2005 Acura TL
Complaints about this year name crack far more often than the model's other years — 27% of them, about 68× the usual rate of 0.4%.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 387 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 64 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- dashboard — 46.5% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the model's other years (9.8×).
- crack — 28.2% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the model's other years (11.8×). Owners wrote it as: crack, crack dashboard, crack appeared, dashboard crack.
- airbag — 38.5% of this year's complaints, against 11.9% across the model's other years (3.2×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- dashboard — 47% of complaints, 10× usual
- cracked — 18% of complaints, 45× usual
- airbag — 39% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
CRACKED DASHBOARD ON ACURA TL 2005. THE WHOLE PANEL IS CRACKING, I BELIEVE IT MAY DEPLOY THE AIRBAG SYSTEM CAUSING AN INJURY OR AN ACCIDENT.
DASHBOARD IS CRACKED IN TWO PLACES. ONE CRACK IS RIGHT ABOVE THE AIRBAG. NOT SURE IF IT COULD CAUSE THE AIRBAG TO DEPLOY? I HAVE READ THAT THIS IS A PROBLEM WITH A LOT OF ACURAS.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V182000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19E068000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 08V091000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 11E022000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 08V092000 VISIBILITY
- 05V132000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 07V097000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Acura TL was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Acura TL? What happened to yours?
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