Yesterday I sent a letter to Acura asking them to take the car back and refund our lease costs. We’ve had it for 13 months, and in that time we’ve taken it in at least nine times to deal with its braking issue. Every time it rains, I get the following messages at startup: Service Brake Assist. One Pedal Driving unavailable; use brakes to stop. Hands-free cruise temporarily unavailable. Auto hold unavailable. So then cruise control, 1 pedal driving, and hands free cruise are unavailable until the problem goes away, which can be hours or days. If I take it in to a dealer, most of the time they just reset the codes and give me the car back. However, they have replaced the Brake Booster Module (which kept the car in the shop for most of last December) and the front facing camera, as well as (finally) performing the vehicle wide programming. The brake module did seem to resolve the problem for 6 months, but it came back. After the camera and VWP the problems were back within a week. It took me 6 months to learn about having OnStar pull diagnostics (I’m still in disbelief that the car doesn’t keep a log of its error messages), so I have a handful of OnStar emails all documenting the same ABS error, and telling me to get it serviced within 1 day. In the letter I did reference the California lemon law, although this is not (yet) officially a lemon law claim. We’ll see what their response is.

Of course, then we’ll need to replace it with something else. I briefly toyed with the thought of a Prologue, but decided that buying anything with the same underlying architecture was a risk I wasn’t willing to take. After doing a bunch more research, I so far have settled on the Kia EV6 as the likely replacement. It has the same mild SUV form factor, and passes the spousal butt in seat comfort test. For some reason its cousin the Hyundai Ioniq 5 seems to get more press, but for me the Hyundai has that boxy, angular look that hints at the Cybertruck, which I can’t stand. I won’t go for the full GT; it has even more power than the ZDX Type S, which already had way more than I need, and has drastically shorter range. I’ll probably settle for the RWD GT-Line, which still has a lot of power, about the same range as the ZDX, and equivalent bells and whistles.

 

Please let us know if you are ever able to get that to happen. Sad to see but I understand. I've had few issues myself, but I am losing patience with the lack of software updates, especially around plug-and-charge functionality that GM Ultium vehicles have.

Have you considered the Mach-E? If I were to get rid of the ZDX, I'd either go the Mach-E, or splurge on an R1S.

 

It is unfortunate that GM vehicles have this huge swing in electronics stability, on top of the random draw of UAW build quality. Good luck with your next journey. Just curious, what did the service department say about the second occurrence?

 

Bear in mind that I’ve taken the car in nine times for this problem. The first two were up in Washington, where all they did was reset the errors. (more recently, they were the ones who swapped out the camera.). The service rep there literally told me that I shouldn’t expect those features to work in wet weather. Niello Acura near Sacramento has taken things much more seriously. They first checked whether the camera was a problem (which last year, apparently it was not). Then they swapped the brake booster module, which did resolve the problem, but only for a while. Mostly, it’s been a case of lather, rinse, repeat. The Washington dealer will not take any action if not authorized by Acura corporate, specifically including the VWP. Niello was happy to try that, although it, too, didn’t really help.

So far this has cost me nothing except my time, but I’m hoping Acura can see that they face an unending stream of warranty work if they don’t just take the car back. Also, the problem is obviously caused by wet weather, and we’re about to move from Sacramento to Washington, so it will only get worse.

 

I’m not really a Mustang kind of guy. Honda/Acura have always been closest to what I have been interested in (at least, that I could afford), which is why I wanted to try them first for a BEV. Unfortunately, the car turned out to be WAY more GM than I was hoping, particularly the steering. I kept telling myself that it wasn’t really that bad, until I test drive the EV6, which is so much better. I also HATE the lack of a headlight stalk, and the fact that the car will turn on the wipers automatically, but not the lights (in California it’s illegal to drive without lights when your wipers are on). Utter design failure.

 

For me, the Mustang Mach E didn't pass the spousal butt comfy test...

