[nastinupe1]

I'm switching to MB, BMW, or Lexus for the customer service aspect. I have not been treated well by Acura at all. But as a Honda owner I wasn't treated well then either. So I'm not suprised.

 

[nastinupe1]

We have a 06 GS and an 05 Avalon LTD in the family corral. They are wonderful cars (as is the TL). My opinion is Toyota / Lexus delivers more on the refinement and interior assembly (that is only where I notice quality variances) where Honda / Acura have a bit more performance focus. The GS would be my choice over the TL, but I am not sure I feel it justifies a 15K premium over the TL after driving the 2 vehicles side by side.

For my tastes, a bit more focus on the assembly details would warrant a price increase with Acura. I would gladly pay a few more K for a refined Acura than 10-15K more for the Lexus.

Features and content aside, Acura can claim anything about their brand, content, value and precision engineering. But that is easily disappated from my perception when I hear the interior complaining as I drive down the road. The interior of my '02 Isuzu makes no complaints, even as I bounce down the road.

When I test drove an 06 GS I was really impressed. The car handled better, it had more features like power steering wheel, better seats, more space, better paint quality, better sound system, better interior lighting, better Navigaion system, Better build quality, more powerful engine, as well as the much plusher service center and award winning customer service. Also, Lexus also beats out Acura and Honda for reliability as has so ever since its' inception.

I didn't buy a Lexus this time because the old GS was not as good of a car as the new TL and the 2003 GS and 2005 TL were two cars that I was comparing when I was car shopping. Also, the 2006 IS and new BMW 3 Series was too small, the new M was too expensive, the old M was just plain hedious, the 525 was way over priced for its' 187 hp engine and bland interior, the CTS was American, the 2003 Range Rover couldn't be trusted, the Range Rover Sport was too expensive, the VW Jetta and Passat were too ghey, the Accord was too bland, the Maxima was too... well Nissanish ( I can't explain it but I am sure that you guys feel me), the Charger was too redneckish and/ or ghetto, the 300C was too... ghettofabolous, the Camary was too "I have no class and I have 2.3 children and live in the suburbsish", the TSX was underpowered, the RL' s exterior was too mundane, and last but not least, the old TL had an ugly interior compared to the new body style. I actually still like its' extrior just as much as the new body style, especially with the ground effects.

 

[nastinupe1]

I admire BMW, but just can't make that leap of 'gotta have it'. The current styling trend is too Batmobile for me, and I cannot take it serious. The interiors bore me.

I am impressed with what Nissan / Infinity is doing stylingwise. I am not a fan of the interiors & materials....but like them overall.

I do like the L-Finesse styling that Lexus has adopted with the GS, IS and next the ES & LS. It is interesting, I see a family resemblance in the line up but it doesn't seem gimmicky. I see them adding a bit more adrenaline into the stylining.

Now the TL styling was a big leap from Acuras conservative trend. Enough so, I see the TL design features now a benchmark for the Honda family. The new Civic intrigues me as much as the TL did when I 1st stared at it in a late 03 autoshow. If this is true, I see the Honda / Acura family delivering that edginess that draws me in more than Toyota / Lexus. I hope they can work that into the Accord (without taking shine off the TL). The Accord (sedan) is the weakest link (style-wise)...GOOD-BYE!

You know what I have noticed about the Accord styling. If you take a 93 Accord and a 98 Accord, they look so similar. Where did the 94-97 Accords styling come into play. In 98 they went old school and everyone loved them. Then the 03-current styling looks more like the 94-97's. It's like Honda goes back and forth so I am guess that the Accord's next style will be like the 03's and 98's.

Please Honda, this is your last chance before the Toyota and Hundai beat the living crap out of you.

 

[nastinupe1]

For those of you raving about Infinitis, don't waste your money; our 'other car' is a G35 coupe, and while it's a beautiful car on the outside (aside from the down-right shitty paint quality) and can be fun to race around in, the car is one of the crappiest we've ever owned.

The interior is nothing but a plastic, non-ergonomic and flat out UGLY cockpit, with zero design efficiency at all. The controls are ugly and nowhere near where they need to be, and between the rattles/whistles/creaks, there's brake shudder starting at 12K miles, a gas tank that thinks it's full at 3 gallons (shuts the gas pump down due to splashback) and a whole mile of nit-picky other complaints I won't bother to list here.

