Acura RSX 2nd Gear Grind

To Whom It May Concern:

This petition has been created to document and vent the frustration of numerous Acura RSX owners over the quality of transmissions in these cars and the treatment we have received from Honda of America and our local dealers.

There is a widespread and frequent occurrence of defective transmissions in Acura RSXs. This defect manifests itself primarily as a grind when shifting into 2nd gear. The severity of this behavior varies from excessive notchiness felt in the shifter to audible crunching grinds. Most owners that correspond through online forums complain about excessively poor shift quality somewhere between these two. The quality of the shift feel is unacceptable.

Last year, Acura released a Technical Service Bulletin addressing this issue for a limited VIN range. Unfortunately, the bulleting service does nothing to fix the problem. I personally have had the service performed to no avail. The grind was still so bad after the service that I had to have the entire transmission replaced. The new one grinds just as badly as the first.

Whats more, this service only happened after weeks of trying to convince my local dealer of the problem. Many others have also taken this problem to their dealers only to have the dealer tell them that there is no problem and their cars shift normally. This again is unacceptable.

Now three years deep into the manufacturing of the Acura RSX, the problem is still occurring on new cars. All the while Acura Customer Service and our local dealers deny any knowledge of this glaring transmission problem that plagues this car.

Our complaint is threefold.

1. The Acura RSX has a serious transmission flaw that causes normal shifts into second gear to grind. This problem has high frequency in all model years.
2. Acura continues to ignore the problem. Not only are dealers unable to fix the problem on current cars, but Acura continues to sell new cars with the same problem.
3. Acura Customer Service and Acura Dealers either ignore the problem or blame owners abuse and/or poor driving technique. Or worse, they proclaim the grind as normal operation.

This issue MUST be addressed. Honda and Acuras quality and customer service reputation are in dire jeopardy. Our request to you, Honda, is to develop a true solution to this problem and issue a recall immediately. Anything less is unacceptable. As it stands, I will never buy another Honda automobile again. It is not too late for you to rectify this very disappointing situation.

Searching online forums such as forums.clubrsx.com will yield dozens of threads of complaints detailing this problem.

If you have a similar problem with your RSX transmission, please sign this petition. Once we have enough signatures, a copy will be sent to Acura Customer Service, Honda of America, Consumer Reports, and Car and Driver magazines. We as customers have the power to change this. Please sign the petition.