 

I remain cautiously optimistic about next year’s RSX, which will at least be a native Acura product. Unfortunately, it’s still a year away, and I’m not willing to keep driving my ZDX that long. Also, there’s the whole once bitten, twice shy aspect here. I was willing to take a chance on the ZDX, hoping that Acura could overcome the GM factor, and have been badly burned as a result. In many ways the ZDX is brilliant, but obviously the GM quality control sucked, and over time I am more annoyed by the steering, headlight controls, etc. So I’ll probably lease an EV6, and see what the next Acura is like. (I can’t stand the look of the Honda concept cars, and wouldn’t be caught dead in one; at least the RSX apparently looks like a real car.)

 

Have you thought about rolling the dice with Polestar? They should have incredible lease to clear out those 400V Polestar3.

 

Sorry you are going through this but maybe you are better off than Jeep owners that essentially have had there PHEV Jeeps bricked entirely.
Although it looks like rolling back the latest update seems to resolve it.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/jeep-i...-wrangler-4xes

 

Having just rolled the dice with the ZDX, I am really not inclined to take a risk on a new brand. I am by nature risk-averse, and as I am now over 65 I’m really looking at a car to last me comfortably for the next 20 years,

 

A friend got a Kia EV6 as a second vehicle to cut down on his SUV gas expenses and he loves it so much it's now his main car, zero issues for a while now.

 

That’s great to hear. Thanks.

 

Acura have agreed to take the car back without any qualifications. Now they’ve asked for copies of the lease agreement and payment history. Our monthly payments have added up close to $10,000, plus we made a down payment. It will be interesting to see what deductions, if any, they want to make.

 

Congrats and I hope things go well for however long it takes for things to settle.

 

A lot depends on which state you reside. Lemon laws vary greatly.

Here in CA, a 100% refund of all payments(both down & monthly) are due, + attorney fees.

Good luck!!!

Thoughts on getting another BEV?

 

No attorney fees in our case, but the rest will be more than welcome. And be a really nice down payment on a replacement vehicle. We’re probably going to get a Kia EV6, which we have test driven and really like. We’re looking at the GT-Line RWD. The full GT has even more power than the ZDX Type S, but dramatically shorter range. I’d prefer an AWD vehicle, but the RWD version still has more than enough power, and significantly better range than the ZDX. And the handling is soooooo much better. The only problem now will be finding a color that we like. After the end-of-rebate rush, there are fewer than a dozen RWD GT-Lines for sale in northern California, and apparently only one in a color we like (NOT a fan of the flat grey, white, black, or blue; the red is nice, and there’s a non-metallic charcoal grey that’s OK as well).

 

I haven't had the chance to test drive the Kia, but it's going on the list. Later today, I'm heading to the Bay Area to test a new BMW iX and the Audi Q6 e Tron to see if they pass the spousal comfy butt test...

 

Accidentally found an EVgo loophole: simply by adding a GM EV into the account, without any VIN, I was offered a 10% off, no session fee promo code. I already have AAA discount so did not bother, but worth a try for those of you without anything.

 

wrong thread?

 

Exactly!

 

So we now have an agreement on the settlement. They will refund our down payment plus the sum of our monthly payments, minus about 10% which is based on a California formula for our use of the vehicle. No attorneys involved, although one did send us a letter offering our services (which must mean that the process is a matter of public record), but since Acura offered no resistance of any sort, there was no need. So they should have a check ready for us in 2-3 weeks, when we will exchange the vehicle for it.

 

Good to know, good luck with your next ride!

 

Just out of curiosity, after you turn in the car - any idea what happens to it? Does it go on sale at a dealer’s lot somewhere?
I’m sure OP may not care because it will no longer be his issue, but don’t know what happens to lemon law vehicles.

 

Are you sure you will be ok with a RWD? Since you are in Northern CA you might be driving up to Reno and having an AWD in the snow sure helps a lot. But even just driving in rain reduces spinning very significantly.

 

That was indeed my original thought behind first getting our MDX, and now the ZDX. However, things have changed. Most obviously, we are in the process of moving from California to Washington, although that has been stalled by the shutdown (long story and off topic). Also, I am now in my late 60s, and I am afraid my skiing days are behind me, and I was never one for casinos and such. None of my other cars have been AWD, and I’ve done just fine. At the end of the day, while I’d still love to have another AWD car, the specifics of the EV6 (assuming that is indeed what we wind up with) point me to the RWD (I definitely don’t need more power than the ZDX, and would really like the extra range).

 

Enjoy your new ride!!!!