legendguy

As I stopped by my local Acura dealer tonight and saw the increasing inventory of un-“sold” TLs, I couldn’t help thinking of the review that said “Get in line”. Although I am happy that there may be a TL or two available when I finally get off the fence, I can think of a few things that Acura could do tomorrow that I believe would make the TL sell better.

First of all, replace any matte silver exterior trim with chrome and throw away altogether the middle bar on grill. A black grill neatly surrounded by thin chrome and a centered acura logo would give the understated look of luxury that most of us desire. A chrome window surround ala TSX would be nice too but dare I ask for too much? Mixing chrome and matte silver = bad looks IMHO.

Next, drop the Camel interior. Anyone who likes the wood-look or the classic leather look will be happy with Parchment, so why have a color that is not going to sell well clogging up the inventory. Lowered inventory = lower costs. And then we could do away with those Green-camel jokes that their unsuspecting owners will be subject to.

Finally, equip all TLs with Navi. Come on, we all want it, but just don’t know if it is worth it. Two grand will buy a lot of maps! Now, if Acura were able to knock say $1500 off the price (by making it standard thus lowering inventory costs), I think most people would be happy to have it. Then every Acura would have it and the people who ride in your car would see it and want to have it and they would buy a TL and Acura would be selling tons of cars and everyone would be happy!

So you can see that a few simple changes could make a whole new market for Acura. Come on, these changes could be made tomorrow! Before anyone flames me by saying "get yerself a TSX then": just let me say I would, if they would drop in a V6, powered passenger seat, and heated mirrors. Oh well.

Acura, are you listening?

fuque

The other day two of my co-workers and I stopped by an Acura dealership to check out the new TLs. They had at least a dozen of them on the lot, including one with a nav system. The three of us spend at least 30 minutes on the lot, yet not one salesman or other dealership employee said even a single word to us, much less tried to sell us a car!

Now, the three of us are well-dressed, thirtysomething software engineers - just the target demographic for the new TL. Yet we might as well have been invisible.

Afterwards, we walked next door to the Mazda dealership to look at RX-8s. Not one but TWO salesmen jumped on us faster than an Alien embryo jumps out of its egg sac!

No wonder this Acura dealer has so many unsold TLs on the lot... I kn ow one thing: when I do buy my TL, it won't be from Tustin Acura!

Jason

Maybe the problem is that Libertyville Acura blows. You hear me Gary?!?

Junkster

Oh, I think I can top bad experiences at a dealership my friend.

I was called an "asshole" at Pikes Peak Acura in CO for asking for price and payment on a car and I said I didn't want to put a deposit down until I got a quote. Yea, the guy was Frank, and my thread about Pikes Peak Acura is on the Dealer's Lot section.

Seems like a lot of people are having rudeness/bad service probs at Acura dealerships.

Junkster, who still can't believe he was cursed at in a dealership showroom.

preet

I went to Sunnyvale Acura once (CA) and one of the salesman simply denied my request over Test Drive of the TSX and told me to come back with my parents. Come on now, my parents are not the ones to pick the car for me, so why would I need ot have them around when I go look for cars? I know for sure they lost my business over a TL. I guess some sales people are like that.

Preet

fdl

If they asked for your parents its probably because you are under 18. And if you are under 18 its very unlikely you will be buying a TL. I'm not saying you wont buy one, but that the chances of someone that young buying one are 1 in a million while the chances of someone being that young going for a joy ride is probably 9 in 10. Its not fair..but thats the way it is.

Or maybe you are not that young..I am just guessing.

legendguy

Sorry about all the bad experiences. My salesman was polite, informed and was waiting next to a TL with keys for me when I returned with the TSX I tested first (gave me the option of testing with or without him let me see....see ya later!)

Anyway, I was just hoping to stir up a discussion of the TLs unusual (IMHO) exterior features. The quality seems to be there and the interior is quite nice so what gives with the exterior?? Or am I just a the misguided one here??? ???

goldband

I too had a series of lousy and unprofessional sales experiences with Acura dealers (Im in the Bay area and my hall of shame includes Stevens Creek, Sunnyvale, Burlingame) though in the end I bought my TL from Concord where they were very professional.

Everyone who has bought an Acura knows about the customer sat surveys that the dealers cherish to help them with allocations and other goodies from the home office. Trouble is, they only survey the BUYERS and then on the dealership where the purchase was made. I had no chance at all to express my issues with dealers who treated me badly and whom I left in the dust... even though surely this is as important for Acura to know and to hold dealers accountable. At least I eventually bought a TL, how many others were discouraged and never were buyers at all?

I put in a bid to talk to the district manager-- am waiting to see if that comes to pass. If anyone from Acura HQ happens to read this, please contact me!

preet

I am over 18. When I went to buy my friend a VW GTi 20th Aniv edition, salesman came over and welcomed us and showed us cars and my friend test drove it and salesman didn't even pay attention to the Driver License. And the salesman at Sunnyvale Acura simple said, "You have to be with your parents to test drive one." And then he said TL was 35-38 thousand ... maybe to see me walk off?
Stevens Creek Acura was actually good and bad. Thier customer service through email was great. When I went there, no one said hi except for one person, I thought he was salesman so I asked about TL and he said he doenst work there. THen he said that, "Their customer service sucks, I've been waiting like this and no one came to me yet." I too had to get someone rather than someone talk to me but after that they have been okay. BTW I test-drove TL there.

