I was thinking of buying a used acura and wanted some outside opinions on it. There's three I'm looking at, all three are 98's. The three are a 2.3 CL, a 3.0 CL, and a 3.2 TL. All fully loaded though I plan on doing a few modifications to the car I end up purchasing. All three are pretty comparable on miles and so on and each is in great conidition. What would you guys suggest?

 

The 2.3 gets my vote (even in this thread!). The TL has too many doors and the 3.0 CL's have had tranny probs.

The manual transmission is more for the modding types. Otherwise your always a slave to when the car wants to shift.

 

unless you want to permanently have frinds bumming rides.. i wouldn't go for the TL..(eventho it does have HID
the 3.0 hauls ass... but you strat doing stuff to it and you quickly find yourself in need of upgrades to the tranny.
the 2.2 is not as fast as the otherones. but .. it comes with a 5spd that you can beat the crap out of. and it has a fairly large aftermarket.... turbo.... manifolds.. etc etc...
whatever decision you make.. make sure it's a CL

 

No tranny problems here! I have a 3.0 and love it! I hauls pretty good, and with a few mods, you can get into the low 15's in the 1/4 mile.

There's a larger selection of mods with the 4-banger and you can get the 5-speed manual.

Like 1genCL said, get the CL!

 

I haven't heard too much in the way of tranny problems from 1st gen's. Perhaps the late model 99's which might have had a fair share of Mitsubishi intervention.

 

Mine runs like a charm. No tranny problems (**Knock On Wood**) :P

 

Thanks for the help guys. Already have a '96 accord ex I've done some work on, wanted to take a step higher with this ride. Think I'll probably get the 3.0 CL and see how that works for me. Thanks again

 

Obivously, you can't go wrong with any of them. But this thread is the first I've heard of transmission problems with the 3.0 (and it seems to be all 2.2/2.3 folks who are saying that!).

If you need 4 doors: 3.2TL.

If you need a stick shift: 2.3CL.

Otherwise: 3.0CL!

 

Ditto on the 3.0CL transmission(knock on wood). I've had mine for 4 years now.

gjr2001: What's this about Mitsubishi intervention?

 

I'm intrigued! What intervention(s)?

 

I think he is referring to the real late model 3.0's and the 2nd gen CL's having like mitsubishi transmissions or something like that. I read it on here somewhere a while back.