Whipitnow

The Acura Mechanic of 23 years at my local Acura dealership claimed the RL from say like 1999 - 2004 with the 2002- 2004 being best is the finest quality car Honda has ever made as far as durability and quality materials goes. The car came out in 1996 and Acura updated it for 8 years. I had a 2002 and noticed the car was made real well after driving it for 8 years and the mechanic told me to go find another if you want the best product Acura ever made in a car even though gas mileage is not that great and vehicle would have been better as a rear wheel drive.

I noticed the cars are cheap and a steal for say like 5 thousand $ so I bought another, go on line and look at how the interior and paint looks on these cars after being 15 or 20 years old and driven for 200 or 300 + thousand miles. No Honda lower end product is going to hold up like that and I know because I have owned them.

The new Acura or Honda products are not that good at all, matter of fact all Japanese products are not as good as they used to be. This house of cards we live in world wide is collapsing.......

Johnhav430

I agree and it's a function of the economy. there are countless examples...how about cell phones? Remember the days when we entered into a 2 yr. contract, paid a low monthly fee, and the phone cost $100 to $300? The phone was subsidized by the carrier. Today, people willingly pay $700 to $1400 for a smartphone, with "no" contract as if that is a big deal hahahahaha You drop your phone, do you consider you are dropping a potentially $1k device?

I bought a 1998 Nissan Maxima brand new, and it's been on the road 20.5 years. The 2006 LS430 is superior to it, is it not? Has to be. It feels way more substantial and sophisticated (take the rear setup, Maxima is a solid beam). the thing is, of all the common issues with the 3rd gen LS430, the Maxima had none of those break in 20.5 years. Door actuator, mirror switch, on and on and on. There was something about cars built in Japan around 2000....for the world? I think things cheapened after 2006, kind of like smartphones. The resources went elsewhere, maybe to electronics, etc.

On my 2007 BMW, navigation and sat radio were optional--they didn't simply put modules in that aren't paid for. Today, every car has a sat radio module and even 4G, whether the owner chooses to use or not. That is not free btw....and with tariffs a lot of these costs will be harder to bury

Whipitnow

No you are right, I just look at the 2005 RL and newer for an example. Here in FL half of them I looked at with 100000 plus miles had the plastic on the dash bubbling with the heat issues and the interiors are all ragged looking.

I was looking at these cars on the net and the 2001 - 04 with say about 200000 on the clock and the interiors looked almost perfect. Yaa IMO the top of the line Japanese cars built through the 90's till say early 2000's are probably overall the finest cars ever made all taken into consideration for typical mass production style automobiles....

The moral of the story is you need to buy the older cars and get the spare parts you want now before they are all gone because people everywhere everyday are figuring out the new cars are JUNK!!!!!

Johnhav430

I don't think parts are a problem (although I cannot find the reserve tank aka overflow reservoir p/n for the LS430), as I toured a Saab warehouse full of parts, like 400k sq ft. And there are barely any Saabs on the road. As I understood it GM was required to have them...I could be worng...

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

I think the reservoir is part of the radiator or cooling fan assembly.

Johnhav430

Gotcha, wow--that is a costly error to damage it...knock on wood no leaks.....(looks like it's part of the fan/shroud assy--it seems to be available separately for other models, but still $200+ discounted).

Makes sense, right? If it does not detach from the shroud, it must be part of it?

edit: I think you are on to something, and it seems to be $120'ish even new/discount?! $180.23 list price. 16711-50110 Sweet! [I almost wonder, does a brand new one, eliminate the evaporation over time issue, for maybe a few years??]

https://www.tlsautorecycling.com/sea...30/221312.html

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

I looked it up when I first got my 430 since I read lots of posts about ppl breaking that nipple. Just like you I could not find it separately until I viewed images of used radiators.