David McDavid was the first Acura Dealership in the United States (March 1986).

Review #1

Wed, 01 Apr 1998
Bill Townsend, btownsend@dejanews.com

I have to brag about my local Acura dealer, David McDavid Acura in Austin, TX.

I was getting under 5,000 miles on the front Yokos on my 95 NSX-T. Meanwhile I got just over 15,000 miles out of the back pair. The guys at David McDavid checked the alignment and it was correct. There was no reason to get such low mileage out of the front tires.

I called Yokohama and was told, "The NSX wears the tires our improperly. Low mileage isn't a defect with the tire, it's a defect with the car's set-up."

I sent a letter to Acura Customer Service and Richard Ash called me from Acura. He kindly explained that Acura was not responsible for the tires and suggested I call Yokohama, which I had previously done.

So now I'm thinking I'm resigned to buying new front tires every 5,000 miles, which, though I absolutely love my car, would make me pause before buying another one.

Well, the guys at David McDavid -- on their own initiative -- had a regional director come in, inspect the car, and agree to buy me a new set of front tires. They're also getting a new setting for the front end that should dramatically fix the wear problem.

This is the 3rd time this dealership has come through for me. I highly recommend them as I haven't run across many dealers with this level of outstanding service.

Review #2

Thu, 13 May 1999, [MF]

I was just down in Texas at David McDavid Acura yesterday and had some comments that I wanted to run by the list. Most of them are not favorable to the dealer though.

I flew down to Austin with a friend who had just bought a 1999 3.2 TL from them and we were picking the car up and driving it back home to Indidana (Yes, that is a lot of miles, about 1,300 in one day to be exact.). Upon arrival at the dealer, went inside the showroom in search of his car which was supposed to be there waiting for him. We didn't see the car, so we figured that we would go look at the Zanardi NSX (#36) that they had in the showroom. YIPPPPEEEE!!

As I showed him all of the really neat features that the Zanardi had, we came to the window sticker. What do I see, but a sticker for an additional $30,000 under the heading of "Market Adjustment". DAMN!! $30,000 additional for a car that they cannot sell under normal circumstances!! The total asking price was now $114,750. I have heard of price gouging, but this took the cake. When I asked the sales manager about the increase, he said, "Well, when the NSX first came out we were getting $25-$30k above sticker." I politely told him that that was in '91 when the NSX was not only brand new, but only stickered for about $55,000. It was only a taste of what was to come from David McDavid.

As we were sitting in the showroom we saw my friends car pull up and the salesman and a customer hop out. What was going on? He had taken my friends sold car (the check had been with the dealer for two weeks) out on a test drive with another customer! What happened to the once it's sold, nobody else drives it philosophy? By now, my friend was pretty ticked off at what was unfolding.

We immediately go outside and the saleman walks right past us without saying anything. My friend says, "Taking my car out on a test drive, eh?" The salesman looks a little shocked and keeps walking as my friend then says, "Excuse me, can I have my car keys now?". The salesman hands him the keys and goes of with his customer, completely ignoring my friend.

Upon confronting the salesmanager and the salesman himself, they denied the incident had happened eventhough we had seen them pull up, the front wheels and brakes were hot from driving, and the odometer showed an additional 16 miles on top of what the odometer disclosure statement said. The salesman finally broke down and admitted taking the customer out, but said that it was only around the building to show him another TL. He refused to explain where the additional mileage and the hot wheels came from. What a snake.

To make a long story short, do not deal with David McDavid Acura. On top of letting another customer drive his car, they also sold him a car with the wrong VIN #, tried to make him pay for floor mats that were previously free of charge, and then tried to charge him to install a nose mask after the saleman had said that it would be done for free (I ended up installing it in the parking lot with borrowed tools). In addition, they did not go throughthe delivery procedure, but instead said, "Here is your TLC packet, you can go through it on your own time." What has happened to courteous sales people? I don't know if it is because of our age (I'm 22, and my friend is 21), but the treatment we received was terrible. When we asked questions, they ignored us. I guess just being able to afford a car is not good enough these days in order to get respect and honesty.