[carz0159]

Cadenza wins hands down!!! Of course, the Acura is 10 years old, and had a ton of features and packages in a car of that time. It was a great value, at only 32k, it was the first car in it's segment to have bluetooth.

It was a good car and had very little problems until about August of 2012.
I have spent about 5k on it since then. This is why I decided I needed a new car, along with the fact that the trans was on its way out...again!

Here is a list of recent maintenance. I am considered lucky as some people had much more problems, I used to think the car was reliable, because it was a honda, I was dead wrong, and so were hundreds of thousands of others.

Aug 2012 - Master Cylinder and some brake Sensor - Around $500
Nov 2012 - Starter - $500
Dec 2012 - Knocker Sensor - $600
Feb 2013 - Battery - Free (covered under Sears warranty, these cars are know to eat through batteries...that was the 5th one that died, there is some sort of short somewhere i think)
May 2013 - Transmission - $3000
May 2013 - Axles - $500
Jun 2013 - Transmission - Free (Covered under warranty of recent rebuild)
Jun 2013 - Axles - Free (see above)
Aug 2013 - Radiator and hoses and stuff- $500
Aug 2013 - Trans Started Shifting hard and slipping bad, again...

____________________

Total Last Year: $5600 +/- These are rounded number, but pretty close

2 Days after the slipping started, I was on Vacation, the day after I came back, I got a Cadenza!!!

I dont know why my transmission kept going out...after it started slipping, I called the shop, and they said theyll buy the car off me rather than fix it b.c it'll be cheaper for them!!!! lol

This was my horror story with Acura, you can read about many more anywhere, just google Acura TL transmission problems

Acura 3.2 TL - Acura 3.2 TL - transmission problems - 4 transmissions in car in 3 years

This one is especially funny ^ 4th transmission in 3 years!!!

More Advice On Acura TL Transmission Failures And Recall - Topix

 

[GoChill]

Interesting

It's interesting that you had so many issues with your Acura. I had a 2009 Accord and I had alot more problems than I expected, although not nearly as bad as you.

I mostly had squeaks and rattles particularly the back deck lid between the rear seats and the rear window. Honda issued a maintenance bulletin with a fix but I had to have the fix applied 3 times before it did any good and even then when the rear speakers hit certain notes it would rattle. Prior to the 3rd fix it was every bump made it rattle.

The rattles were the most annoying problem but the worst was the A/C went out about 3 months after the warranty expired.

Most interesting was that even though I only had the car about 4 years I was on my 3rd car battery. Based on your experience I guess it wasn't just me.

So far no issues or rattles on the Cadenza but my Honda didn't either the first year, so time will tell.

GoChill

 

[carz0159]

It's interesting that you had so many issues with your Acura. I had a 2009 Accord and I had alot more problems than I expected, although not nearly as bad as you.

I mostly had squeaks and rattles particularly the back deck lid between the rear seats and the rear window. Honda issued a maintenance bulletin with a fix but I had to have the fix applied 3 times before it did any good and even then when the rear speakers hit certain notes it would rattle. Prior to the 3rd fix it was every bump made it rattle.

The rattles were the most annoying problem but the worst was the A/C went out about 3 months after the warranty expired.

Most interesting was that even though I only had the car about 4 years I was on my 3rd car battery. Based on your experience I guess it wasn't just me.

So far no issues or rattles on the Cadenza but my Honda didn't either the first year, so time will tell.

GoChill

Its a honda and acura problem. I also had many rattles, and the fixes would never do anything. The most annoying for me was the glovebox, not only would it shake and rattle, but it wasnt aligned properly, so it wouldnt close unless you slammed it shut and used alot of force.

Maintenence wise, no problems until the car was 2 or 3 ans even then, it was small things like motor mounts and tires wearing to the point of baldness around 20k miles. I had no major issues until the car was 7. They eat through batteries, I gave the car to my wife, around 3 years ago, and she only drives to the store and back, opposed to my old 100 mile a day commute, so, the car had instead of 20k miles a year, around 4k. My TL uses synthetic oil, so I change it about every 7500 miles. This meant after my wife started driving, it would need oil about every one and a half years. It was funny, because I was changing the Battery more often than the oil. they would completely die, and leave my wife stranded, she knows next to nothing about cars. When i would get there to jump it, it would start, but next time you turn it off, you wouldnt get it started without another jump. They just wouldnt hold their charge.

The first battery lasted around 3 years, bit at around 2 years, i would have to jump it every month.
The second lasted 2 years, after 1 and a half, i had to jump it monthly.
the third lasted 1 and a half
the fourth lasted 1
the fifth lasted one and a half

 

[EscalonJon]

Wow! No wonder you were in such a hurry for the Cadenza. Cadenza to the rescue!

Hopefully you will have better luck now...

 

[carz0159]

Wow! No wonder you were in such a hurry for the Cadenza. Cadenza to the rescue!

Hopefully you will have better luck now...

lol, yup. I feel bad because i spent 5k on the car recently, and i just traded it in.

 

[EchoTango]

I too had a TL, however a 1999. I liked the car and kept it for 15 years which sounds like a long time but it only had 100K miles on it when it finally died.


I to had to replace the trans after about 80K, but I went to a local garage and not back to the stealership. Acura is well known for re-calls and litigation for transmission issues. I noticed you didn't do the timing belt and wondered why. However, if you traded it in, I'm sure you're pleased that you didn't....lol.

 

[carz0159]

I too had a TL, however a 1999. I liked the car and kept it for 15 years which sounds like a long time but it only had 100K miles on it when it finally died.


I to had to replace the trans after about 80K, but I went to a local garage and not back to the stealership. Acura is well known for re-calls and litigation for transmission issues. I noticed you didn't do the timing belt and wondered why. However, if you traded it in, I'm sure you're pleased that you didn't....lol.

I did do the timing belt, probably at around 115k miles or so. I didn't list it because it was a service I was expecting to do since I bought the car and isn't some problem that just popped out of the blue.

 

[EchoTango]

I did do the timing belt, probably at around 115k miles or so. I didn't list it because it was a service I was expecting to do since I bought the car and isn't some problem that just popped out of the blue.

Yeah, I fell for that one as well. The timing belt that came out for my car looked like it just came off the shelf. Many supermaintainers will tell lurid stories of engines imploding on the highway and pistons smashing into valves.

I belonged to acurazine for many years and not one factory T-belt EVER broke and destroyed an engine. In fact, the few times they did break, it was a recently replaced belt that probably came from some knock-off overseas parts maker. Clearly, they would have been significantly better off leaving it alone.