I work for a GM dealership and we just traded for a 2015 Acura TLX, 55k miles 3.5L V6 FWD. As an employee, we usually buy at a little above cost on the preowned cars so the price will be below the retail value of the car. I know Honda is a great brand but I know luxury cars are usually a little less reliable. Is this a good car?
Clarification: Are you looking to buy this car for yourself?
If it were me, I would not buy a 2015 Acura TLX for myself - if that is what you are asking. That was the first year of that (new) generation and generally it’s best to avoid first year vehicles of a new generation as invariably there will be issues/bugs that will take several years to sort out/refine. Second, that engine 3.5L V6 has cylinder deactivation (or what Honda calls VCM), which overtime can potentially wear out/damage the engine if you don’t disable it. So I would definitely disable it; but the hardware is still intact and I personally avoid engines that have cylinder deactivation - at least if you plan to keep for a long time like Scotty (or me). Then, the big elephant in the room is the weak ZF 9-speed AT in that vehicle which has had issues over the years (primarily in FCA products but there have been issues in some Honda products as well). And that 2015 TLX was the first model year with that transmission, which is even worse (as, again, takes years to refine/sort through the issues, but that 9-speed AT I would just avoid it altogether). Transmission/gearbox expert @Dan can chime in on experiences with that 9-speed. You can also read here: Not everything Honda/Acura is good.
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/postid/102996/
I saw online where it was reported to have poor reliability but could not find any exact reasons it was performing badly. The car would actually be for my girlfriend who will be driving back and forth to work on the interstate. I'm not at all familiar with a lot of the problems Honda/Acura has, hence why I wanted to ask people who are familiar with the product. I guess the problems it faced are what drove the market value so low, we gave 14k for the car and it retails at around 20-21k in our area. That stood out to me since the miles were so low (for a Honda product). The car shifts fine as of right now, I have been in the Cherokees when they start having their issues at outrageously low miles (12-15k) and it's pretty bad. They almost remind me of the DCT in the Ford Focus and we all know how bad that was.
@watson I used to repair the FORD DPS6 / RENUALT EDC6, and I currently own two cars with Getrag Powershift transmissions (Ford Focus with the 6DCT250, Volvo C30 with a 6DCT450, and am considering to buy a Mégane/CLA diesel with the new generation 7DCT300)
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Yes the early 2012-2013 6DCT250 were terrible, the transmissions did have inexcusable faults, odd driving dynamics and exceptionally laggy software. (together with bad ground cables and more faults that I attribute to the Focus and not the transmission, as they didn’t. happen on the Renualt Megane III/ Fluence / Clio dCi with the same EDC tranny)
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But, cars made after 2014 with that transmission, didn’t have that many terrible issues.
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They still need their clutch to be replaced at around 75-80k miles - but that’s not specific to the Focus that’s virtually all dual clutches from that era, be it a Volvo, Škoda, Mercedes, or an Alfa Romeo MiTO.
but in the case of the Focus/Fiesta, they were all covered by the free 7yr/100k mil warranty.
I happen to think that the late-model 6DCT250 is not as bad as people consider it to be.
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and in the case of the late model fiesta/focus they still are a bit notchy but not terrible - For the most part you just have to readjust the computer values if you ever begin to feel stuttering or harsh shifts.
And yeah the Honda 9 speed is terrible, but that’s cause it’s the same one as in budget FIAT (500X) and Chrysler (200) products.
But when a 9ZF breaks, you replace the whole tranny, (going back to the Focus DCT analogy) when the DPS6 begins to misbehave you just get your clutch pack replaced and shift motors inspected usually it’s really not that expensive.
I find it odd that Honda would use a transmission from another company that was performing poorly, but I guess the data wasn't fully available yet as it was just introduced only a year prior to the redesign of the 2015 TLX.
I was not even aware of what issues actually attributed to the problems the Focus experienced, I was always told it was because of the design. As in wet vs dry clutch design, I personally was never in the market for a smaller car like that so I never bothered to look into it further.
I do know that software design plays a huge part in the performance of powertrain components, take for example the GM/Ford 10 speeds. The units themselves are almost the same but each company did their own tweaks to the designs and of course have different software.
Absolutely!
