Hello everyone. I've been reading thru alot of this forum since deciding on the purchase of a 3rd gen TL. I have never owned an Acura, always been a Toyota/Lexus guy, but careful evaluation of this segment has led me here. This will be my "family" car, as I have a MK2 MR2 Turbo as
my "sports car". Therefore, I am considering such things as fuel mileage and ease of use by other members of the family. If I were going to be the only driver, some of these questions would be redundent. Anyway, here are a couple of questions:

--I know the diff bet the MT & AT. To me there would be
no question but.... I've seen where there were some AT
problems. What years would I be safe with? Is there a
big diff maintenance wise AT vs MT? What about fuel
mileage bet the two?

--Are the engines in the TL & S on par with the Toyota/
Lexus motors longevity wise?

--Is there any particular year in this gen that is preferred
over another, and if so, why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thx

 

Welcome! Regarding the tranny questions, the 2G TL's are the ones with the most problems. It's not as prevalent in the 3G TL's.

For the 3G manual trannies, they have a Technical Service Bulletin out for their 3rd gear issue, which is to replace the 3rd gear synchronizers. But, I think it's easier to just replace the Acura manual tranny fluid with this (It has a 100% success rate, of which I am included):



Engine longevity is definitely on par with Toyota/Lexus. We are talking about Honda engines, which are known for their reliability.

As far as what particular year is preferred, obviously the newer the better, since the newer a model is, the more time the manufacturer has had to work out the kinks of the previous models. But if you want a MT, you'll have to look for '04-'06 models, since for '07-'08, the only MT 3G TL's are the Type-S versions.

Hope this helps!