Preet

pcinoc

Hello Hoen Acura!! (Free plug for Justin here ) That's right, I won't be given my hard earn money to those lazy bastards at Tustin Acura The guys couldn't even get off their ass to come talk to the prime demographics of the TL. Isn't the TL targeted at those thirtysomething guys ??? Did the sales guys at Tustin Acura forget to read their marketing brochure???

Last time I checked, they still have 12 TL in inventory, and those are the same 12 cars as of last week. That's right, I am keeping track of their inventory # and nothing is moving over there. Finally, I won't help them move ANY car off their lot! I'll be happy to drive the 5 parking lot to go BUY somewhere else.




What are these people thinking???

larchmont

How come your profile says your birthdate is 1/2/88?

preet

LOL Nice detail!

I don't give birthdates out and u can see me being lazy by putting in 1/2/88
If I was really 14, I wont have a Drivers Licensce would I?

Preet

legendguy

I give up, thread hopelessly lost. If only the TL forum had subdivisions like the TSX forum, we could put all the dealer rants in one place. Personally, once the deal is done I go home with the car and don't care if the salesman was Angelina Jolie in disquise :-* If anyone wants to talk exterior or what changes they would make, start a new thread please, I am gone for tonight.

larchmont

Still sounds pretty weird to me. What about just leaving it blank? And anyway why would you have made yourself so much younger?

BTW that would be 15.

preet

Dude... I guess you want some details....
I either filled up 1/2... or just used Google's Autofill. I'm almost 20 and I don't think I can give you any proof because it just wont matter to you or me. So you can believe what you please, seems like you are defending a dealership and you find something wrong in me.

Ask someone named "George" if I (Preet) came to test drive, maybe he'll remember me cuz I've been there twice and he remembered me when I came in the 2nd time.

Bottomline: If one Acura dealer (StevensCreek) lets me test drive and other dealer wont, then ofcourse my personal experience won't be good. It could be true that I looked young and all, but people tell me I look like someone who's like 22.


Preet

larchmont

Cool, preet.

But I still say sounds weird to me.

preet

Fine!

I have so many birthdates on the net... I guess it is wierd. BTW it wasn't google's autofill, it doenst fill in birthdate... and I cant tell you what I was thinking when I put that date in.

Took me while to respond cuz I was looking for this thread.... Just seemed to disappear.

Preet

Jason

Right. I just said your dealer blows, and maybe thats why he has so many unsold cars. Then the thread turned into everyone else's bad experiences. What happened?

fuque

The topic is "how can Acura sell more cars?" The overwhelming answer is "get rid of the assinine Acura dealers!"

legendguy

Fuque-
OK, you have a point there. My mistake for the cryptic topic title.

Jason-
Actually, I am interested in what you said. Why do you say my dealer blows as that would probably be the place I would buy from. I haven't had my Legend serviced there since I found a nice independent that specializes in Honda/acura so haven't been around the Libertyville dealer. Could you tell me why you say this? Thanks

Jason

Well, if you had PM enabled I would say this there, but I had an unpleasant buying experience at Libertyville Acura when I was shopping for a TSX. The internet manager told me he could get me at least $500 off MSRP, and then told me he could get me $14,000 for my trade-in (something like that, this was back in May). I told him I didn't want to drive to Libertyville from the city if he couldn't, and he said no problem, I know I can do these things. Well, I get up there and he can't give me the trade-in value he said he could and he wasn't able to get what I wanted off MSRP. See ya!

It's a blessing really, because I ended up getting hooked up over at Continental Acura. A customer of mine has a cousin that used to work with the sales manager there, and I dealt directly with him. It was totally hassle-free and he gave me the highest trade-in value I could get, plus he gave me the $$ off MSRP I was looking for. He did a dealer trade to get the color combo I wanted, and he even held on to the car (instead of selling it to all the people asking about it) when I was in an accident with my trade-in and it took me an extra month to do the deal. BTW, they honored the value they gave me on the trade-in even after my accident. How many dealers would do that? Whenever you're ready, let me know if you want to use Continental and I'll make sure you get hooked up too.

YBA

What Acura could do tomorrow to sell more TLs?

Acura could put a BMW badge on it and the sales would go up right away...

Jason

Don't make me ban you!

duugk

Unfortunately, you are fuqueing right. Too bad the quality of the dealers doesn't equal the quality of the cars. I've had enough of this high brow attitude that seems to be Acura wide. Too bad we can't just place orders with American Honda direct, and just use the dealer for service.

fuque

Just for the record, my name is pronounced "Foo-Kay."

Arrogance is not limited to Acura dealers - every marque has them. As for placing orders directly with Honda, they would love nothing better than to be able to cut out the middlemen and sell direct, but the dealers won't allow it (surprise, surprise). That's why I'm glad we have fora like this one, so we can spread the word about who is naughty and who is nice.

legendguy

Jason-
Thanks for the heads-up. Thats what I wanted to here. I appreciate your offer and may take you up when I'm ready. Thanks

gdcwatt

I've been talking new cars with another hockey dad over the last few weekends., here in Toronto. This guy just bought an 05 TL DEMO, with navi, discounted by the dealer $10,000Cdn; if that's a before tax number, he saved $11,500OTD if not discounted at all. So, to sell more TLs more people need to take more test drives, so there'll be more great deals around.

And to sell more TSX's...

fuckleberry

wow back from the grave

sauceman

Well, it's not really on TSX topic...