2012 Acura TL
This year drew an ordinary 130 complaints for a Acura TL — the model's median is 64. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.3% of them mention between, against 8.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 130 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 64 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 3/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- between — 22.3% of this year's complaints, against 8.9% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: between, acceleration, accelerating, characteristic.
- consumption — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (30.8×). Owners wrote it as: consumption, oil consumption, excessive oil, due faulty.
- accelerate — 13.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.9% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: accelerate, knocking, time get, car after.
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
2012 ACURA TL. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARDS TO VEHICLE ACCELERATION AND STALLING PROBLEMS. *SMD THE CONSUMER STATED WHEN ACCELERATING BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND GEAR, THE VEHICLE HESITATED AND LOST POWER AND IT ALMOST SEEMED TO STALL OUT.
WHILE OPERATING THE VEHICLE, A KNOCKING NOISE WAS HEARD COMING FROM THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. ALSO, THE VEHICLE EXPERIENCED EXCESSIVE OIL CONSUMPTION. THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURES WAS NOT DETERMINED. ACURA FIRST (16 HIGHLAND AVE, RT 6 SEEKONK, MA) WAS NOTIFIED OF T…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V182000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V500000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V061000 AIR BAGS 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 2012 Acura TL? What happened to yours?
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