2009 Acura TSX
This year drew an ordinary 91 complaints for a Acura TSX — the model's median is 47. What they were about is the unusual part: 23.1% of them mention brakes, against 8.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 91 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 47 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 23.1% of this year's complaints, against 8.5% across the model's other years (2.7×).
- brake pads — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (38.5×). Owners wrote it as: brake pads, rear brake.
- air bag — 9.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: air bag, deployed, side three, bags deployed.
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.
What owners wrote
REAR BRAKES ON A 2009 ACURA TSX HAVE WORN EARLY, WELL BEFORE THE FRONT BRAKES HAVE WORN DOWN. FRONT BRAKES ARE AT 70+% LIFE, WHILE THE REARS ARE ALREADY WORN TO WITHIN 1MM.
I WAS IN MOTION HEADING TOWARD THE LIGHT ON 22 IN ABERDEEN MD MY AIRBAGS DEPLOYED HITTING ME IN THE CHEST AND I LOST CONTROL OF TH CAR; I ALSO HIT ANOTHER CAR IN FRONT OF ME. I DAMAGE THE FRONT OF THE CAR.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V502000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V378000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V042000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V030000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V545000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V346000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Acura TSX 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 2009 Acura TSX? What happened to yours?
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