Hesitation started a few months after getting the car but became noticeable around 30k miles. Currently at 77k miles and have to downshift into sport mode, or press the accelerator to the floor when going up hills to climb and have the transmission drop into a lower gear. Doing 40 MPH up a hill and slowly applying more force to the pedal causes the car to "buck" or "surge". Taking into the shop on Monday. Seems to be a frequent problem with CVT transmissions but this car is not CVT. Will post fix when I get a report back from the dealer.

Tried the usual fixes: 89 octane a few times injector cleaning service fuel system cleaner (from auto store) swapped out the spark plugs

Update from Jul 24, 2017: $300-$400 repair. Note from the mechanic states "Overall shift quality was poor and vehicle often seemed to scramble for the proper gear selection. Located Service Bulletin 17-017 which details a transmission fluid flush combined with a software update to remedy an issue causing the transmission fluid to wear too quickly, and cause poor shift quality."

They drained my transmission 3 times, adding fresh fluid each time to get "metal shavings out of the transmission". I questioned why I was being charged for a defect that caused the fluid to "WEAR OUT QUICKLY", and the fact that there was a software update (Hello, theres a service bulletin for this!). Honda knows about a defect in their product, but the consumer has to pay for the fix... Maybe the software update would have fixed it.... no one test drove it to determine if it did.

I'm happy this fixed the issue, and the cost wasn't too bad, but again, if you have a known defect in your product, that should be taken on by the manufacturer.

I had the vehicle for about 6 months when I noticed that while backing out of my garage it took over 1000 rpms for the car to back up. Once it function properly, I did not have any problems for the rest of the day. The next morning the problem may or may not reoccur, but it always occurred several times during the week. I brought the vehicle to Team Honda, and they told me that this was normal because more than one person dove the vehicle and the transmission had to adjust to the new driver. Unfortunately for Honda, years ago I was a Volkswagen mechanic and this had to be the most stupid answer that I ever heard a dealer give a customer. I brought the vehicle in several times but unfortunately they never wrote up the complaint. It still has the same problem, and the power train is still under warranty, but the seat is so uncomfortable and painful that I may try to take further action.

My wife drives the car and when I drove it I asked her how long this has been going on? She said for months. So when the car is cold in the morning it just revs up and barley goes backwards. Then when you put in drive same thing it revs up and goes very slow. Once the car is warmed up it goes back to the wonderful (NOT) cvt transmission that I hate so much. Toyota still has a nice transmission in there Camry. This is all over the internet of problems with this transmission but when I call Honda service they said it was the first they have heard of it. Herb Chambers Honda of Westborough couldn't even connect me to a service advisor. The phone clerk apologized after 10 min of ringing them and she told me I can see them just hangin out. Never had luck with there service dept. If Herb only knew how awful his Honda dealer is for service.I will update from another Honda dealer that we will bring it to.

transmission disengages while in gear

My car's transmission disengages while accelerating in gear in "D" (drive). This problem does not happen under light to moderate acceleration. It happens under heavy acceleration. One day I pushed the accelerator pedal all the way while in D. The car started off with 1st gear. At around 35 mph and 6500 RPM engine speed, the transmission switched gear to 2nd which was normal. Kept the accelerator pedal all the way, the engine speed reached 6800 RPM and I felt the transmission tried to shift to 3rd gear (speed around 62 mph) but failed.

This failure in shifting from 2nd gear to 3rd gear left the engine speed hanging at 6800 RPM redline, 62 mph speed, and NO TORQUE moving forward, just like driving in neutral (N) although the automatic transmission is set to drive (D). When I let off the accelerator pedal, the transmission shifted to 3rd gear and the car drove normally.

This problem is VERY ANNOYING especially when hard acceleration is needed (i.e. to match speed while merging to a highway). This is also dangerous because when the transmission failed to shift, there is no forward torque. Possibly other driver could rear-end the car because of the loss of forward torque.

Has anyone else experienced the same issue?

Got Honda Accord 2013 in Nov of 2012.

1) Either transmission chooses wrong gears around 30-40 mph speed or something else, but car jerks sometimes significantly. Problem is more noticeable on hills/slops. Very rarely it jerks so bad that it felt like magnitude 7 earthquake.

Dealership says "ohh thats normal in Accords"

2) Car SHUTS down once in 2-5 months while waiting on signal to get green. Only engine shuts down, all electronics stay up including music, side camera etc. Fix : I pretend like it did NOT happened, press start button and go off my way. Since shut down issue is no easily reproducible, dealership cannot figure out what it wrong.

Dear Honda, You LOST me as a customer.

When the transmission shifts from second to third gear and sometimes third to forth gear under light acceleration, the engine RPM instantaneously increases by 100 to 200 rpm before solidly engaging in the next higher gear, whereupon the engine speed drops back. This occurs mostly at the second or third time the shifts have occurred, following slow speed maneuvering out of the housing development.

