snelldawg

I have come across an 02 CL for sale in great condition and fell in love with it. Only downside, it has 85,000 miles...but only costs $13,500.

After reading about the tranny recall, is their any chance this car has the original tranny in it?

I know Acura's are good cars and should last a long time. Does anyone have a second generation CL with high miles that has any pros or cons for the car?

Is this a good buy that will last me for several years, or will it give me major problems down the road?

Any input is greatly appreciated, Thanx

Justin.CL

It seems like a really good buy if it is in good condition.

About the tranny, if you could get the vin of the car an Acura dealer service department could probably tell you about it.

Mine has 75K miles on it and the transmission is about the only problem I have had so far.

Good luck. If you buy it hope you enjoy. Welcome to A-CL.

BC2G

there is a recall on the tranny anyway, and an extended warranty til 100,000 miles... after that ur on ur own

tennistock

call local acura service dept, ask them to check warranty service record on the vin #. that's what i did.

evilone

damm an 02 with 85k on it.. i have an 01 ive had sence 01 and it only has 49k on it

123456SPEED

Where in TX are you? If you can buy an extended warranty it might be a good deal, but I prefer the manual shift over the automatics. the tranny warranty will only go til 100k.

Justin.CL

wow that is good. I bought mine used in Feb. of 03 and I have already put 31k on it.

snelldawg

I found the car in the Dallas area. The deal sounds almost too good to be true. I contacted the small dealer I found the car at and they are going to contact Acura and find out what kind of warranty work has been done on the car.

Where could I purchase an aftermarket warranty past 100K? How much would that cost?

snelldawg

When did your tranny go out? Has your replacement performed well?

evilone

my tranny went out at like 29k

Justin.CL

Mine actually went out last week. The new one is ok so far, but I just got the car back on Wednesday.

F900

"Where could I purchase an aftermarket warranty past 100K? How much would that cost?"

You Can't, thats why the car is so cheap.

Try and get them down 2K, that way if the tranny goes, you won't take a great beating in cost and repairs on tranny. Never say never, and who ever is selling it tell them about the tranny problems and that after 100m your on your own.

EricL

As mentioned, perhaps you get the price down a bit. That's a lot of mileage.

If you got it low enough, it might be worth checking on $$$ for a V/R transmission rebuild (beefier tranny with carbon/Kevlar clutches). You'd need to get a labor quote from a reliable mechanic and talk to Velocity Resources about what level of tranny to get (they have Level I, II, and III available).

Hopefully, all would work out well -- and this would at least cover the tranny if the rest of the car was ok.

There are also some expensive doodads that could go out on the car (VSA, NAVI, etc); if you're out of warranty, they could cost you $$$$$.

YMMV

snelldawg

Sorry, but i'm a bit of a novice when it comes to the slang used on this board. In laymen's terms, what are the expensive doodads that could go out, and are these things that could be checked on by a mechanic before I buy the car?

Also, how do I get in touch with Velocity Resources about their trannys?

Thanks for your help.

mattdaddyz

I just went to www.velocityresources.com and it wasn't vr anymore. it was http://www.speeddistributors.com/ . Anyone know what's up with that?

I'd be kinda leary of buying an 02 with that many miles. i got my 02 with 33500 miles on it. i dont think i'd get one with 85000+ miles.

ryanG007

...dude dont be stupid..the tranny will go eventually, dont be stupid

EricL

Their previous phone number -- at least the one I called a month or two ago -- was 407.299.4345.

Look over the previous post regarding their website name change. I didn’t know about this – and I’ll have to check into this when I get a chance.

I talked to V/R and I wanted to call back to get even more info. I was impressed with the answers and comments I got when I called them.

RE: "expensive doodads:” Items like the VSA modulator, yaw sensors, accelerometers, and the time to figure out what is messed-up if something breaks. I haven't heard of any of these parts breaking in the current batch of cars, but I don't think it would be inexpensive to fix them if they were malfunctioning and causing you trouble. It wouldn’t be fun to have the traction control acting up either.

