It sounds to me like you've been around Honda/Acura vehicles for some time and have some brand loyalty. I own a 2001 Acura CL type S that I bought new in June 2000. The vehicle currently has 130,000 miles and 2 transmissions have failed. The first at 30,000 miles and the second last week. You mentioned that Acura made desing changes to the 3rd gear clutch. Do you know when those changes would have made it into replacement transmissions? I really like my car and the whole Acura eperience has been good until last week. The dealer and Acura are not willing to replace this under warranty, but as an owner I don't think I should have to pay to have a transmission with a known defect replaced. The car isn't even scheduled for it's first tune up until 100,000 miles. It doesn't seem reasonable to me to have to replace two transmissions by 130,000 miles.