4th Transmission in my TL

razmataz · Newbie Joined: Jan 20, 2005 Posts: 1

I need your help to find some one, higher than the Regional Manager (Mr. Dan), that I can talk to about my problem.
Here's my problem:
My wife and I own a 2001 3.2 TL. This is my wife's car. The car has 128k miles, mostly highway miles. I recently had the car in the shop for the 3rd tranmission replacement. First trans when out at approx. 40k mi, second at approx. 100k and the third one just recently. I'm driving with the 4th trans in my car.
We are very lucky that nobody has been hurt so far. The last failure happen while my wife was in the highway. She was very scared but able to control the car and avoided a crash. Thank God she did not get hurt! I have also purchased (over $ 1600) extended warranties just in case. Well, it has paid off (and Acura has had a free ride).
During the last replacement, I asked the Dealer to re assure me that the OEM trans was fixed and would not fail again (at least not for the same reason and would last at least 48k mi which is the original warranty). I told them that Acura had a design problem and so far I had no reason to believe that the problem was fixed. I told them that I'm worry about the safety of my family and friends. And I was tired of spending money on extended warranties and possibly future trans every 40K miles. By the way, I own two Hondas: I have 350k in my Civic and 158k in my Accord, both with original trans. Of course, the dealer could not offer any re-assurance so they told me to talk to Acura's Customer Service in California. So I called Acura's customer service. The lady that I talk to was very nice, recorded all the information and told me that some one would call me. I was feeling positive about the entire affair until I spoke with Mr. Dan in California. He identified himself as the Houston Regional Manager for Acura. I tell you, this guy is cold, unsensitive, errogant, and I think he is hard of hearing. Obviously he was of no help. He told me that the problem was fixed but Acura would not re-assure me of anything. He sounded like some one I know that looks at you, with an evil smile, and says.. Trust Me! After a while, we both agreed that our conversation was going no where, so I asked to speak with some one else. But he refused to connect me with some one else. I asked to speak with his supervisor and he refused to do this also. He said that he was it (big cheese? Numero uno?), that the facts were correct, that he made a decision, and that he was not changing anything. Although he did say that if the trans failed again, to contact them and they would discuss it. When I heard this, I quickly realized that Acura was not sure if they had taken care of the problem. Therefore, Acura was not willing to stand behind their claim that the problem was fixed.

At this point, I feel like a little person being eaten by the big monster. I bought my Acura because of its reputation to be a durable and reliability car. But instead, I got a problem car. I have consider trading the car but I'm not ready to pass this problem to some one else. I'm not ready to give up. So if some one can help me find someone else in Acura (not Mr, Dan please) to discuss my problem, I would appreciated.

Erin · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:14 pm Post subject:

Dear Razmataz,

I am the lucky owner of a 2002 TL with only 51,000 miles. I am on my second transmission and only two weeks later, I am finding that it has started acting up again. I am a Mom and this was bought as our family car. It was used with 32,000 miles. I thought that Acura would be the same as owning a Honda. Boy was I wrong. Honda's are having the same warranty issue, I owned a 2001 Accord and had to replace it's transmission. the main difference was that I noticed my check engine light was on and it never drove funny. I was never afraid to be in my Accord. Well, the TL is totally different. It would slam into gear, rev up and just have the RPM's all over the place. It never broke down, but came so close. I drove it to the Acrua dealership on it's last leg. I had been telling them for six months that it was messing up, but they couldn't duplicate the problem! I am sure that we have all heard that a few thousand times.

We had so many problems that one day when I went to pick it up and it was still not fixed, I pitched a fit in the parking lot. I am not one to usually do this, but I was tired of being treated like I was stupid. During the middle of my screaming and crying, a man handed me his business card. He was the head of Customer Satisfaction for this dealership. He had the district Acura man come and talk to us. He wanted to know what we would like to settle our complaint. We told him that we wanted the warranty ( the total luxury care) for free. That we could not believe that Honda could make such trash of a car. We have had to replace the arm rest (where the window buttons are) because they were separating from the car. I am on my third CD player.

Call the dealership and ask for their customer care person. You might get lucky like we did as far as warranty goes. We don't have to pay for anything that tears up, but I still get to feel scared when I drive around. I hate to trade it because I love the way that they car looks, but I feel like I am risking my life and my kids' driving this piece of crap.

Good Luck!