What's up with the transmission it's jerk city...good lord...

 

You right bro, i got a '16 SH-AWD w/tech for a loaner this morning and didn't seem to matter what IDS mode I used the hour long drive home was filled with jerky shifts and gear hunting. It only has 250 miles on it so maybe it takes a while to break in? I thought the brakes were super sensitive as well. Like my foot would have to sink about halfway on the pedal before they bit in. I spent most of my driving trying to figure out where to put my right hand without the shifter. I also wasn't impressed with the seats. Hardly any thigh support, I couldn't find a comfy spot. I have a '12 TL SH-AWD, '16 RDX, and had a '10 MDX for comparison. Not impressed with the new MDX. I had a '14 loaner a year back and don't remember having any issues with the 6 speed tranny. It was a great ride for the week I had it

 

This times 10. I had a 2016 MDX loaner a few days ago. I also own a 2012 TL and a 2011 MDX. They have now ruined the MDX IMO just like they ruined the TL with the TLX.
The less supportive seats, the jerky shifting and the lack of a physical shifter knob are all the reasons I don't like the TLX.
If and when we do wind up trading in either vehicle, it would be for a 2015 MDX. I will steer clear of the 2016.

 

Between VCM, direct injection, 8/9AT, emissions, acura watch systems, IDS, sh-awd, and different gas formulas; I'm amazed modern cars can work so well majority of the time. I still think we are about 5 years away (next model time frame) at a minimum from this trans being a non-issue. The 2015 MDX looks like the "sweet spot" for the current line-up.

 

interestingly I started off feeling the same way, then drove the 16 the day after trying a used 15. For 4G TL guys, the ratios and everything are practicaclly second nature and apart from being physically larger and slightly heavier the mdx essentially drives like a tall TL hatchback. The 16 OTOH feels perfectly matched to the 3.5 engine and is effortless almost all the time. Accelerating exactly the same in my TL requires excursions to 4-4.5k whereas the same is accomplished at 3k in the MDX so you get a effortlessness to me that is reminiscent of my FIL's S-class.

 

Some are different than others, as the 9-speed tends to be very adaptive to driving.

We've had many that are very jerky to start with when brand new, then once driven and adapt a bit, are back to normal. The programming and gearing take a bit to settle and learn your style, which is tough in a loaner...because it gets driven so much by so many different people in different ways.

Usually it's smoother, quicker, quieter, and such than the previous 6-speed models.

 

Problem is nobody wants to plunk down 45-55K on a brand new vehicle under the shaky premise that it "may" adapt to your driving habits.

There seems to be enough guys with TLX's where the car never "adapted" and they are stuck with a 40,000 car that can't shift properly and just battling with their dealers to FIX it and having the dealers them tell them "its normal". No thanks.

 

hmm from the sounds of it the TLX due to the earlier launch was a slightly different version. I'll ask to try it out during my first mdx service

 

Not sure man but the whole "the car has to adjust to how you drive" sound like marketing bullshit to me.
I check back every now and then on the TLX forum to see if they fixed the tranny issues. Nope. The thought of battling with a service department on the transmission is a nightmare. I already been there done that with my old automatic tranny CL.
https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g...ission-936477/

I am sad that they chose this for the MDX. I'm not a fan of the new TLX but LOVE the MDX. Well, at least I will save money on a 2015 in a few years.

 

Modern ECUs acquire data over many drive cycles what your driving habits are, and adjust the air-fuel mixture and other aspects of the car's operation.

Now if you drive your F150 like a Prius, don't expect Prius MPG over time, but especially vehicles with automatic transmissions, the ECU will adjust with your driving given its own spectrum of parameters.

That being said, our 2016 MDX felt noticeably jerky in the first 500 miles; especially in Sport mode and especially when decelerating (we live in a hilly area, so this phenomenon was only intensified going down a steep hill). Now, even in Sport mode, the shifts are crisp and precise.

 

hmm my 14 TL shawd is actually quite jerky imo so the 6sp mdx in the 14/15 didn't really impress me too much and frequently drops it out of the powerband, whereas the 9sp is such a perfect match to it. I agree that long term longevity is still yet to be determined, but at least on the V6 side for acuras/hondas the 9sp is here to stay. Be mindful of the weird build issues in the 14s and 15s too.

 

I see the difference often.

Our dealer trade driver has owned both a 2014 MDX and a 2015 MDX. He loves his with the 6-speed and never liked the new 9-speed 2016 cars much.