Now I'm not a young ignoramous that thinks that because we bought a crapheap that all of them are that way, but to put it simply:

Overall, the car feels CHEAP. Build quality simply does not compare to Acura/BMW/Lexus at all, and I'd encourage everyone that's considering one to really think twice; it's really just a shiny turd, and you'll undoubtedly become more disappointed than you'd think you could with it.

So ends the gospel according to me... now.. what're we talkin about? :beerchug:

Its funny how the more expensive the car, the more complaints. People NEVER complained about the 94 Civic I have... other than ther power. But they knew that when they bought the car.

I was never sold on the G35. It was always a glorified Altima in my book. But those M's.... my God... I love them so much!!!

 

[nastinupe1]

I am happy to see that the 80/20 rule applies here. If 8 out of 10 owners would buy Acura again that says something about the brand. I agree that no car/brand is perfect. One person's dream is on another persons "Don't Buy" list. So far I'm very happy with my 05 TL. I think most cars made these days will be good to you if you take care of it with proper Maintenance asthetically and mechanically. My cars always look thousands of miles newer than they are. Usually the body style changes tip people off to how old my car is, not the appearance inside or out.
So far I think Acura is a great brand. It's not perfect but overall it's a joy to drive. The dealer I go to is awesome so that makes the whole experience even better. Happy Driving...

#1. This forum is biased because we are Acura/ TL lovers so the numbers are inflated. If you account for the lump of the REAL population, this number would be below 50%... way below 50%

#2. What people say and what people do are two totally different things.

Here's proof:

Lexus Retains Most Owners

The latest Customer Retention study from J.D. Power and Associates finds that Lexus is the brand that keeps most customers when the time comes to purchase a new vehicle. The three-year-old study found that Lexus increased its repeat-customer rate; 63 percent of its buyers choose another Lexus, against an industry average of 49.6 percent. Lexus is followed in the rankings by Toyota (62.6%), Honda (59.9%), Chevrolet (57.3%) and Hyundai (56.3%), respectively. At the bottom of the list is Suzuki, which holds on to only 28.6 percent of its customers, although the numbers improved by 38 percent this year, Power notes. The more than 177,000 consumers polled for the new survey pointed out that things gone wrong with the previous vehicle were the biggest deterrent to buying a second vehicle from the same brand, correlating to strong finishes in Power's related Dependability Study.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/Auto_News/Auto_News/Marketing_Report_Dec_12_2005.S175.A9733.html




Toyota
60.6%

Lexus
59.5%

Chevrolet
58.9%

Hyundai
57.6%

Honda
55.2%

Ford
54.5%

Cadillac
52.8%

Mercedes-Benz
51.6%

BMW
51.4%

Kia
50.9%

INDUSTRY AVERAGE
48.4%

Jaguar
48.3%

Subaru
48.0%

Audi
46.0%

Saturn
45.0%

Dodge
44.5%

Buick
44.4%

GMC
44.1%

Lincoln
44.0%

Nissan
42.3%

Porsche
41.8%

Land Rover
41.3%

Acura
39.8%

Chrysler
39.5%

Volvo
39.3%

Jeep
38.3%

Mercury
34.4%

Volkswagen
33.7%

Pontiac
33.5%

Mitsubishi
31.8%

Infiniti
31.4%

Suzuki
31.4%

Saab
30.5%

Mazda
23.1%

Isuzu
7.0%

Oldsmobile
4.9%

http://www.thecarconnection.com/Auto_News/Daily_Edition/Daily_Edition_Dec_10_2004.S173.A7824.html

 

[nastinupe1]

Yea... Acura is below Huandi, Kia, Chevy, Ford, Dodge, and suprisingly Land Rover and Jaguar.

The only LUXURY car brands that rate below Acura are Infiniti and Saab. That is amazing considering that Acura is a Honda product.

Acura really needs to spruce up their image. The RL needs to be a better car and their customer service really needs to improve. Acura also needs a "dream car". A car that everyone loves that is not so hardcore like the NSX was. Lexus has the SC, which every woman adores and Infiniti has the GS Coupe. Caddy has the Escalade, BMW has the 6 Convertible, Mercedes has the SL and CLS, Audi doesn't have one.

