hi all, new member here.
I'm the current owner of a 2002 Acura TL. selling her because I've been doing a lot of research and the transmission is known to fail early on. I don't want to invest any more money in the car than I already have, even though I love her. I already noticed certain issues with the transmission, so I want to get rid of the car before anything major happens. also, the TL is horrible on gas and I need something good on gas and spacious like the fit for work.

I'm looking at getting a gd3 fit (07-08), in my area i can get one with 45-100k miles from between 4000-7000 USD.

I wanted to know if there's any known transmission issues (i didn't find much in the forums relating to transmission problems) and if so how to tell and check for those. I know the ATF fluid needs to be changed regularly, so i'll ask about that. besides that, anything I should look for when inspecting the fit I'm going to buy?
I want to make sure I don't get stuck with anything major before I buy the car.

thank you

 

I've only seen ONE issue with a Fit's automatic transmission and that was due to the pressure switch failing and the ATF NEVER being replaced. Despite that, the automatics on Fit's are pretty durable from what I've seen with an occasional ATF replacement. As long as you stick with replacing ATF every 2 years or 30k miles, you should be fine for daily use.

I personally autocross my 2008 and it is an automatic. I've used the paddles to shift it 99% of the time and run the car hard on a regular basis. No issues as of yet with almost 128k on the odometer... and I've been the primary driver of the car since it had 52 miles on the clock as well.

Starting points with higher mileage GD3s (2007/2008)... Spark plugs (NGK or Denso Iridiums are recommended), valve adjustment, and your basic fluid exchanges as per vehicle maintenance. Additional items that may need to be address are the coil packs... Early Fit coil packs tend to have a short life and/or cause odd driveablity issues. Its common to actually replace the entire set with OEM replacements that have been updated (if I recall correctly).

Also in the hatch area, inspect for cracks under the roof moldings (black strips on the roof). The seems there can crack over time and allow water inside of the vehicle. I've fixed this on a customer's car, mine have cracked but have been sealed as well before they allowed water in. This seems to be a common trait of this gen but have some decent temporary fixes... The proper fix would be to get the area filled and repainted.