dj5

Saw this today. Seems Acura is falling behind other brands in reliability. I used to be a Toyota person until they became boring and switched to Honda/Acura about 15 years and 6 Honda/Acura vehicles ago. With Acura losing it's excitement and reliability, I may be going back to Toyota/Lexus for my next vehicle. Hopefully my 2008 TLS & 2013 MDX will last me a few years longer.

Acura, Porsche Drop Ranks in Annual Reliability Survey

Macau Park

Same for me, I do think Acura/Honda makes a better looking car, but Lexus/Toyota definitely has a bit better finish. The A/H will have decent long term reliability and last a long time, but they are not as solid as they once were. All the tech is giving them issues.

Look at Mazda at #2, good for them, making nice vehicles. I don't think it is a surprise as they are keeping things simple, simple engine and trans options. There was a blurb in the Range Rover Discovery Sport review I just read how the 9-speed ZF is destroying many vehicles.

datadr

I was really surprised to see this. If you look at the detailed reliability ratings on the TLX, it's excellent across the board, except for an "average" on audio, and "poor" on minor transmission issues. I think it's safe to say that the transmission issues everyone reports here are the case for the poor rating - but as these are addressed with software updates (see latest posts indicating there may be a solid fix now), I think it's a bit over-exaggerated for them to list future reliability as "much worse than average".

This may just be how things add up when they do their ratings, but I would guess they will end up back in the "red" next year.

Overall, I have had no complaints about my TLX... great car, and I (luckily) have no shifting issues on my ZF9.

Rocket_man

These ratings aren't Reliability at all. They are more like complaints. Especially the issues on the infotainment system. If someone complains about how the GPS works it does not make the car less reliable. It is very misleading.

wlkeel

Yeah, Cadillac dropped seven spots, mainly because of it's CUE system. Just because one doesn't like a feature, doesn't make the car less reliable. And they improve CUE every year.

However, the top spots are probably correct, and the lower ranked cars should certainly try to improve.

thoiboi

Um... someone obviously hasn't seen this:



If that's not reliability, I don't know what is..

quantum7

I'm confused. I thought that the ZF was behaving "normally" according to Acura.
Hope that this wakes them up to a fix or a change IF this has any impact on sales.

datadr

These guys must be kidding. They ranked the TLX #17 on the 20 most unreliable cars. Take a look at the issues they cite...

"Transmission hesitates, shifts abruptly or roughly; some gearboxes were reprogrammed or replaced. Voice-command not responsive. Phone-pairing difficult."

There were some transmissions replaced proactively by Acura due to the leak (can't recall the TSB), and I realize some had horrid shifting issues, but would anyone here really put this car in the same company as some of these others? Pairing the phone being "difficult" is a reliability issue? I feel like these guys just love the drama of calling a Honda product a complete failure.

Here's the Tahoe issues, at #16:

"Water leak from roof rail. Faulty collision or backup sensors. Cylinder-head replacement. Seat heaters failed. GPS antenna defective."

Acura's issues with the TLX are nowhere near these.

20 Least Reliable New Cars - Consumer Reports

ConradValmont

The ZF is performing normally for the majority of the 35,000+ owners that don't come to this site to voice their displeasure.

BEAR-AvHistory

How do you know this? A lack of posting here does not mean they are not transmission troubles out in Acura land. All it means is they have not posted here.

If it was not a major issue it would not have been sighted in a number of auto & financial publications.

sbillard

Because Acura service departments all say the hard shifts are "normal"

WheelMcCoy

Acura HFL bluetooth has been unreliable on my 2012 TSX Wagon. There's an entire thread here on bluetooth fails, and even after I got the TSB fix, the bluetooth still gets occasional amnesia and I have to "re-pair" about once a month.

In this context, it is unreliable. (I also think the pairing process is annoying, but as you point out, that's not the same.) That said, I still love my TSX Wagon; it's versatile, looks good and sounds good. All the TSX Wagon guys here love their car, except maybe @2012Wagon who has had a boatload... I mean, wagonload of problems.

012TL-GLM

Very difficult for me to put any stock into these surveys. Have you ever completed one? The questions are horribly worded, and repeat themselves over and over with slightly different language. Honestly a *reliability* survey should be one question, does your car start when you push the button or turn the key*

Ultimately these surveys mean little to the buying public - Fiat products at the bottom and yet their sales continue to rise. Toyota and Lexus will reign supreme because they are frankly comfortable/boring drives to get from A to B - hardly anything changes between model years. My GF would only drive Camry's for years because no matter what little things changed, the controls for the headlights and the wipers never moved in the cabin

mapleloaf

I agree that the guts of Reliability ratings should be whether your car and it's main systems work to get you from A to B safely and comfortably. In 7 years of leasing Acuras, I have had nothing significant to worry about. Almost a year into my TLX, I have asked them to tweak a few minor items (insulation for sub woofer and brake light, related to a little bass distortion on a handful of songs and tightening the b pillar lower piece), none of which were significant nor related to reliability. I wouldn't have bothered, but my Service folks treat me very well, as I do them.