I think that the next RL needs to be larger than life. A car bigger than an LS and S and 7. A read head turner. Something so technologically advanced that people will love it once they enter it. VW tried to do this with the Phateon and failed miserabily because it was the little brother to Audi which already had a car called the A8, but this is difference because its' Acura and not Honda. Acura could pull this off because Honda is a car company that has a lot of people who make 6 figure salaries purchase thier vehichles. Honda customers usually buy WAY below their means because they just don't feel like spending more. But what if Honda convinced them that they should? What if Honda introduced a car with a V6 Hybrid engine that got 40 MPG and had 350 hp? What if Honda introduced new technology in this car like a Navi system that used 3d imaging from sattlite photos to guide you instead of colored lines? What if Honda made a car with a built in MP3 player and a computer that you could talk to and recognized you by your voice and weight? What if this computer knew your personal settings? What if this computer could drive for you while you slept? What if the car had night vision built into the windows? What if the car had break resistant glass? What if this car had all of these great things!!! Acura needs to think ahead and make a car so advanced that it would go against Rolls Royce and Bently but cost 1/3 the price. A car so wonderful that it would be considered the best car ever made, the most technologically advanced car ever made, the car of the future, the polomarch of all cars to come. Light years ahead of anything out there. Safety measures like foam instead of airbags, roll over bars that pop out of the car to stop the car from being smashed, chemicals that mix into the gas tank in a bad accident to neutralize and change the chemical composition of the gas so that it won't explode, I could go on forever.

 

[nastinupe1]

It's called a halo car first of all.

And Acura will have one in '08, supposedly. The v10 NSX successor.

I know that its called a "halo" car, and I know about the successor to the NSX, but like I said above, Acura's "halo" car does not need to be so hard core like the NSX is. The NSX is for an EXTREMELY small nitch of consumers. I would like Acura's Halo car to be a car that everyone would like to see in their garage, but just can't afford it.

A perfect example of this is RR. If RR ever came out with a $60,000 car EVERYONE and their mama would want one because of the reputation and name. Everyone really wants a phateom (however you spell it), but if they made a baby phateom with a RR tag (instead of a Chrysler badge) people would eat it up. It's because of RR making a Halo car that people would react like this. Just like the H3. It is selling really well because people who can't afford an H2 can just get a look alike with the same name plate.

 

[nastinupe1]

this is my second, the first was an 05 RSX-S,and i babied that bastard...bought it in 04 and hardly drove it. last month at 7 am on my way to walmart, something in the engine let loose..so my options were to wait a month to have it fixed, or trade it in..ergo..i have an 06 TL. I wanted a TL in the first place, but was being frugal...they gave me full trade-in on the RSX,so i figured i'd give Honda Mtrs one more chance..lol wasnt looking forward to the pmnt from a 22k car to a 37k car..lol....by the way(this is just food for thought) if anyone buys an acura with upgraded wheels as i did, keep in mind..you paid for those stock wheels/tires..have the brains to get them at delivery..i had to fight for mine..but at almost 2 grand they charged me for the 18" wheels, theres no way they charged me a reduced price and gave me a trade-in value on my stock wheels..and if anyone wants to but them, contact me...

What you said is very true about the wheels. I got them to drop the price of the wheels instead of taking home the second pair.

How are your 18's driving? Mine were horrible and always vibrated. I have Yoko's.

 

[nastinupe1]

I think that 66% is pretty low. Lexus is in the 80% or 90% range.

 

[nastinupe1]

well, when the IS350 arrives shortly many TL'ers may think twice about buying the TL.....

? Is this an old post???

 

[nastinupe1]

he would would he? That's cool. Anything else important you feel compelled to share with the community?

I don't think that he meant it in that way. I believe that he meant "Mos Def" meaning "Werd"

 

[nastinupe1]

I'm not going that far up the ladder (5 series/M5), but I'm seeing a 335i coupe in my future if I can talk the wifey into European Delivery.

Our '04 TL is basically her car and we'll probably keep it since we haven't had many of the problems other owners have had, with the notable exception of going through three sets of tires in 50K miles. Major ball drop by Acura on tire/alignment issues. :misslefir

3 sets of tires!!! I have the A SPEC tires and they are lasting around 20k.