issues are widespread.
It's not like our cars are garbage though, we're not spending all our free time getting bullshitted by the dealerships. I'm not going to jump ship to Toyota just because of this. However, when time to change car comes, practices like this from Toyota gives them major points in my book. Plus Lexus makes some fine ass cars
There was a thread not too long ago where someone pulled up Toyota's track "abysmal" track record with regards to recalls and compared it to Acura's. "Acura only has a FRACTION of recalls compared to Toyota!!"
What that person failed to realize is that Toyota is totally proactive and will do anything to ensure their cars stand the test of time. Acura? Not so much. It's a complete night and day difference.
To Toyota, it doesn't matter if it's a safety related problem or not. They take the onus to ensure that if it is not a maintenance item, it shouldn't be failing. Acura is 100% the other way around. What a shame.
I know no matter who the manufacture is you will have problems / recalls - mass produced and designed by humans what can you expect but it's nice when manufactures like Toyota except the fact that they screw up and do what it takes to fix the problem.
Seems like Acura just cares about putting the money into their pocket about act dumb when it comes to problem fixing.
Okay guys, real talk, I'd rather have a cracked dashboard then a stuck accelerator pedal (and I don't have a cracked dash because I keep my baby in the garage). My friend's Acuras get a lot of street parking but they don't seem to have any cracked dashboards either. Same with my parents. If you leave out anything in nature for long enough, it'll eventually turn to shit. BMW's electrical problems, Audi's oil sludge, Ferraris catching on fire, etc, nothing is perfect. I do agree that customer service is something they could definitely improve but I've never had a problem with it. Maybe I'm just lucky, maybe y'all are unlucky, maybe it is a problem, who knows.
Okay guys, real talk, I'd rather have a cracked dashboard then a stuck accelerator pedal (which I don't because I've been keeping my baby in the garage). My friend's Acuras get a lot of street parking but they don't seem to have any cracked dashboards either. Same with my parents. If you leave out anything in nature for long enough, it'll eventually turn to shit. BMW's electrical problems, Audi's oil sludge, Ferraris catching on fire, etc, nothing is perfect. I do agree that customer service is something they could definitely improve but I've never had a problem with it.
Dude, Toyota hasn't had the accelerator pedal problem in 5 years
I gotta say, when I had my Lexus IS350 they took good care of me even though my car was out of warranty. I had the cam gear issue before the recall even came out and they took their time to give me a rental car while they tried to replicate the noise. Got a free rental for a whole week while they ordered the parts and took my engine apart to fix it. I was a very happy customer.
My services at Acura and Honda all have been on the "okay" or "not so good" side. I haven't really had any good experiences with either. Honda rarely wants to believe me when I say my 2015 Honda CRV is having issues. Dropped it off one day, and they said everything sounds fine. Drove it home, it was not fine. Thinking about switching back to Toyota or Lexus.
There are some Acura dealers that are scumbags. The place I bought mine from has always been good to me though. I went to another one once and they made up a bunch of bs that I needed to get done. Took it to where I bought and they took care of it in a day.
Toyota is doing that because of the issues they've had over the past few years with safety recalls.
Toyota just has more experience with problems and issues than Acura. I do agree that the customer service is spotty with Acura though. Hendrick / Superior Acura will forever be on my bad list of dealerships in the KC area... one of many examples: just because my wife and I look young doesn't mean you should try and convince us the "A" on the back of a 2004 RSX was purposely placed up side down in Japan and imported.
That you know of...plus that problem killed people. Has anyone died from a cracked dashboard?
Right, because no other manufacturer has ever been responsible for deaths. Not even Acura, equipped with Takata airbags
Toyota pumps out a shit ton more vehicles than both Honda and Acura combined. They are not perfect by any means, but they do a much better job looking after their customers. Acura wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire to save your life.
Simply put, if it wasn't safety related and Honda/Acura wasn't forced into doing a recall, they simply wouldn't. At best, they'd put out a TSB and force customers to argue with a dealership to death to get something fixed, generally (read: not always) ending in the customer paying at least something out of pocket.
Toyota on the other hand came out and said "shit, this was our bad. We'll fix it for you if you have issues in the future!"
I especially love it when Honda releases a TSB in the US that isn't applicable in Canada for the exact same problem on the exact same part. Fucking bullshit. Happened on my '03 Accord.
Reason why Toyota recall alot more than Honda because the recent law suit involve the accelerator pedal, before they would not tell the customer about the recall and work on them self then until the infamous 2010 incident they are now making every recall for the mistake being made and notify that to the general public. As far as goes Lexus does not eat through AT like Acura BTW that spark plug #5 does not fly out cylinder head, when I bought my TL at 60k miles back in 2012 with a bad TB tensioner took it to Acura dealer for a warranty repair but the tech came back tell me everything is normal no noticeable noise heard. Every car has its own issues but its how the company decide to handle the problem.
