2015 Acura TLX
Complaints about this year name transmission far more often than the other years of this generation — 33% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 7.5%.
First year of a new generation. The Acura TLX was redesigned for 2015. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 340 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 62 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 32.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.5% across the other years of this generation (4.4×).
- shifting — 20.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the other years of this generation (6.2×). Owners wrote it as: shifting, jerky, rough, occurs.
- gears — 10.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation (9.8×). Owners wrote it as: gears, between gears.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- gear — 18% of complaints, 4× usual
- gears — 11% of complaints, 10× usual
- shift — 16% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
TRANSMISSION ISSUE AS FOLLOWS: SHIFTS ABRUPTLY IN 2 AND 3RD GEARS. CAR SEEMS TO SHIFT UP WHEN BRAKING THEN SHIFTING DOWN SO IT SEEMS THE CAR SPEEDS UP WHEN IT SHOULD BE SHIFTING DOWN TO SLOW DOWN. WHEN PUTTING THE CAR IN PARK, THE CAR ROLLS BACK ABRUPTLY.
I recently got my rotors replaced and the car stutter while braking. Also, this happened before I replaced rotors.. the transmission is slow and won't shift to merge highways. I don't know if its the transmission or the brake lines.. I guess it's the transmiss…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V060000 FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 16V640000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 14V613000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 14V779000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V751000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Acura TLX was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2015 Acura TLX? What happened to yours?
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