Donn0128

Well, had my radio display go dim 4 times. Dropped it at the dealers a couple weeks ago, and per Honda they disconnected the battery let is sit, reflashed the system. Everything was good except lost all my HD music. Yesterday afternoon pulled out of the garage and yup, dim diaplay. This after earlier in the day wife went out to the car opened the passanger door, got in and turned on the radio. Alarm went off. Continued for 10 minutes while we ran around trying to get it to shut off. Finally wife got back in and turned the radio off. I was finally then able to get the alarm to shut off. Funny passanger door opened, but mirrors did not move into postion. All other doors were still locked, and nothing on the key fob worked? All this new fangled technology sure can be frustrating!

ceb

Try having your battery tested.

Donn0128

Thats one of the things the dealer mentioned. As of right now were waiting for a reply from Honda Tech team for the next step. Battery is always a question, but with 6000 miles on the car its low on the list. Been a mechanic all my life and battery goes bad car usually wont start.

ceb

That's how it used to be, but with the modern electronics these days, you'll often have electronic gremlins long before the car won't start.

Donn0128

Well, I have not posted in a while so its time to update,
Dealer had the car for a week, replaced the entire radio. Today the radio would not go to normal daytime brightness lever after backing out of the garage.
Drivers memory fails maybe 25% of the time,
Washing the car, spray water at the passangers door and car unlocks.
Next trip will be three atempts to fix the radio display issues. As much as I like this car, Im beginning to think it was a mistake. Maybe the wife was right, get a Highlander.

bmoua15

Try documenting all the issues on video phone, sounds like this car is a total lemon. Hope things work out for you guys in the end

cougar hunter

I've experienced this too

Donn0128

Well, today another issue reared its ugly head. Walking towars the car on the remote pressed the hatch button. Nothing. Walked right up to the back, pressed again, nothing. Got home pressed the remote button, yup! Opened right up. Just in case, changed the fob battery.

BLEXV6

I would be going nut's. I sure hope you get this worked out.

Donn0128

My service manager called me back this afternoon. He says their Acura rep is out this week, but peomises to get them involved, and hopefully an Acura engineer. Im starting to think about lemon law this vehicle and go buy the UGH Toyota Highlander the wife wanted.

Donn0128

Well, this is getting interesting.
According to my Acura service manager the radio system is Alpine. Now the strange part, according to Alpine I have too much in my hard drive? I mean really, six albums and one picture is overloaded causing the excess lag time? How big is the HD in the MDX 500mb?
So far my car has been in the shop this time 5 days and counting. So far they cant figure out the alarm or drivera memory issues and are replacing the hard drive. They claim 4 different groups working on my issues. The darn car has been in the shop going on 20 days total. Im getting really frustrated. If they cant fix it this time I guess I have no choice. Replace or buy back!

Donn0128

Gadsook, my 10 month old MDX has now been out of service for nearly 30 days. Latest is the dealer is waiting for parts from Alpine. Their not expected until maybe Monday. I have now notified Acura customer care that Im ready to start buy back process. Im just sick. I wanted the X wife wanted a Highlander. So maybe this time next month Ill be driving a Highlander.

Donn0128

Well, here we are another weekend without my car. Dealer has been working with with a factory engineer, but I honestly have no more confidence in this piece of junk. Well over 30 working days out of service is enough!

ceb

You didn't say what state you are in so I can't be specific, but most states have a three or four time repair attempt or 30 days in the shop to trigger the time portion of the lemon laws. The other, more important part is that the defect has to significant impact the usability of the car.

Accordingly, squeaks and rattles generally don't qualify as they are annoyances. Acura could argue that the radio dimming falls into that category, so I'd suggest that you focus on anything safety related or that impact the actual operation of the car - alarms, memory settings, doors not opening and so forth.

At this point, I'd start talking to a lemon lawyer. There will be no cost to you if there is no settlement or if the manufacturer buys back your car. There will be charge (usually a set % of the settlement) if the manufacturer throws money at you to go away. In any case, anything you get going with a lemon lawyer will be far more than what you could get yourself.

Find a lemon lawyer with Acura/Honda experience. They'll know the manufacturer's counsel and can resolve this far quicker and better than you can. If the situation is as you described, then - at worst - they'll give you enough to compensate you for any loss on a trade-in.

neoshi

Squeaks and rattles DO qualify. It's any defect that they can't resolve after multiple tries. They just try to argue that the defect isn't safety related, so it shouldn't matter, but there have been plenty of successful squeaks and rattles cases.

ceb

Here's the Virginia law:

Under the Virginia Lemon Law, a "Lemon" is a vehicle that has a problem that "significantly impairs the use, value or safety of the vehicle" to you and which the dealer has not corrected within a reasonable number of repair attempts.

California law - considered one of the most consumer friendly:

Within the Song-Beverly Act, there is a presumption guideline wherein it is presumed that a vehicle is a “lemon” if the following criteria are met within 18 months of delivery to the buyer or lessee or 18,000 miles on the vehicle’s odometer, whichever comes first:• The manufacturer or its agents have made two or more attempts to repair a warranty problem that results in a condition that is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury if the vehicle is driven;• The manufacturer or its agents have made four or more attempts to repair the same warranty problem; or• The vehicle has been out of service for more than 30 days (not necessarily all at the same time) while being repaired for any number of warranty problems; or• The problems are covered by the warranty, substantially reduce the vehicle’s use, value, or safety to the consumer and are not caused by abuse of the vehicle;

Can a case be made for squeaks and rattles? Possibly, but that never was the intent of any lemon law.

That's academic anyway, as the posters here have clear issues that fall under the intent of the law.

neoshi

You can argue intent all you want but the language was not specifically written only for safety related defects. The key is 'or' being used between the different qualifications. And case law supports this.

merlin the wrench

did you ever replace the battery? That would have been my first guess. I had one with less than 20,000 miles that did weird things, tested good several times, then they caught it testing bad. Factory replaced it and the other gremlins went away.

ceb

It is all good. I work in the industry, so I know what the intent was.

While you can argue that anything falls under the lemon laws (and you'd be surprised as to what some people have gotten), it is far easier if you have a "traditional" safety or use impairment issue.

Happy now?

skarface

If a brand new car squeaked and rattled, I would think that falls under reducing the value. Who is going to buy a less than year old car that sounds like a 20 year old clunker UNLESS they get a significant discount?