It’s completely bad customer service on Honda /Acura.
They have done some piecemeal fixes, here and there with many pending recall lawsuits. 2001–2004 all have this issue. Most before 100,000. I’m over 59 years old and never had an American car transmission failure.
This is bad quality control. Because of the attitude of Acura /Honda, I have posted on all social media to buy Toyota. Never Acura. They have this problem in 5 years of Honda too. Failure to accept responsibility. I will never buy Acura again. And I will spend the rest of my life pointing out that they build garbage like they did in the 80’s. Sad.
2 years ago I bought a 2004 Acura MDX, fully loaded. I started noticing almost immediately that it has issues slipping out of gear every once in a while. It only happened when you were stopped so I wasn't as worried as I should have been. I took it back to the dealer I bought it from and was told "SUE ME IF YOU WANT YOUR MONEY BACK". (The place was D&J Auto). So here I am 2 years later, out $10,000 and my transmission is gone on my vehicle. There's less than 150,000 km on this truck. Acura Canada won't help because it was made in the USA. Acura USA wont help because it was sold in Canada. So they have now told me that I'm on my own.
Do you know I bought an Acura? Because I believed the message about quality and care.
In case you don't already know me, I broke my back this spring and I've had to be off work because of it. Actually my employer told me that being away that long was unacceptable and fired me for being injured.
So... now I am with no vehicle, fighting a broken back, and no cash. All because I believed in the Acura message.
I have been loyal to the Honda foundation, I drove a Honda Civic before this Acura. I wanted to look at a CR-Z but now? I think it's time I go to Ford.
Transmission was replaced at 75k miles. I was without my vehicle for ten days. On the plus side it extended the warranty on the transmission by a few thousand miles.
Acura is way over credited for its reliability. Bought this brand new from Dealer in 2004, Never drove over 5000 mile before oil change. in 9 years, only 110,000 mile on it. I owned many other cars, three Nissans, one Subaru, one old AMC, two Acura. Never had so much problem in any of these cars. This first Acura traded in round 80,000 miles so things were OK. But this 2004 MDX started acting up around 100,000. The radiator eroded to leak right around 100,000. In the same weather climate condition, my Subaru has no problem with 20.000 miles more. Then, I was told to change the timing belt (not for my Subaru and many other cars such Toyota), which cost about 1G. Auto transmission toasted during our Spring break vacation in Vermont in March without any warning. Last week, the power steering was leaking, then another power steering pump replacement. Since last year, it costs me about 7g to fix all these problems which is about the current value of this junk. I should get rid of it before it hits 100,000. For those MDX owners out there, be smart, get rid of it before 100,000. Otherwise it will cost you tons more!
Better yet, don't buy Acura unless you plan to sell it before the warranty ends.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
It’s completely bad customer service on Honda /Acura.
They have done some piecemeal fixes, here and there with many pending recall lawsuits. 2001–2004 all have this issue. Most before 100,000. I’m over 59 years old and never had an American car transmission failure.
This is bad quality control. Because of the attitude of Acura /Honda, I have posted on all social media to buy Toyota. Never Acura. They have this problem in 5 years of Honda too. Failure to accept responsibility. I will never buy Acura again. And I will spend the rest of my life pointing out that they build garbage like they did in the 80’s. Sad.
- Arthur S., Los Angeles, US