Yeah, they haven't had the greatest history in transmissions but their disaster 9sp wasn't even made by them. ZF actually makes transmissions, but that ZF9 is a pathetic transmission. Several manufacturers have had major issues with that transmission. Now Honda has their new 10sp transmission built in-house, but I haven't been following along to see how it's been doing since they irritate me. lol. It's in the Accord, RDX, and I think the Odyssey. *EDIT* : BTW, if anybody's looking for a 2015 Acura TLX, don't. Just get something else. Seriously - it's not worth getting a bad transmission. Several of their transmissions been replaced by Acura, but in some cases that didn't solve the shifting issues. The 2016+ models are a bit better but still have issues. The problem with the 2015's and some 2016's is that you won't always feel the transmission problems on a test drive. Sometimes they pop up a few times a week during certain acceleration conditions, during turns, etc.
Truth! 2013 Honda Accord EXL 4 cylinder - 60K miles...never driven hard...other than up and down neighborhood hills in Nevada and Oregon. Transmission is on life-support. Will need to be replaced. It's the only Honda I've owned...so it's sorta tainted my view of their brand...but I still love that car. Currently daughter drives it (and will be going with her to college). Wifey and I pretty much stick to Toyota and Lexus (although past few years we had a 2018 Audi Q7...great car, but it was getting close to that Audi-more-time-in-the-shop-than-on-the-road phase.
Got the new Rav 4 hybrid to replace a Forester turbo and I've been super happy with it. It has better acceleration and gets much better gas mileage, something like 40 mpg in the city.
Get ready for a bunch more of this. All of these go fast, economical, high technology goodies will kill the notion we have learned from the cars from the 00's longevity. 8-10 speeds CVT's plug in hybrids 16:1 compression ratio engines with turbos People keeping their cars for over 7 years are not what these cars were built for. Compromises made for EPA MPG and technology have made currently made cars similar to the 80's era of cars when they were first venturing into emissions era. Engineers will certainly figure it out but it will be a while.
Higher the compression, leaner the mixture, hotter the combustion, the more efficient. Till some sensors take a dump and the piston pops. Gifford's rav 4 is 14:1
Ya but higher compression means increased risk of knocking hence why high compression is used with diesel motors where high pressure and temps result in combustion rather than needing a spark like with your tradional otto cycle. Impressive engineering to force even more air with turbos in something as high as 16:1 with no concern of knocking.
It's also 16:1 air:fuel ratio where most FI is 12:1. Which is why those small turbos don't really deliver better real world MPG when you put them in boost. This one will but it is on a crazy thin edge.
Good lord. No kidding. At first, I thought it was some sort of weird lawn mower. Nope. It's a weird riding toy!
I'm considering making a similar switch. That Rav4 Prime looks really nice if the rebates are applicable. Do you mind sharing your price and dealer?
Was giving the Rav strong considerations back in January. Had my wife inquire with co-workers (mechanics) about it. She works at a Toyota dealership here in Oregon and gets pretty candid opinions on cars (stuff they'd never tell a customer). We were advised strongly to avoid the Rav. There are long-term engine concerns that made the mechanics say they'd never buy one. Ended up with a 4Runner...which was a strong recommendation from the mechanics.