There are also "gingerbread" items -- like the NAVI -- and if the screen goes out, you can't access the air conditioner through the touch screen. So, in one sense it's "gingerbread" and in another sense a needed high-end "doodad" that could cost you some serious $$$ to fix. IOW, you could live without the NAVI, but you might miss that air conditioner control on a very hot summer day.

BTW, I'm not specifically picking on the Acura. I'm just commenting on items that are "inside" newer cars with lots of systems They have lots of little motors, gears, actuators, CPUs, modules and other parts that *can* be expensive to fix without some warranty protection (or some nice bone yard to search for a good and inexpensive replacement part).

I could site more examples, but this would just go back to nice little features that get taken for granted in the Acura *and* other new cars with interesting "gadgets."

F900

snelldawg,

This is the best thing do to if you really want the car. Go to your Local Acura Service Dealer ( if there is another 1 near by go there too) Tell then you want to buy a 02 CL with 83K, ask them what is there policy for a CL after 100,000miles regarding the transmissions.

If there is a charge ask them on a worst case what would be the cost, and even would they give you a discounted cost has its a known problem for this car

Some people i have read here, have had transmissions replaced after 100,000miles at no cost to them.

snelldawg

Thanks for all the input guys. I don't live near an Acura dealer, but there is one near where I found the car. I will call tomorrow and post everything I find out.

I also found a list of Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) for the '02 CL. Are those handled like recalls by the Acura dealer or does the owner have to pay for the work?

F900

snelldawg

TSB's need to be done to CL, most likely have been done with the car having so many miles on it ,if you get the VIN number being it to the Acura dealer and they will be able to tell you what Mx work and what TSBs have been completed, and Also give you a full history on the car too.

snelldawg

I called 4 Acura dealers in the area and got the same responses from each. The recall work has NOT been done on this CL, and surprisingly there are no other TSB's out for this car. They seem to think that the tranny is probably the original tranny in the car and they know of no other long term reliability issues with the CL.
However, no Acura dealer could fax me a report of all the work that had been done on the car. All they could do was tell me about the recall work.
Also learned that a new tranny after 100,000 mi. would run $3000....ouch
They seem to think that after doing the recall work that the tranny will run without any future problems.
I'm having the dealer who is selling the CL take it to PepBoys for a 120 pt. check. I'll post the results when I get it this afternoon. Thanks to all.

carquest

$13,500 is too much money for any car w/ 85K on it. especially one with known trans design problems. don't waste your money.

look for a lower milage CL if you want a CL. it will cost more, but you should be able to drive it for serveral years worry free. you've got only one year, more or less, till the trans warranty expires on this one. and given the nature of the trans problems w/ these cars it isn't worth the risk.

snelldawg

Thanks to all your your help. I've decided that even after getting the recall work done...living with the worry about the tranny is not worth it. I need a car that will last me several years worry free.

I'm now looking at Pontiac GTPs. I drove one today and it handled like a champ. I don't know how kosher it is to ask about other cars on this forum...but anyone have any experience with a GTP?

fender4

If you want to know everything about Acura's in the Dallas Fort Worth Area call Steve Metcalf at Dealer Alternative 817 870 5096 He a detailed orientated Honda Acura expert and can help out with any issue.. I have 72k on the orginal trans,, had all the upgrades added, even a trans cooler,,, will it ever fail?? of course, everything fails at sometime,,, will the trans on a GTP fail ??? of course,, even new cars have failures,, just drive them and fix them,,

North Texas

I realize that this may be a day late/dollar short, but I have a CL-S with 86k miles on it. I just had the transmission replaced under the recall. Other than a new battery, a few sets of tires, and a motor mount, I have had absolutely no problems with mine.

I haven't heard of any transmission failures with the replacement units, which supposedly have a oil jet kit to fix the problem, so once you get it replaced, you should be home free.

I personally would avoid anything american like the plague - there are too many other things that can go wrong. At least on this one, you know about the transmission problem, and the car is otherwise basically sound.

My .02.