Lately he's driven a few and said "those were so nice and quick and smooth, are they different?". No, they just happened to be cars that had already been traded from other stores, and had 100-150 miles on them of a road trip, settled in and driven by someone else.

Modern vehicles with 7-8-9 etc gears take a bit of learning. Same with my (3) back to back TLX-ILX-TLX with the 2.4L/8-spd DCT combo. Takes a while to learn me, then they feel completely different once broken in to my driving style.

 

just going from 200 to 500 miles, I've noticed huge improvements in stop and go. This morning in the commute it did not jerk once and was perfectly smooth vs how it did last week.

 

Are you the only driver? My wife and I drive differently. Not sure how the ECU adjusts or does it keep two separate Driver 1 or Driver 2 programs in the ECU?

 

I'm in my 2nd 2016 MDX loaner (I won't bore you with how done with Acura I am) and it is better than the first loaner a month back but the jerk from 1-2 is still horrible. I've been in it over a week and nothing has changed. This one has 1400 miles on it, of which I've put almost 500 on. I will agree that once moving the 9 speed is very smooth and acceleration is more than adequate, but from a stop its horrible and would certainly keep me from purchasing one. Also, I think this truck is very under-braked. It seems to take forever to stop. On the plus side the stereo is worlds better than my old '10 MDX. Other than better MPG I can't say its a big improvement over the older model.

 

Thats odd, the brakes on my 16 feel very powerful, have no problem at all stopping quickly.

 

It might be the tires that improves mpgs causing the long-ish braking on certain models? I think braking has always been a little long for Acura models on average.

 

I agree with that. But that also goes for our 2006 MDX and every other Acura product I've owned (+ TSX, TL).

Honda woefully under-brakes their vehicles and, in turn, the pads always need replacing and/or the rotors resurfaced.

 

I respect what your saying but let's be real here, your speaking from the perspective of someone who works for Acura and can afford to be patient because you have no skin in the game so to speak. For someone who is going to plunk 45-55k down for their new family truck, most likely their primary form of transportation, I just can't see how anyone would test drive an MDX, have it do it's jerky shift thing, and then decide "yeah, THAT's what I want to spend 50 K on, a brand new car that has a jerky transmission. "
Other car manufacturers have similar transmissions and don't seem to have the same problems. If your a salesman, I would say you have a pretty tough job on your hands. But I could be wrong I suppose, maybe people are fickle and don't really care if the tranny jerks as long as the car looks cool and gets good gas mileage (which it definitely does).

 

Silver something interesting to note is that i never once experienced jerkiness in the loaners or during the test drive and and apart from 2 or 3 bad shifts the first week, mine has been great. My TL with its 6sp shifts much slower, just like the 6sp in the mdx. I'll admit its very natural for the older acura owners, but i would never go back now that i've experienced the 9sp which is miles better suited to the honda v6s.

 

It's interesting reading everyone's different experiences. I drove a 15 and a 16 when I first test drove and thought the 9 speed shifted smoother then.

I am very pleased with my 16 overall at 4,000 miles. The first to second or "take off" can be a little shaky sometimes. It is trying to start me off maybe in 3rd gear, I assume for fuel economy, and can be jerky as it realizes I need more immediate power. I was even very pleased while towing my boat for a short distance.

I also am getting 23 mpg average and am hitting 27 mpg without a lot of stopping.

 

for comparison, i get 19 in my TL shawd driving aggressively. The MDX is getting 21.5 and its larger and heavier. Driven sanely aka by my wife I would expect 23-24 combined fairly easily which is insane considering the 09 my parents have gets 19 and its driven slowly.

 

I drive manual myself but I also have an 11 MDX. I am sure many don't have an issue with the 2016 MDX and to those it may seem like people are being whiners about "every little thing" , but I can tell you the new 9 speed trannies I have driven from Acura have been pretty jerky, like unsafe jerky IMO. So I guess you either have the problem, or you don't. You would think if the new tranny had to LEARN the drivers habits that every one would have an issue (or not). So perhaps a QC issue.

 

no wonder you have no idea about the TL 6at. I didn't even read your sig haha

 

I almost bought at '15 CPO due to all of this negativity towards the 9spd, but it is really unfair attacks. First, it takes a little getting used to and it does adapt to you. It also performs much better, the 0-60 is rated by most magazines at half a second faster. The first two gears are just so short, and as such you get a bit more jerkiness, as expected with really short gears.

