2000 Acura TL from North America - Comments

I have an Acura TL 2000 and I am the second owner. The transmission and engine is original and the car is currently 248,000 miles and running strong. I have owned Jeep, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Toyota's, Plymouth, Honda and GM cars, but my Honda and Acura by far are the most quality vehicles.

I had to change my transmission on the Caravan 2 times. I would bet on Japanese engineering over american and european overpriced cars any day.

I owned an Acura TL; would never buy another. I would also pass on Chrysler (unless it's a Viper) but would buy a full size GM or Ford without hesitation, and in fact have. The 90's are over and I believe that's the last Hondas we did not have problems with.

I have a 2000 TL with 115k miles on it, and it went out on me on the Grand Central Parkway on the way home from New York to Baltimore. It downshifted on me violently when I was going 50 mph. It is quite a scary experience.

I took my car to Lee Myles and the grand total is gonna be $3000! I was amazed that the tranny was so expensive, but from looking at the comments that seems to be par for the course.

I was only planning on keeping this car for another year or year and a half, but now I am going to ride it until the wheels fall off, given the size of my investment in the rebuilt transmission.

I owned an Integra prior to the TL, and after this experience, I will never buy an Acura again. This is heavily disappointing to me, and I wish I had taken this to get looked at prior to the 100k mark. I feel violated that they would build these cars with such poor transmissions.

I own a 2000 TL, bought new, currently have 191,000. Acura sent me a transmission recall notice in October, 2004. I had noticed the tranny was making a high pitched wine in low gears. They had the car for 5 days and gave me a brand new loaner TL while they replaced the entire tranny for free. I did not have an extended warranty. I believe this to be incredibly great service and product warranty. Of the several hundred thousand TL's sold, the 40 negative comments I've seen above don't make this a bad car. Yes, the tranny was not good, but Acura backed it up. Obviously, some of the dealers gave horrible service. This has been a great car for me vs. the Fords, Jeeps, Plymoths, Porsches & Toyotas I've owned over my 35 years of car ownership.

The entire transmission on my 2000 TL was replaced for free by Niello Acura in Sacramento. It was well beyond warranty (had over 90,000 miles on it). I have nearly 200,000 on it now. I took it in as a response to a recall notice I had received in 2004. This has been the best car I've owned (I've been buying new cars since 1973). Acura (and the dealer) did an excellent job standing behind their product (especially because it was out of warranty). Yes, they had a transmission problem, but they addressed it. When I had transmission problems with my Chrysler, I had to pay for it (replaced the tranny 2 times before it hit 100,000 miles)... will never buy another Chrysler product because of the way we were treated (as compared to Acura). I've stopped buying Fords for the same reason.

Consumer Reports have been right on the money on my last 3 car purchases, so now I only buy cars with a history of above or well above reliability. Since I try to keep my vehicle for 250,000 miles +, reliability is a huge concern. (Consumer Reports depends on millions of driver's inputs to put their ratings together and have no car company advertisements in their books so they can remain unbiased).

I have had a 2000 Acura TL for 5 years. I currently have 141k on the car. I had the transmission replaced at 92K under warranty and the dealership gave me a loaner car. The only problem I have had with this car is the transmission, other than that the car is a great car for the money and is a excellent ride. The structural integrity of the car itself is great. Curbs are no problem. I would purchase another TL especially now that the transmission is no longer the same and the consumer reports state that it is excellent.

I have a 2000 TL with 160k. It is now at the dealer getting its third transmission since last October. I had an extended warranty and, thus far, the dealer has done all of the work at no expense to me. I'm just hoping that the latest transmission works, as I can't imagine this will go on forever.

I have a 200 Acura TL. All of a sudden today, the check engine light and TCS lights came on simutaneously and was followed by the gears "skipping." Took it to the local Acura dealership here in Knoxville and was told, after looking at it for 5 minutes, that it requires a new transmission at the low low cost of $2500! I need to know the status of a class action lawsuit...

30 JUN 2008

I first purchased used 1999 TL back in 2003. I first loved the car. I drove it until 94,000 miles. I went to buy another one and sell the 1999 to my neice so I took it to the dealer to be served. They told me it needed a new transmission and they would pay for it. I though "good deal". I then purchased a 2003 tl for myself. My neice was happy until 2 years to the date she is told she needs a new transmission costing $4,400. I sold her the car on premise that it had a new transmission. The dealership is not willing to buge and will auction the car today. What disturbs me even more is that a qualified mechnic had just told me a week before I took it to the dealer that I did not need a transmission and my transmission was fine on the 1999. Why did Acura want to change it out is beyond me. I will never buy another Acura again. I'm praying everyday that the 2003 I have will last at least another 2 - 3 years without any problems. My neighbor purchased my "1989" Nissan Maxima from me and it is still running great on its original transmission. I will go back to Nissan.

