1999 Acura TL 3.2 review from North America

1st - 5 Transmission Fallouts. And yes, I do know why. When Honda/Acura decided to copy Chryslers "Autostick" transmission, they got it all wrong. "Autostick" is a feature which allows you to upshift or downshift the transmission manually, invented in 1995 by Chrysler then was later adopted by VW/Audi in 1998 and so on, now crappy Hyundai's have them. Not to get off topic, The more you use this feature, the more you cut short the transmission's life. All Acura says is "we'll replace it" but no explanation. We had someone investigate it ourselves.

2nd - The seats are only partially leather, id rather pay up for full leather. The Vinyl used is very cheap and is ripping.

3rd - Horrible suspension, unacceptable ride, can't have a drink without it spilling all the time. The car rolls side to side on the highway and on ramps. I can feel EVERY SINGLE bump on the road. (Honda/Acura are known to have bad quality rides and suspensions, no wonder Toyota/Lexus is more sucessfull).

4th - Bad Stereo system. Decent sound quality, Makes you wonder if it is really a Bose Audio system... if you make/burn your own CDs, don't count on it working. takes ATLEAST 10 Minutes for a copied CD to work. Also the cassette player refuses to allow a Cassette/CD/ Minidisc Adapted to the stereo. Which really sucks. Get this car, sell your CD Burner, and go to the old days where you have to pay $20 a CD. Get an Minidisc or MP3 player, don't count on using the Cassette adapter.

5th - The Airconditioning makes strange noises at times. (Another think Honda is known for, Bad A/C units). Sometimes it smells like a refridgerator in the car cause of how bad the A/C unit is.

6th - Braking is A lot weaker than the competition. I suggest getting after market cross-drilled brake discs and Z-Rated Tires.

The reason why we purchased this vehicle is because in 1998 it was $31,000 and fully loaded. I mean Leather, Sunroof, Bose Sound system, Navigation system (which went dead for 4 Months and Acura refused to fix it then offered to fix it for $4000, luckily it decided to work, and is VERY slow). It sounded like a great deal... year later, I regret it, shouldve gone with the BMW 328i.