Alright, when I first bought I loved the car.... had now for 2 years and put ridiculous miles on it, due to work. I have to say that its held up well - except tranny randomly changing gears and now being out of the warranty and the trade in about the worth of a 10 speed Huffy bike.

So, I go to repaint my mesh grille today and snap another crappy bolt and now can get it to sit correctly. Awesome! BTW its like 40 degrees here in Boston, so that was even more fun.

My SRS light is always on and refuse to pay the dealer to reset something that should have never gone wrong in the first place, all because my door lock broke and we had to rip off the paneling from the inside with the door closed, breaking the board that controls the windows, etc. That was doing off someone breaking into my car and shattering the window, and have it get in the door lock!

The f*ing rear shelf and trunk rattle like no other car I have ever had... yes I have a 3000watt sub pounding away but I have to say my Maxima never ever sounded like this!! So I'll have to drop however much money to dynomat the shit out of it, to have it sound decent.

Some asshole keyed my car over the rear drivers side wheel, that put me over the top!

This is me venting Thanks!!

 

Sucks man. Sorry to hear that you're having so many problems, but I have to say that I still love my CL-S.

 

I love my CLS but offer me the right car to trade I'd be saying goodbye to my CL

 

Love mine... 3 years and 42K miles and I'm still happy... Sounds like you've had some bad luck with your CL, so that's why you need to vent.

Nothing out there right now that makes me want to get rid of my CLS either...

Edit: I grew up in Fall River, I'm over in Swansea now... If you see a Red 03 CLS, it's probably me...

 

I love my 6 speed. Wonderful car, does everything I need. No mechanical issues so far! 47,000 miles on it.

 

I love my car. I just hate Acura's service.

 

You could have it a lot worse dude... I think you should be thankful for what you are driving. What you're 24 and driving an Acura CLS? Look at the cars around you, I bet a lot of them would really appreciate driving a car like yours instead. You could do like me and drive a POS accord on a daily basis because then when I get into the Acura I really appreciate it.
Sorry for the negativity, I just feel a lot of people don't appreciate all they have around here. Look at other parts of the world. Okay, we don't need to get into that...

 

I'm trading this bastard in for a 350z! lol

 

Amen to this!!

PPM: I'm trading this bastard in for a 350z! lol

do it, man! and post pics.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I despise the car.

I still love it, have had it since Summer of 2002.

Just the quirks I don't like:
-Small clicks and rattles that get on my nerves.
-knowing the transmission could die out on me @ any moment.

Other than that (the latter being a huge problem) I love the car. HAhah.

-Hey Sun, did you get my PM about the exhausts?

 

yes. i even replied to it. must've not gone through or something.
so tell me in a pm what exactly we'll be swapping cos i may be interested.

 

hmmm I love my CL, just got it 2 months ago, so I havent had it long enough to really say, but so far so good. Not many other cars I would want honestly. This CL has everything I ever wanted.

 

How can you blame damage you did to the car and damage someone did with a key ON the actual car? That is not the car's fault.

The SRS light is a common problem, and your airbags won't work if the light is on. If you want to gamble with your safety like that it's your call.

You have a 3000w sub pounding in the rear of the car and you're pissed about rattles. That's like being pissed because the odometer keeps reading higher due to driving it.

I understand the need to vent but you need to look at the big picture. 95% of your CL-S's problems are your own fault.

 

I have had my car for 4 months and i'm sick of it, this car is honestly a pos for what you get. I dont mean to bad mouth it but acura has done a crappy job with the autos, or maybe its just my lemon, i'm really not sure. But what I do know is i'm getting rid of it...

 

The tranny isnt our problem, the srs light isnt our problem. These are serious issues, and for a fairly new car these are horrible. Knowing you can be stuck somewhere without a working transmission or even your airbags working is enough of a reason not to own one in my opinion.

 

I had the same rattling problem in the back shelf. I fixed it for about 2.50. Its part of the plastice around the brake light rattling on the glass. I put a small piece of felt on each side and haven't had a problem in over a year.....oh ya, still love my car...

 

Don't do it!

I've been driving one for the past week, and will be for a few more days. It's fun, and quick. But that's about it. The interior details aren't that great. It's cramped as fuck, although I am a rather large gentlmen. It has 1 fucking cup holder. There's a few cool things about it, like auto up and down windows on both sides, and the multi-gauge, but that's the extent of it. (I've been driving an '03 6-speed) I got back in my CL-S tonight to take some night shots with my friends, and appreciated it greatly.

 

OK maybe I shouldn't even post but I will anyway. I own a 1st gen and always loved the 2nd Gen. I could have bought a 2nd Gen but being I am a freakin animal on the road I thought against having 260"hp" and settled for 145"hp. either way if you are an acura/honda lover like me you are used to and aware of the little quirks that go wrong with our cars. You can buy a Audi and worry about the electrical problems and pay twice as much , the same going for a bmw unless you get an M series or an 330xi. In my eyes I say appreciate what you got because you will not find another car with such a stunning interior, power ,and a reasonable price..I will be soon jumping to a CL-S or TL-S even knowing the tranny someday will go out..Gotta love the Acura

 

At least the tranny is in one piece and your airbags work...

