2008 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: 25.8% of them mention crack, against 8.1% 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 | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- crack — 25.8% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the model's other years (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: crack, bluetooth, hold, bluetooth module.
- feel — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: feel, master, master cylinder, egg.
- line — 9.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: line, car towed, cooler, lot car.
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
A LARGE CRACK HAS APPEARED ON THE DASH PANEL COVERING PASSENGER SIDE AIRBAG. I FEAR THIS WILL GET IN THE WAY OF DEPLOYING PASSENGER SIDE AIRBAG IN AN EMERGENCY SITUATION AND/OR POTENTIALLY GENERATE DANGEROUS SHARDS. THIS SEEMS TO BE A KNOWN PROBLEM WHEN I VISI…
WHILE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEED, LOST POWER TO DRIVE TRAIN DESPITE ENGINE RUNNING. WAS ABLE TO COAST TO STOP ON BERM. TURNED OFF ENGINE. FLUID OBSERVED BENEATH VEHICLE. CAR TOWED. INSPECTION REVEALED THAT TRANSMISSION SUPPLY LINE FITTING CONNECTION FAILED AT LE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19E068000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 08V091000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 12V222000 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 2008 Acura TL? What happened to yours?
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