Hou-RL

I've been away from this forum for quite sometime. I put that title in because according to some previous reports and misconceptions, the RL was not supposed to be capable of delivering overall. It does everything it was designed to do and very well. It also has the best reliability of any $50k car I have ever purchased. Earlier when the RL came out many thought that Acura couldn’t deliver a luxury car and it performs the way it was intended to. I love the $29 oil changes and $85 maintenance. I won’t even begin to tell you how much for an oil change on my 996TT. More than I will spend on maintenance on the RL in 3 years I bet.
Simply because the RL is behaving just as it should. I only have one problem and one only. It squeaks in the front right corner. Of all our cars, this is the only one that has low cost maintenance and fully reliable. I browse Acurazine forums frequently but just haven't found any reason to post any further. I mean, there has not really been anything new that has been discovered about the car that I find worth reiterating since me and some of the others began discussing back in January. I spend more time on other forums trying to dissect issues or problems with my German cars. They seem to need to be babied while this one only needs to be driven.
While this is the first year car and there are some bugs for some of you, I have been fortunate to not have the issues that many of you have experienced.

I noticed RobL, Hondamore, AcuraBlue, Karl in Chicago (haven’t seen him in a while) seem to have things worked out pretty well.

Are there others who are not having problems?

hendjaz

Good and timely post hou-rl. I am the same as you with little to post about relative to problems. I have found the dialogue most interesting in the discussion of upgrading wheels/tires etc.

As earlier noted in other posts, my RL purchase was in October, 04 and the RL has performed perfectly since. I had an early bout (first week of purchase) with the battery drain issue that was due to my failure to turn the switch entirely off. I never encountered this issue again. Others evidently have so there probably is a design issue here that should be adjusted by Acura.

Other than that, I just drive it and thoroughly enjoy it. Like many cars, I have found the engine to open up and be even more responsive with the added miles. My 04 MDX was like this in that it took several thousand miles to really break in the engine.

I purchased when MSRP was the going purchase price and thought the RL was an excellent value then compared to the competition. At today's prices, its a steal.

Rob L

What kind of squeaks do you have?

Karl_in_Chicago

Hehe, guess I'm like you Hou-RL, just haven't been having any problems (and have no lust for 20" blings) so haven't had much to write about.

I still have the XM display delay as my one outstanding annoyance but it hasn't driven me (more) insane yet. I need to take the car in for my oil change so I'll ask about the updates then (will be first maintenance visit since buying the car).

I continue to be an extremely happy RL owner.

hondamore

I too have suffered through five months of trouble-free bliss with my RL. I'm actually looking forward to the first snow of the year so I can try out the SH-AWD with my snow tires. Great post Hou-RL!!

snowbound

You will probably not be impressed with the stock tires in the snow, the AWD is great but the tires are just plain damned scary. I took delivery of my RL last December, did a fair bit a winter driving in deep snow, slush, snow covered ice, etc. They were fine in light snow, but that was about it. Not knocking the car, love it, just the tires.

I recall posts from other members last winter saying the same thing.

hondamore

I agree 100% that the stock tires are garbage. As a result, in addition to buying OEM 18 rims with Pirelli PZeroNero M&S's, I've already mounted Dunlop Wintersport M3's on my stock 17 rims. I'm pretty far north up here in Western Canada and I strongly believe that snow tires are a must. I'll report back on the performance of the Dunlops once the snow starts to fly (hopefully not for another month or two).

Hou-RL

There is just a squeak that is in the front right corner of the drivers side. I have not yet taken the car in to have it looked at. There are no other problems that I have noticed. In looking around the forum it sounds common.

Shotgun

Hmmm...I've been VERY satisfied with my RL. Am approaching 15,000 miles and everything is working as advertised...No problems!

Karl_in_Chicago

And I'm STILL waiting for some narrower, cheapo steel wheels to be offered in the RL offset so I can mount snows to them (taps foot impatiently). I have no desire for 18's (don't begrudge any of you guys that like them, though) and just want to leave my stock setup - but ideally swap out to some narrower (hopefully 16") steel rims with snows for winter. Realistically it doesn't look like it's going to happen so I'll probably just end up buying a used RL set off of Ebay for cheap and throwing snows on them.