As for the transmission, IMHO, many of the issues relate to adjusting to the differences in having an 8 or 9 speed transmission. The 9 speed's characteristics are well documented, and I and my car have adapted well to each other after trial, error, and research. As recommended, I use various modes according to conditions and have no doubt this has created my relative zen like relationship with the tranny. I initially had the same initial concerns as many here. Point being, this is not a true reliability factor but a characteristic of the tranny. Given the choice between the challenge of successfully adapting vs the significantly worse fuel economy of a 6 speed…..i opt for the former.

BTW, i drove a 5 speed 2015 ILX yesterday while getting an oil change, and noted the shifts were consistent but not as smooth as the "Other" 6 shifts in the TLX. I thought to myself…nice, but boring

As to whether these transmissions are a better way to go, from a sales perspective, well, that's a question for another day.

quantum7

Well apparently it is not working normally enough to all those who let CR and the Feds know about it. I get that it may be a minority, but having to hear Acura telling us that it is normal is frustrating as hell.

BEAR-AvHistory

Are you serious? You buy a $30/45K car & you have to adjust to an automatic trans because its does not, in a number of cases, shift properly.

Give me a break. Some guys lucked out & have transmissions they say are working just fine. If they are working just fine then it pretty much defines the story that people are being told the rough shifting etc boxes are normal as pure Bu*l SH*T.

Bottom line is if you have to adapt to a daily drivers AT to get it to smooth out then the AT is defective.

One of the cars biggest fans here had enough of the transmission problems & non-fixes that he moved on after a long wait to get the car in the first place. Guess he was unable to adapt although he sounds like he has a car guy background.

As far as I can remember, since 1959, the only AT I had to adjust too was no longer a pure AT because we put a full manual valve body in & it needed to be shifted by hand.

mapleloaf

As i mentioned, adopting this tranny may not work out for Acura. But as far as how various experts (I am not one and they are not Acura employees) have described the ZF 9 speed, it is designed to shift differently and to learn shifting patterns. Let's remember we are primarily talking about 1 SHIFT here, not 8, so some perspective is always good. With all due respect, life is ALWAYS about adapting and changing to meet conditions. A 9 speed tranny is no exception - and it functions differently. As I have driven the car, I have come to appreciate the up side and use throttle and IDS to ensure the vast majority of my initial shifts are smooth. I'm sorry if that offends you.

A very acient philosopher once said…."Man is not troubled by events, but by the view he takes of them". That, along with accepting what I can't change (in Canada there are no updates and my sense is they aren't really changing anything long term), allows me to learn to get the most enjoyment out of the car and enjoy the fuel savings. Those that have never experienced any notched shifts don't need to worry about that choice. Those that have experienced major issues beyond one's driving approach, such as Quandry, seek other solutions. Those that drive the car the same way they would a typical 5 or 6 speed automatic will likely experience notched shifts some of the time. Some don''t care, some adapt, and smooth them out, and some make a choice to switch cars when they can. Pretty much the same story across other adopters of the ZF 9 speed.

If Acura is able to tune the programming to make those shifts idiot proof, I will get it done. In the meantime, it's a minor item for many of us who actually own the car.

Rocket_man

My Aug 15 built V6 Advance shifts very smoothly. In fact I can hardly tell it is even shifting. My only complaint is the time it takes to downshift at slow speeds. I tried the paddle shifters the other day and I'll have to play with these a bot more. But... I get great mileage with this car. It is amazing really, not even broken in but I'm getting better mileage with the V6 TLX than I did with the I4 TSX. So if this slow downshifting is the price I pay for that mileage I'm okay with it. Some earlier built cars seemed to have much bigger problems than me, but I'm okay with the transmission. Yes it is different. 4 more gears than I'm used to. But I'm adapting.

BEAR-AvHistory

I have been through 2 speed (Powerglide) 3 speed (Fordmatic), 4 speed (Hydromatic), 6 speed (Ford), 7 speed (BMW 7DCT) & 8 speed (ZF8 BMW).

I have also rebuilt & serviced autos going back to 1962 including Allison military spec in Army APC's, Tanks & tactical trucks.

Personally believe a human having to learn to adapt automatic in drive mode, except for a 7DCT in other that full auto mode, is nonsense. (BTW a 7DCT is a manual gearbox with automatic controls)

Properly implemented software in the more recent autos, my case since the 6 speed Ford, are designed to adapt to you not the other way around.

Your mileage & opinion may vary but if an autos operation in not completely transparent to the operator in drive then the system is screwed up not the driver.

Finally if it was not screwed up then Honda, Chrysler & ZF would not be breaking their collective butts trying to "fix" it

CaliAtenza

For all the bitching about the ZF 9 speed; the ZF 8 speed in my father's BMW has similar behavior sometimes, at low speeds , in the 1-2 or 2-3 shift.

AZuser

#apologists