DIRTY K

I've noticed that in my area I could pick up a 2001 CL-S for a relatively good deal. Besides the transmission troubles, these cars seem to be absolutely beautiful cars. I've certainly dreamed of owning one for the past few years.

Worst case scenario the transmission bites the dust and I have to have it fixed without warranty. As long as I had a credible transmission shop to do the work, such as Aamco, with a three year transmission warranty I should be fine shouldn't I?

Thanks.

tmk70

NO AAMCO....have the work done at the dealer, it's free. The Warranty is good for 100K on all '01 models.

evilstorm

if the car is past 100k?

DIRTY K

No, I meant that if AFTER the warranty expires and the dealer STILL hasn't gotten the fix right that I'd be up shit creek.

I noticed that one member said that only five percent of 2001's were affected? Is this correct?

evilstorm

thats what acura says, i think its more like 15 or 20%, tho

DIRTY K

Have you found that the rest of the car is pretty reliable?

vinarnold

get the cls great car...

mattg

i like mine.


just get one w/ low miles and get rid of it before 100k.

Chaptorial

Yeah if it wasn't for the transmission a major flaw for this car would be hard to find. If you can find one with fairly low mileage, buy it.

It really is a great car.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

ummm, no. The last numbers I saw were something like 1.7 million produced, 14k affected, but that was about 8-9 months ago, so it's probably higher ow. At the time Acura was saying 2%, but it's probably near 4-5% now.

Plus, we've done polls on the site.... it's too bad we can't search, but it's been done... and the final number was something like 4% of ACL members have been affected. Also take into consideration that the most active members have had tranny issues, and the number was still only 4%.

What happens is that the 14k or so people who are affected are vocal and you hear about it... but you don't hear about the 1.6xx million people who haven't had one problem.

DIRTY K - don't let anyone scare you... the failure rate is low, plus you have a 7 year/100k mile powertrain warranty should anything happen, so if you like the car and want it... go for it. Most of these cars will see 150k+ miles as they are good cars, and if you don't get stuck with a tranny failure, you'll have it for a long time should you choose.....

evilstorm

I dunno, it seems like most people on this site have gone through their first tranny.....should re-poll it.

evilstorm

Awesome car besides that! thats why i own it...heh.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Poll was done late 2003... October/November or so.... and not many have failed since.

evilstorm

I wish i knew for certain is all.......

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

hehe, Acura would never give out that info

evilstorm

to be honest, i wouldnt care about 1 tranny going, just scares me when people are on their 3rd and 4th and still less than 100k....means to me they have no idea how to fix their problem.....

lilfeat

I have an 01 with 44K on it with no problems.
I do not drive like a friggen maniac, although I do use WOT once in a while.

synth19

After my tranny went to crap, there is no way I could ever recommend the CL to anyone. It's just not worth it imo, and the numbers must be higher then advertised.... and look at all the members who've been through 2-4 rebuilt tranny's.......

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

There's actually not many and most of them were some of the firsts who had their tranny replaced... so when they were replaced Acura hadn't yet fixed the problem. Lately there haven't been many people who had a problem, then had another problem.

synth19

hmmm......I did have one of the first production '01 CL's... I say get an '03 CL.

brian6speed

iTrader: (5)

So there were over 1 million 2nd gen cls produced in total and only 2700 are manual? Seems like they'd make like 7-15% with a manual tranny for 03. I didnt realize they produced that many cls.

sgriffin

As these cars get around 75K miles on them they will be worthless on the re-sale.

Being a 2 door, they are depreciating extra fast anyway.

I'm hoping that Acura has really fixed the problem or some class action suit, or safety investigation is successful and includes a meaningful settlement.

My first two transmissions lasted around 25K miles each. Out of pocket cost to replace one (every 25K miles?) would be horrible.

GreenMonster

Nope, there is no way there were over one million 2nd gen CL's made. They sold a little over 16,000 CL's in 2003. They'ed have to sell the 2nd gen for over 100 years to even get close to 1.7M at the rate of 16K per year. If the search function was working I could find the CL totals (including 1st gen), as someone made a nice excel spreadsheet.

I think the 1.7M total is more likely the total number of honda/acura vehicles that use the same auto transmission as the CL (TL, etc).

Nashua_Night_Hawk

50k+ miles on the orginal tranny!.

Crazy Bimmer

For the type of money the CLS is going for used... i would buy one in a heartbeat.

You cant get a better car with a low mileage like the CLS and the price would be around 23k or less!

Only other car i can think of is the is300 but that interior turns me off. Plus the CLS is faster stock.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Correct... all affected cars include all cars with the 5 speed AT tranny. It affects CLs, TLs, Accords, Odysseys, etc.

Linner

IM at 47k on my 1st tranny, Bought it with 37k for 22k, a bit overpriced but im very happy with the buy. The dealer wouldnt budge on the price I got only 500 dollars off and that was after 3 days of bullshitting. I also traded my lexus in so....and i got more then i thought i would. I like it better then my 01 maxima.