Shud I buy a used 2003 3.2TL-S
 

I am planning to buy a used 2003 Acura 3.2TL-S model with around 25k miles. Having gone through this site I have noticed a significant number of people having tranny problems. Existing owners -Is it a good idea to buy one?

How do I make sure that the vehicle I'm buying has the tranny problem? Can a mechanic spot it?

Appreciate ur inputs.

I haven't seen anyone post here with tranny problems owning a 2003 S model it seems to be 2002's and below. But maybe I've overlooked them. At any rate, if it has the extended warranty I'd go for it.

Re: Shud I buy a used 2003 3.2TL-S
 

Hey ... I"m in Austin too! Go for it and get it. Where u buying it from?

Make sure it has all its maintenance done..and look for the VIN# and Build Date on the drivers side. If your '03 is an early build (Your build date is right next to your VIN# in m/yy) .. you will see a x/02 as your build date. If this is so...make sure if they did swap the tranny...that they also swapped in a new ECU along w/the new tranny. This *seems* to fix the infamous tranny problem we have.

But if your '03 was built anytime after 2/03..your car *should* be fine. I say go for it..and hope to seeing you more on the forums. :D

The one I have been offered falls into the below affected category.

2003 3.2TL Type S:
From VIN 19UUA5…3A000001 thru 19UUA5…3A019061

I was planning to buy certifed from David McDavid Acura of Austin.

What are the statistics on the failures? I have checked several websites but none of them have the exact numbers... only words like "significant", "several", etc. Now, does that verbiage mean 1%, 10%, 50% or 100%?

Are there folks on this board whose VINs fall into the above range but don't have the tranny problem? Please let me know.... since it looks like only folks who have posted are the ones w/ bad experiences. If there are cars which are doing just fine, then let me know... it would give me some confidence!

Get the car! if its certified you get an extra year 12000 miles on the warranty. the power train (obviously includes the trans) is warranteed for 100,000 miles. you wont regret it! If it comes with a spoiler, make sure its an acura one ... mine wasn't but McDavid was using the spoiler as an excuss to not drop the price any further (didn't know it wasn't a real acura one at the time). mine was 2003 with 12000 miles on it, brought it down to $24500.

Austin519 had a lot of trouble dealing with David McDavid. Sounded like a pretty shady dealership from what he said.

That's a good deal! Did you buy certified too? I got a quote for the same amount for a car which had done 26,500 miles!

yes, certified. i was prepared to walk out if they did not come down to that price. they knew that was the first car i test drove and that I had others at other dealerships that I wanted to look at too. a couple of times when they came back with counter deals, i said "no thanks", grabbed my keys, and stood up. They stopped me both times and finally gave me that price. That just told me that even with that price they were making a profit since i'm sure they would have been able to sell it to the next person for more money. 730 credit score helped out too!

Now there is another option. Either go for the 2003 3.2TL-S which has the defect (but also the 7yr/100K warranty) or go for a 2003 3.2TL (NOT Type S) which doesn't fall under the defective ones.

If I had found a "good" 3.2TL-S, I would have gone for it. Which option do you guys suggest?

My '02 is on it's 5th tranny and on some of it's many repair stops at Acura I was given a TL-P as a loaner. Let me tell you the delta between the 2 is LARGE, I mean really LARGE.

Go with the TL-S as long as it has the 7yr/100k warranty, the rush you get about 5k rpm is worth experiencing (every day)

TL-S > TL-P :D

GET THE TL-S ... 100,000 miles is a huge warranty on your trans. Just because the VIN falls under the affected range does not necessarly mean you will have issues, and if you do .... it wont cost you anything but a little inconvienence.

Get it, the TL Type-S is a very sporty, and classy car. Its only a 2 year production model, so thats cool too, and it drop a turd on the 3rd generation TLs body design

You can't go wrong with the Type S. Definitely a huge difference over the Premium. The 100k transmission warranty is a bonus in my book (mine doesn't qualify - late build).