Hello all. Quick intro.
We are a couple from Black Hills of SD, Just today I went to show my wife a Civic that a local dealership (she has been driving a family Park Ave...cough) but she spotted this Blk/Tan CL from across the lot and fell in love with it on sight. We drove it and the condition was exacerbated. Price was right, we scored the car. Usually I do plenty of due diligence when buying but I have a great deal of faith in Honda and Toyota vehicles. I did no research, simply took home a very comfortable, excellent running vehicle for a very reasonable price. It reminded her of our former 05 SAAB 9-5 with the great handling and un-Buick-like driving dynamics.
So here we are with a runs like-new 2003 CL with the Automatic transmission. 163k miles, a few dings and scuffs but overall nice and very presentable, even somewhat sexy. I get home and start reading only to find out the transmissions have historically been an issue, reminding me of the Oddy, Asias Taurus/Sable haha. I have read many people only get 35-45k per tranny but so many of the posts are old and many conflicting from site to site. I have no service history on the car and have chosen not to worry it much because at this mileage if It had a weak tranny I'm sure it would have been evident by now. It *appears* to be same age as the rest of the car, but unsure. It does function perfectly and the fluid looks/smells fine. I have no idea what the actual percentage of 2nd gen CLs were afflicted with transmission troubles, have read some vastly different guesses and a few when-not-if articles. I have driven AT equipped Hondas well over the 300k mark so optimism lingers.
I see a great deal if information here and hope to learn a lot as we hope to keep this sweet car for 5-10 years. My hope is that it will need very little aside from routine maintenance.
The stereo sounds fairly crappy for a Bose so we'll probably see if we can ad some upgraded speakers with the factory head for adequate sound, maybe a light tasteful window tint and repair a few dings, drive and enjoy. We look forward to enjoying the endless miles of country roads here with this car. The Lexus is a touch big for canyon carving so this Acura is perfect in size and power. I did have to have 4 new studded snow tires put on before I could even get it up my 3 mile driveway.
Others we own:
2003 Acura CL, AT.
96 Lexus LS400 blk/blk. RWD = bad winter car.
87 Samurai 16v 1.6L/toy axles, lockers, etc. Rock crawler and my winter DD.
88 Samurai bone stock, will be toad.
98 Park Ave to be retired. Replaced by the CL.
Recently gone 87 300 SDL and 05 Turbo 9-5.
Anyways, I have read quite a bit and will continue reading but ears sure open for any pointers or suggestions for this bone stock beauty. Our goals are simply to keep it reliable and running like a top. Maybe address small things to make it more enjoyable/functional. Not looking into performance mods unless proven/cheap/easy/tasteful. It really seems like Acura got this one right but I will sure listen to anything anyone has to say about the trans for preventative measures or any other aspect of this car.
-/rant mode off
Thanks all.
Tony & Jade.
We are a couple from Black Hills of SD, Just today I went to show my wife a Civic that a local dealership (she has been driving a family Park Ave...cough) but she spotted this Blk/Tan CL from across the lot and fell in love with it on sight. We drove it and the condition was exacerbated. Price was right, we scored the car. Usually I do plenty of due diligence when buying but I have a great deal of faith in Honda and Toyota vehicles. I did no research, simply took home a very comfortable, excellent running vehicle for a very reasonable price. It reminded her of our former 05 SAAB 9-5 with the great handling and un-Buick-like driving dynamics.
So here we are with a runs like-new 2003 CL with the Automatic transmission. 163k miles, a few dings and scuffs but overall nice and very presentable, even somewhat sexy. I get home and start reading only to find out the transmissions have historically been an issue, reminding me of the Oddy, Asias Taurus/Sable haha. I have read many people only get 35-45k per tranny but so many of the posts are old and many conflicting from site to site. I have no service history on the car and have chosen not to worry it much because at this mileage if It had a weak tranny I'm sure it would have been evident by now. It *appears* to be same age as the rest of the car, but unsure. It does function perfectly and the fluid looks/smells fine. I have no idea what the actual percentage of 2nd gen CLs were afflicted with transmission troubles, have read some vastly different guesses and a few when-not-if articles. I have driven AT equipped Hondas well over the 300k mark so optimism lingers.
I see a great deal if information here and hope to learn a lot as we hope to keep this sweet car for 5-10 years. My hope is that it will need very little aside from routine maintenance.
The stereo sounds fairly crappy for a Bose so we'll probably see if we can ad some upgraded speakers with the factory head for adequate sound, maybe a light tasteful window tint and repair a few dings, drive and enjoy. We look forward to enjoying the endless miles of country roads here with this car. The Lexus is a touch big for canyon carving so this Acura is perfect in size and power. I did have to have 4 new studded snow tires put on before I could even get it up my 3 mile driveway.
Others we own:
2003 Acura CL, AT.
96 Lexus LS400 blk/blk. RWD = bad winter car.
87 Samurai 16v 1.6L/toy axles, lockers, etc. Rock crawler and my winter DD.
88 Samurai bone stock, will be toad.
98 Park Ave to be retired. Replaced by the CL.
Recently gone 87 300 SDL and 05 Turbo 9-5.
Anyways, I have read quite a bit and will continue reading but ears sure open for any pointers or suggestions for this bone stock beauty. Our goals are simply to keep it reliable and running like a top. Maybe address small things to make it more enjoyable/functional. Not looking into performance mods unless proven/cheap/easy/tasteful. It really seems like Acura got this one right but I will sure listen to anything anyone has to say about the trans for preventative measures or any other aspect of this car.
-/rant mode off
Thanks all.
Tony & Jade.