Also, the lack of a real shifter is an innovation. That is one of my favorite features. First, it opens that area up and it aesthetically looks great. It takes like 1 day to get used to reverse operation. That said, one of my favorite features is that when I park the car, I just simply turn the car off and don't have to press any buttons or shift anything into Park. I know that sounds super lazy, but it is awesome

I really like the new shifting system. It is new, and it takes getting used to, but it is a step towards innovation, and the sheer performance of the 9 gears trumps the 6, but it's not without a couple caveats, more shifting/downshifting and super short gears (which does allow the engine to operate more in the sweet spot so it improves performance).

 

I'm glad your happy with your truck. I would take a truck that is .5 seconds slower with a smooth transmission over something that feels jerky and dangerous. It obviously doesn't affect ALL MDX's which screams of a QC issue. But it does affect enough of them to turn off plenty of buyers.

 

Week 3 with the mdx and its more fun than my 14 TL especially considering it seats 7 and just hauled the front set of new theater speakers with ease.

I love the way the first four gears pull hard to redline, something the 6at doesnt do. Also the mdx is S mode actually starts and holds 1st, whereas the TL had issues with that.

 

To each their own I guess. I think that it isn't a QC issue, it's just that certain people are more sensitive than others. If it is a QC issue, it would be on ZF's side and not Acura's, as I doubt there's any assembly/installation related potential issues that would manifest themselves as jerkiness.

Cheers

 

That's pretty cool. I drive a 6 speed manual 12 TL so I didn't know the automatic TL did that. If they can work out the jerkiness it sounds like that would definitely be an upgrade.

 

I had a 2016 MDX loaner. The transmission was smooth like butter. I liked it so much I bought one.

 

Room-wise and comfort-wise, the AWD MDX is more fun.

But when throwing the SUV/car around some corners or curves, the AWD MDX is no match to the 4G AWD TL.

 

I recently had the privilege of a 16 MDX loaner. My right hand was lost as to where to rest. The tranny was definitely jerky going through the first few gears, but once at speed the MDX was fine. I've also driven a V6 TLX and felt the tranny was a little smoother but still had some feel of harshness. The TLX was a lot more spirited (yes it is lighter) vs the MDX. The get up and go in the MDX didn't seem that impressive to me in any of the driving modes. There was slightly more engine noise accelerating compared to a 14 MDX (merely an observation not a criticism).

The cockpit of the MDX seemed a bit tighter (it is skinnier than it's predecessor), and even the the 2nd row seemed a little tighter (leg room). i do appreciate the better gas mileage though.

While there are these quirks in the new MDX, I would not necessarily rule it out as a replacement for my MDX in the distant future. Hopefully Acura will iron out these trans issues.

 

With the 2016, the transmission gearing is really fast so it revs quickly which can make more engine noise. Also, if in IDS Sport mode, it "pumps more sound in the cabin".

 

I quickly learn that it revs quickly in Sport IDS, Sport Drive Mode and Paddle Shift mode. It's nice but scared the crap out of me when first did that...it took off and high revved in first gear.

 

Well the Sport IDS is pretty ok, it'll hold revs a little bit more but the actual D/S Sport mode via D/S button is sort of insanity. You'll be cruising with minimal throttle on the highway and it'll just stay at 5500 rpm. It's kind of unusable, but the regular IDS Sport mode is pretty nicely tuned out. I wish there was a mode in between Normal and Sport, in fact I think Normal should be Comfort, Sport should be Sport and a new Normal should be somewhere in between the existing normal and sport.

 

The key is to remember that the S mode is not Sport but Sequential. After that, it really makes more sense the way it holds gears to redline, but having paddles only to actuate shifts makes it a bad setup because you can no longer shift easily in turns.

 

I agree there should be a mode in between. Comfort is basically ECO mode in Acura terms. Doesn't the TLX have the Sport+ mode?





The paddles are in a bad position. Especially going into a turn from a stop. When I had the TL, it was smooth since the computer didn't hold 1st Gear and automatically shifted to 2nd in Paddle mode. Acura has since remove that with the new models.

 

In order to use the paddle shifters during making turns, you'll need to hold the steering wheel at the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions at all times, just like a professional race car driver.

 

Except you fail factor in steering rack ratios. Ratios on a race car are much higher than our street vehicles (especially an SUV), and thus we need to turn the wheel much further than a race car, especially at lower speeds. Try using the paddles then. Also factor in the fact that Acura put in paddles that are so small that your hands are mostly at 9 and 3, not 10 and 2.

 

^^^^^

I guess SUV's are no race car afterall.