I have a 2002 TL-S. A couple of years ago (about 40,000 miles) a service light came on. The car ran fine, but I took it into the dealer, and they said there was a transmission problem and put a new one in under warranty.

I now have 70,000 miles on the car and again took it in for routine service. Nothing really wrong, but didn't seem to be running as smooth as usual.

They noticed a transmission leak and a little transmission noise. Again, they replaced it under warranty. Assuming I keep it another few years, I will take it in before 100k and have the transmission fully checked.

I like the car and haven't had many problems. I had a wheel bearing go out, and that's it other than routine maintenance.

After reading the other messages, I am impressed with my dealer, since I never knew I had a problem, but they were very proactive in replacing the transmission in both cases.

Also, the dealer is open for service late and on saturdays, plus they have always had a nice loaner available, so it has been painless. They have competitive prices, but I would buy again from them and not worry about getting that last $500 on a deal.

The car is nice. However, it is obvious that the transmission is a product defect, and the fact the dealer is stepping up to the plate on this is to their credit. If they hadn't taken care of it, I would have been quite upset. However, they have made the overall experience good, in spite of this issue.

All I can say is that the dealer service relationship has been positive, and that I will continue to use the dealer. They seem to be very concerned with their reputation. I live in Chicago, and a lot of people don't have the luxury of multiple dealers. Nevertheless, it seems like a good idea to use a dealer for service. By the way, the regular service is somewhat expensive, but not excessive.

By the way, the entire transaxle setup is really complex, and the model s has more power, so I am not shocked that this has been a weak point. When I had the wheel bearing replaced, they showed me the setup and it was really complex compared to the older US cars that I personally worked on.

I have a 2000 TL with 1020,000 miles. I had the re-call taken care of a few years ago. It's been a great car up to now.

I need a new transmission for $2000.00. It started to slip about a week ago, and got worse as the week went on. It would go from 10 to 20 and then jump, I had a tough time putting it in reverse, by the time I got it to my mechanic it wouldn't go over 20 miles an hour.

I agree we need a class action suit!!!

We noticed transmission slippage in our 2000 TL at about 100,001 miles - just after the recall notice and well past the warranty. Drove it for an additional 90,000 miles and the original transmission just gave out today. Don't really want to sink $3000 into a car only worth $4000 (in good condition) and am on-line now trying to figure out what to do.

Whyyyyyyyyyy!!! Well, looks like I'm yet another unhappy Acura 3.2 TL owner with about 240Ks on the tach. I bought this off the second owner. The car was an absolute dream to drive in the first 6 months. Then my regular maintenance started pilling up, brakes rotors, upper ball joints, lower ball joints, shocks all had to be changed. About 7 months into driving the car I realized that in stop and go traffic the tranny would lock up, RPMs would go up but the car would not move for about 2 seconds. I figured out that once I came off the gas and re-applied the gas it would work fine. So, I figured okay... so it's not perfect but as a recent graduate strapped with all kinds of debt I figured I'd put up with it until I could afford better.

Last night (1 year, 3 months after picking the car up) I got stuck in traffic again but this time the tranny just died completely. I was revving at 4500 rpm but only moving at 40 Kmph.

So now I'm stuck with a car that will cost $3000 to fix the tranny but really, given the terrible gas mileage and the fact that I can barely sell if for $4500 in good condition really just makes me feel screwed.

Readers please do not buy any Mazda 626's or 2000-2003 Acura 3.2 TLs. Their both nightmares... trust me I know!!!

I have not posted here before, but join the ranks of those with repeated transmission problems with, at least, the 2000 TL. First transmission was replaced under the recall. The second one was NOT covered by Acura for the stated reason that I had not continued routine service with the dealership. No, I hadn't. I actually maintained the car myself at a more frequent basis that called for in the manual.

I tried to argue, unsuccessfully with national Acura in California, that I was a dedicated Acura customer and that this was my 3rd Acura purchased new. Not good enough apparently. I had to pay about $3000 to have a 3rd transmission installed. Because I was not considered a loyal Acura customer by Acura, I took my business to a transmission shop rather than give Acura my money. Now, at 160,000, I need a new torque converter.

I have since purchased 2 BMWs, and do not plan to set foot in an Acura dealership ever again.

I too would welcome a class action suit against this company. They know full well they have a faulty product and steadfastly refuse to acknowledge it. There are too many other good cars out there. In fact, my son's 1995 Nissan Maxima with 185,000 still runs fine with its original engine, transmission and torque converter.

Another joints the ranks of 2000 TL Transmission problems. All the same symptoms noted from everyone else (check engine light, skipping into third gear, hesitating downshifting from 2nd to 1st, traction control light on). Fluid is burned.

The TL has about 130,000 miles on it. I got it used at about 90,000. I had no idea about the tx problems, serves me right for not doing some research. I don't know if this is the original tx or not.

$3,400 estimate at the Acura dealer in Marietta, GA.

So, what do you do? It's worthless without a Tx and $3,400 is still a lot cheaper than finding another car.