We're adding a daily driver to our house hold and I found a 2020 TLX SH-AWD Tech with right around 8k miles that is a car that came off the original lease. It will still be under the factory warranty for a year or so and is priced at what would be over $11k off of the original MSRP so I'm satisfied with the condition/mileage/value. I actually briefly owned a '15 TLX 2.4 Tech that I bought new right when they came out so I I've always liked these cars for what they are.

I was reading that the ZP 9 speed got better in the latter years but is not a model of perfection. With all of our older Acuras (this will be the 6th in our household over the years) we've always done overkill on the maintenance - particularly the ones we've had with auto transmissions - by servicing the transmissions once a year/12-15k miles. So I have at least 10qts of Honda/Acura ATF DW1 fluid in the closet that apparently isn't compatible with this car specifying ATF 3.0 fluid. I'm curious outside of transmission issues is there anything to be aware of down the road? This will also be our fist car with VCM so I'm looking into muzzlers/disablers for that garbage.

 

The transmission had gotten its bugs sorted out by 2017. A few of them slipped by the cracks but Acura has been gracious enough to fix them. It's more about the dealership that you take it to for warranty work etc.

 

Connecting rod bearings...

 

I haven't seen that in my research; care to share details?

 

I've had it occur twice. Both times covered under warranty.

https://acurazine.com/forums/5g-tlx-...zed-up-999379/

 

https://www.tlxforums.com/threads/co...-2#post-337198

 

https://www.google.com/search?channe...x+spun+bearing

I will make note that one post I saw suggested that the issue may have been related to a batch of factory damaged green bearings. If your buying this from an Acura dealership, I would have them precision certify it because that extends the power train warranty to 100k.

 

If you're already used to the quirks of prior Honda AT's then I don't think the ZF is going to seem as bad as some may make it out to be, at least not in the later iterations. If you're expecting the precision of a DCT then yeah, you'll be disappointed.

I've had a '17 Accord V6 and now the '18 SH-AWD and by comparison the VCM is subtle to the point you won't even notice it. Its the auto stop/start that is by far the most frustrating, but luckily its one touch below the shifter to disable it whenever you start the vehicle.

The bearing issue seems to be a definite outlier, but with 8k on the clock, you've got plenty of warranty time left to address that if it were to come up.

For what 2Gs are commanding on the used market, I think the '20 is your best bet right now. My plan is to see what they do with the upcoming mid-cycle refresh and then wait a few years til the surrounding hype dies down. With the all new powertrain there is a still a lot that needs to be seen long-term.