NHTSA Complaint #11653206 — 2016 ACURA MDX

Vehicle started having issues just a couple of years after purchase (acquired brand new as a Lease which I later purchased when the Lease was up), in the beginning it was mostly at low speeds, but it would occasionally happen at higher speeds as well. You could feel it having hesitation when shifting gears. Took it to the dealer at around the 30K miles due for service (May of 2019). Had the transmission fluid replaced, dealer noted some "debris" was found. The problem quickly showed up again soon after this service, so the vehicle was brought back to the dealer for further checkup a couple of times, the result was always the same, no problem found, and the vehicle was OK to drive. I have lived with this problem ever since and on occasion it got even worse at higher speeds (around 65mph) when the gears seemed to go to neutral for a few seconds and then re-engage again on its own. Knowing that the car had always acted funny and the fact that the dealer never found any issues, I thought it must be more of the same. Finally, a couple of weeks ago (March 25 of 2025) the transmission gave up completely while my wife was driving the car, luckily it was not in a highway, she had enough time to pull to the side of the road but once the car stopped, it would not get into gear again. I have called the dealer for assistance, but they tell me the car is not under warranty anymore and there is no recall pending for this VIN, they could take it in, but the repairs would not be covered by them. This has prompted me to look into the issue further and found out that Acura issued a service bulleting number 17-026 back in 2018 which describes the same symptoms as what I describe above, they extended the warranty to 10 years but when I called them they say that it does not apply to my VIN because of a different manufacturing location (despite the fact that the symptoms are the same). Came to find out that other owners have had the same issue over the years.