Acura TL

[crayon1973]

In reply to:

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[pied2]

I bought the new '04 in November. Love it. I probably couldn't tell the difference between 5.9 and 6.2. It is more than fast enough for me.

It has a great ride and the interior is well done. They hype the DVD audio, but they are a little hard to come by and not the reason to buy the car IMO. I ma very pleased and happy w/this decision.

 

[Texas007]

That would be a tough proposition for simply becasue I really don't know anyone other myself, my wife, my sister in law, and one of my friends who has a BMW. 3 of us have 5 series. I have 540, sister in law has 530, and my firend has a 540. All of the 5's are the E39 model (1997-2003). 1998 540, 2002 540 and 2001 530. None of us have had any issues. Wife has 2004 330 that is only a few months old so we haven't had anything wrong with that. Other than that I don't know anyone with a BMW. I did have a buddy with a 1993 or so 318, and I think he rebuilt damn near that enitre car over his ownership of it, but that was about a 8-10 year period. I know only one person with an Acura TL. He hasn't had any problems, but his car is fairly new and he leases all his cars. His is not the current model, but the model prior. Very nice ride - smooth and quiet.

 

[Texas007]

As an FYI you guys touting the Acura as a be all end all of quality reliability vs a poor performer in BMW FWIW- JD Power rates both cars the same for Mechanical Quality and neither rates as above average. On their ranking system they have 5 star - among the best, 4 star better than most, 3 star - does not really stand out, 2 star - the rest.

Both Acura TL and BMW 3 series rate as 2 star(the rest) for mechanical quality.

Here is the rest of the rankings

Acura TL BMW 3 Series
Mechanical quality 2 2
Feature and Accessory Qual 4 4
Body and Interior Qual 2 4
Overall Quality 3 3
Performance 3 4
Comfort 3 3
Feature & Instrument Panel 3 3
Style 2 3
Overall Apppeal 3 3
PIN ret Value(July) 5 4
Totals Points 30 33
Pin is a retail value based on what the car is worth after 3 years of ownership at 15k miles pe year. I think looking back at the analysis I did of 3 year old cars earlier the Acura suffered because there was a recent model change - this year I believe which would impact the value of the old model style. The 3 series is going to change next year so the current 3 is going to take a hit on resale value as the Acura did this year.

Somehow my chart got jacked up. Final score is Acura 30 BMW 33. For whatever JD Power ranking are worth.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

Again, those rankings are based both off of the old TL's reputation and the fact that there is no "reliability" data for a car that was just released. I take any assessment of mechanical quality of a first year car with a grain of salt.

 

[Texas007]

I know. Not the best system.