My 1.5 year old Acura 3.2TL with 32,000 miles experienced intermittent automatic transmission problems. The car would shift into neutral between 1-2 gear and 2-3 gear. This was a dangerous situation especially when making left hand turns across traffic.
When I took in for warranty work I was instructed I first had to get a transmission service before they would consider a warranty issue. $250 later the problem was not fixed. (It felt like a deductible on my insurance)
I took it back in to state that it now needed to be fixed since I had jumped through their hoop. After a 5min test drive they claimed that since they could not get it to fail themselves they would not work on my car. My two choices were: One to leave the car with them and they would sporadically drive it over a few week period and hope it failed with them. Two: I could continue to drive the car with a dangerous transmission until it broke down and stranded me.
I went for the leave the car option. I asked for a loaner car as described in my warranty. They stated that since they could not get the car to fail in their test drive it was not under warranty, and therefore a loaner car could not be given and they directed me to a car rental place. I chose to continue to drive the car since I could not afford a loaner car for a few weeks.
The mechanic sat there with a smirk saying "were not saying you're lying about the problem, we just will not fix it until we see it is broken". The attitude expressed was that since the computer said it was not broken and our mechanic didn't experience then there is no problem, unless you prove otherwise. After further discussion they explained that transmissions were expensive to them so they didn't want to replace it unless that was the problem and therefore can't take my work that it is broken.
My only choice was to keep returning to Acura, let them drive my car and hope that it would fail during their test drive. After many frustrating trips and time off work I finally got the vehicle to fail while they were in it. Once this occurred they said they could now fix the vehicle and ordered a new transmission. They didn't run any more tests. All they did was experienced the same thing I had explained to them. Why didn't they do that in the first place? Answer: We need to experience it ourselves.
I'm very upset that after spending $28,000 on a brand new car, I had to go through a long time consuming process to have Acura fix their own problem 1.5 years later. They put the proof of burden on me and would not do a full diagnostic test, long test drive, or allow me a loaner car while they kept my car. It was as if it was funny to them to watch me keep coming back again and again hoping it would fail.
I believe that most of the problem for what took place was age discrimination. I'm only 26, which is young to be owning this type of car, and I feel they looked at my age and didn't give me any respect or credibility. I believe that if I had been older they would have immediately replaced the transmission or given me a loaner can instead of making it my problem they sold me a defective car.
Jonathan
Cary, North Carolina
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