 

i have 115k miles on my car. i have no rattles, no tranny problems, and no dummy lights on. i have had it for exactly 1 year today. i still like it. it pulls good dd duties. i have other cars to beat on at the track and on the road. if you want to hear some horrible rattles, get in a 240sx.

 

"may" or "could" would be a better choice. Not all will have problems. Mine hasn't had a problem yet. However, it did do something strange yesterday. Who cares? It's under warranty and if and when it breaks, those Acura service fucks can fix it.

 

True. It's my lady friend's car, I'm kinda glad it's not mine. But, for a weekend toy, fuck yeah! As a daily, I'd rather the CL-S.

 

I think the CLS has a great interior, but thats about it. The motor can have a million hp but its still FWD and I dislike it. The torque steer is insane, I mean its a comfortable ride, but it looks too much like an accord 2 door coupe. Its obvious I wasnt meant to be a CLS owner, i'm switching back to my sports car roots. I totally understand the interior thing though, a lot of sports cars have shitty interiors, thats because the designers didnt concentrate on interior rather they beefed up the motor, drivetrain and suspension...

 

Everything you are complaining about would have been easily discovered during a test drive.

And I don't understand how people complain about torque steer. I've had 2 300+whp CL-S's and I didn't have torque steer in either of them.

 

Spending a lot of money to dynomat? I spent about $5 in foam weather stripping and the problem was solved.

It's possible that you can reset your SRS light on your own.

I didn't know cars were supposed to be perfect and never have one single problem.

 

Mine has pretty bad torque steer, but honestly, I like it. lol

 

I LOVE my CL-S .. even if it has tons of problems that are not common [ ever had your sister crash into a garage wall? lol ]. But I'm starting to miss RWD and starting to have an itch to experience AWD. It'd be great to have all three in my garage.

 

Mine dose not have any torque steer, but drive my lude going into 2nd gear hard and you better be ready beacuse your going into the next lane

 

My friend almost wrecked mine due the torque steer. He didn't expect it. lol.

 

I've driven cars with so much torque steer you had to wrestle the front end, the CL is not even close. VW rabbits have higher torque steer than my CL

 

You torque steer guys either have very wide tires or are just crazy

 

lol they pull the classic ricer move. snatch the wheel to one side while shifting to make the tire screech. mine has a minimal amount of torquesteer. i like my cls. it's a daily driver. i never intended to race it. there are other cars that do a better job for less money.

 

 

Don't know about that... I'm stock, and even with the LSD, I get it all the time when I'm hotrodding... Sure it isn't as bad as some other cars, but EVERY FWD car is going to have torque steer. Nature of the beast. It's the way it's engineered. Newtons law and all that

If I'm pushing it on anything but clean smooth pavement, I feel the wheel get jerked out of my hand... Sand in the road, expansion joints, etc. are a pain...

Up till about 8/10's or so it's fine, it's just when I'm pushing the car to it's limits I feel it (and I don't like it either)...

Gotta make sure you're got a firm grip before you push the go fast peddle... Hands on the wheel, mind on the moment...

 

If you have LSD you have less torque steer....

 

Any torque steer that is present is controlled though. The HLSD does a great job of pulling you through the turns without too much unwanted excitement

 

Torque steer is worse on uneven pavement, so when you do mash the pedal on uneven pavement you will feel massive torque steer, but FWD vehicles have torque steer because power transfers to the front wheels plus the front wheels steer the vehicle. This isnt the great combination for power delivery.

 

Torque steer is created by unequal length driveshafts and no locked up diff. the tranny ends up giving more power to the shorter driveshaft or the one one not connected to a jackshaft ( jackshaft gives the ability to have equal length driveshafts and strengthen the drivaxel over long lengths)

 

20K miles and I still love the car every moment....

 

The FWD platform is the reason for torque steer. Simply having the power and steering on the same axle does it. It's not about unequal length driveshafts... Driveshafts just deliver the power. It's what happens at the tire end that makes the difference...

It's been awhile since my physics and dynamics courses, but the keywords are "centroid" and "contact patch"...

From : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_steer (note the last sentence).

Torque steer can be a problem on front wheel drive cars with higher torque motors( > 210 Nm ). This is the name given to the tendency for some front wheel drive cars to pull to the left or right under hard acceleration. It is a result of the offset between the point about which the wheel steers (which falls at a point which is aligned with the points at which the wheel is connected to the steering mechanisms) and the centroid of its contact patch. The tractive force acts through the centroid of the contact patch, and the offset of the steering point means that a turning moment about the axis of steering is generated. In an ideal situation, the left and right wheels would generate equal and opposite moments, cancelling each other out, however in reality this is less likely to happen. Torque Steer is often incorrectly attributed to differing rates of twist along the lengths of unequal front drive shafts

Here's a good article that describes how torque steer occurs (the author also suggests "keeping both hands on the wheel"):

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/ed..._technobabble/