2007 Acura TL
This year drew an ordinary 124 complaints for a Acura TL — the model's median is 64. What they were about is the unusual part: 27.4% of them mention dash, against 6.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 124 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 64 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- dash — 27.4% of this year's complaints, against 6.5% across the model's other years (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: dash, over passenger, concerns, board.
- cracked — 20.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the model's other years (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: cracked, safety hazard, overnight, requiring.
- cap — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (32.3×). Owners wrote it as: cap, fuel cap, each time, tighten.
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.
What owners wrote
CRACKS OVER THE PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAGS THAT EXTEND OVER TO THE DRIVERS SIDE. CONCERNED OF SAFETY ISSUES WITH THE AIRBAGS DEPLOYING WITH THE COMPROMISED INTEGRITY OF THE DASH.
THE DASHBOARD CRACKED RIGHT ABOVE THE PASSENGER SIDE AIRBAG REQUIRING THE DASHBOARD TO NEED REPLACING. ACURA WON'T COVER THE EXPENSE DESPITE THE FACT THIS IS A SAFETY HAZARD AND VERY DANGEROUS.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19E068000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 12V222000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 08V091000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 11E022000 SUSPENSION 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 2007 Acura TL? What happened to yours?
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