2021 Acura TLX - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

"on two occasions the collision mitigation braking system (cmbs) has improperly activated with hard braking leaving me fighting for control. on one occasion, i was driving at 35 mph on a divided boulevard in my home subdivision with no vehicles in sight. the second occasion occurred on the florida turnpike at 75 mph while in the outside lane. there was no vehicle in front of me or to the side at that time. that was a scary moment. i want to emphasize that the cmbs employed hard braking along with the flashing dash warning. after each instance i took the vehicle to an acura dealer. first to fountain acura in orlando who could find no dtc codes and blew me off by telling me it was my e-pass transponder and window tint that caused the problem. that was utter nonsense. the second time i took the vehicle to autonation acura north orlando where i had purchased the vehicle as certified pre-owned (cpo) in april of 2022. they took my concern seriously, provided a loaner and kept the vehicle for four days. they also were unable to duplicate the issue and could find no dtc codes. they called honda’s “tech line” and told me that same nonsense about tint and transponders. this “washing of hands” rather than taking ownership of this life-threatening problem made me start looking for others with the same issue. no surprise, i found 103 other acura 2021 tlxs as well as rdxs and honda models with nhtsa complaints for the same exact experience i had. is ahm’s “tech line” telling all owners it is their fault for the improper activation of the cmbs? it seems to me that a change in the cmbs triggering algorithm needs to be made otherwise the more vehicles with the defective algorithm the more crashes will occur. this improper activation seems unique to 2021 vehicles. nhtsa records currently show no similar complaints for 2020, 2022, or 2023 model year vehicles."

"my wife and i were on the first day of vacation, driving from virginia to fl by way of sc. around 1pm i was driving the car on interstate 20 west in south carolina near bishopville. there were no cars in my lane in front of me and the car suddenly activated what acura refers to as the cmbs system. the purpose of this is to stop us if it thinks we are going to run into another vehicle. i'm not 100% sure but i think this is related to the adaptive cruise control. we had not used cruise control that day because traffic on rt 95 south was extremely heavy. we had finally turned off on rt 20 and traffic wasn't as heavy so we felt we could safely use the cruise control. we were traveling at about 73 mph and the car suddenly started hard braking. it was flashing brake in big letters in the dash. there was another vehicle behind so i kept pushing on the gas pedal to keep going but the car literally would not release the brakes. the vehicle from behind hit us. there is a video cam in my car so i have a video that shows the car traveling smoothly then all at once bouncing and jerking as it keeps applying the brakes. we also have photos of the front of the car showing that the cameras that this system uses were clear and unobstructed. the other driver was charged but it was absolutely the fault of the acura for this malfunction. acura roadside assistance tried to tell us how to disable this system but the info they provided was for another year model and didn't work. we went on youtube and found the correct information and have disabled this system. there were other videos on youtube describing this exact issue with this system failure with acura vehicles. we have also filed a report with acura customer care. it is case #[xxx]. we have also reported this to our insurance company (travelers) and to state farm, the company that is handling the claim for repair. the state farm claim # is [xxx]. information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)"

"in many instances while driving about 40-60 mph and with no vehicles in front the car would suddenly brake."