Toyota didn't have to recall the cracking dash. It's not a safety issue. I'm sure a multi billion dollar company can weather the storm of a lawsuit if someone sued about the dash board. Seeing as nothing happened with the 3G TL dash, I'm willing to bet nothing would happen with Toyota either. It's not even safety related. And yet they're STILL replacing it.
Yeah, the pedal issue was bad, but it ended five years ago. Many company's have learned to be proactive about recalls since Toyota had a shit storm happen. Honda has not.
There's enough issues of engines consuming oil (the 1 quart/1000miles criteria is fucking bullshit), transmissions shitting the bed prematurely, electronics failing prematurely, paint failure, you fucking name it, and Honda just turns a blind eye to it ALL.
Last edited by TacoBello; Jul 21, 2015 at 02:53 PM.
I took my TL in to get the power steering pump replaced under a recall. Acura was so fucking cheap, they wouldn't even drain the whole system and refill it with clean fluid. They were already in there working on the system!! Nope, they wanted me to pay $120-150 to have it done. They drained some of the dirty fluid when the pump was replaced and just topped off the reservoir with clean fluid. Are you kidding me?
I even got a call asking about my recent service (when this happened last year). I told them I wasn't pleased they wouldn't go the extra mile to do the repair right and finish the job. Never heard back. They didn't give two squirts of piss.
Yeah, the pedal issue was bad, but it ended five years ago. Many company's have learned to be proactive about recalls since Toyota had a shit storm happen. Honda has not.
GM too on the faulty switches. I'm sure there are others.
I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly, but in actuality, Toyota really didn't have a problem. Each case of "unintended acceleration" was really a case of customer error. Most cases being pedal confusion and a few outliers being floor mat related accelerator sticking. And the majority of those were due to improper installation. (Double stacking all-weather mats over fabric mats).
But even then, they still sucked it up and took their lumps.
I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly, but in actuality, Toyota really didn't have a problem. Each case of "unintended acceleration" was really a case of customer error. Most cases being pedal confusion and a few outliers being floor mat related accelerator sticking. And the majority of those were due to improper installation. (Double stacking all-weather mats over fabric mats).
But even then, they still sucked it up and took their lumps.
The Department of Transportation released results from an unprecedented ten-month study of potential electronics-based causes for unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. NHTSA launched the study last spring at the request of Congress, and enlisted National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers with expertise in areas such as computer-controlled electronic systems, electromagnetic interference, and software integrity to conduct new research into whether electronics systems or electromagnetic interference played a role in alleged incidents of unintended acceleration.
In March 2010, NHTSA enlisted the support of NASA in analyzing the Toyota electronic throttle control (ETC) system to determine whether it contained any vulnerabilities that might realistically be expected to produce unintended acceleration (UA) in a consumer’s use of those vehicles. NASA did not find an electronic cause of large throttle openings that can result in UA incidents. NHTSA did not find a vehicle-based cause of those incidents in addition to those causes already addressed by Toyota recalls.
It's All Your Fault: The DOT Renders Its Verdict on Toyota's Unintended-Acceleration Scare
June 2011
Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation released the results of its study into the blizzard of reports that various Toyota and Lexus models were accelerating out of control. The DOT concluded that, other than a number of incidents caused by accelerators hanging up on incorrectly fitted floor mats, the accidents were caused by drivers depressing their accelerators when they intended to apply their brakes. “Pedal misapplication” was the DOT’s delicate terminology for this phenomenon.
Reports of sudden acceleration had been trickling in on Toyotas at a modest pace, as they do on most brands, until a spectacular accident on August 28, 2009, near San Diego. A veteran California Highway Patrol officer was driving three family members in a Lexus ES350. At some point, the throttle of the car stuck open, the driver lost control, and the car accelerated to high speed before hitting another vehicle, rolling over several times, and bursting into flames. All four occupants died.
A subsequent investigation discovered that the car had been fitted with all-weather floor mats designed for a Lexus RX, which were too long for the ES350, thus trapping the accelerator pedal after a full-throttle application and causing the crash.
The funny thing for me is, as a whole, we had much better service in my area when we had our Hondas than what the Toyota dealership gives us. So much so, that we are thinking of getting a CR-V (or possibly an RDX) to replace the Camry. But Toyota's policy of taking ownership of its' defects can't be denied as first rate. I've never had a problem with them when it came to something that needed to be recalled.