The Honda dealer claims this is intended to hasten warm-up of the catalytic converter. I can understand delayed shifting or higher shift speeds as being intended to warm up the converter, but a slipping transmission is simply wearing clutches. The dealer stated that the drive train is warranted for five years or 60000 miles, so if the transmission fails it should be covered. That sounds like a reliable warranty, not a reliable vehicle. As I recall, Honda made fun of Hyundai's 10 year warranty a few years ago for that reason.

Took vehicle in for servicing with a complaint that I was having hesitation issues with transmission when placing vehicle in reverse from a flat parked position in my garage. When accelerating from reverse the vehicle was not moving immediately and seemed to be reluctant to want to move. During the same visit with the Dealership I had advised them that when applying brakes I could feel a slight vibration. The outcome of that visit was I was advised that my Honda required annual brake maintenance including machining of rotors to prevent this type of hesitation. Having this service done resolved an issue with slight vibrations when braking but has not resolved the issue of hesitation when accelerating once vehicle has been shifted from park to reverse... The first week or so after the brake work was done it did seem somewhat as if the reverse issue may have resolved....but it did not .. I will be re-visiting the Dealer in the short term to review this issue again. If anyone has heard of a solution I would appreciate feedback.This problem seems to be suggested by other 2013 Honda Accord owners.

Update from Jan 2, 2015: Transmission shifting delay issue resolved by Honda warranty. Turns out there are a select number of vin#'s that may experience a similar problem. FYI : This repair resolved an issue with transmission hesitations while accelerating from 0-40kms as well.

My Accord is currently at the dealership for a diagnostic evaluation as there are several times in a month when I start the car in the mornings and it does not move when placed in reverse or drive once my foot is off the brake. I park in a garage that has a flat surface. When I attempt to accelerate in reverse, it simply moves as if in neutral on a slight decline.

I first noticed the problem when before I went in for my 5k oil change. At that time, they dismissed the concern and said it sounded normal. As time went on, the hesitation was more frequent. I called the dealership and again was told that it was common in the 2013 model and my concern was, again, dismissed. I called corporate and asked for advice on how to proceed and the representative said she had never heard of this problem but I should have a diagnostic completed just to have a record of the complaint/concern. Now the problem happens a couple times a week. The people at the dealership are telling me they are unsure of how long it will take as they will have to duplicate the problem in order for them to fix it. They are sure what I am describing is likely what is being called a transmission engagement delay but they can't do anything about it unless the delay is picked up during the diagnostic evaluation.

This is my first time buying a Honda. The entire experience, since buying to getting service, has been so awful that I will never again buy from Honda.

We purchased the Honda Accord Sport from Big Island Honda - Hilo in July 2013. This is my 3rd Honda, so I'm a returning customer that didn't have a problem, until now.

Within a few days, I was noticing a pause or hesitation when accelerating. It would not happen all of the time, so I chalked it up to my sensitivity or imagination. After about 2 months of this happening to me and other drivers, I knew I wasn't imagining the problem. I took the car into the dealership, they kept the car for the day and said that the hesitation didn't happen to them. I brought up the fact that I saw the complaints online and a recall, I was told by the Service Department Manager that my car wasn't in the VIN range for the recall. He dismissed my concerns and sent me away like I was a little child.

Then a year later, in August 2014, I took the car in again for the same problem. Mind you, I have taken the car in for the SAME problem, SEVERAL times through the year. Leaving the car at the dealership for the day, then for several days. Finally, in August 2014, the technician experienced the hesitation. I was asked to bring the car back for an appointment to repair the issue. A software update and part was changed in August. I was hoping this was the last of it but a couple days later the hesitation happened AGAIN!!! Not only to me, but to 2 other drivers. I took the car in again and left it there for another 3 days but the dealership claims that nothing happened. They couldn't duplicate the problem.

The car is at 4400 miles and I still haven't had any luck with the General Manager or Service Manager of the dealership. I was then asked to bring the car in on October 13, 2014 because a Honda Representative was going to be in town and they were going to test drive my car. We dropped the car off at 8:00am and got a call to pick up the car around 3:00pm. We went to the dealership as was told that the Rep from Honda drove the car and nothing happened. I didn't see nor meet the Honda Representative, so I'm taking the word of the General Manager and Service Manager.

We sat down for a meeting and the Service Manager asked what they could do to make the situation better. I told them that I rarely drive the car because I feel that this is a safety issue. I've had a few close calls when the car hesitates in the middle of an intersection or while crossing a highway. I've had a small accident in a parking lot because I couldn't move the car out of the way of a car reversing because my car hesitated. Right now, the only thing that would make me feel better is that they take the car back because I'm not comfortable driving it and I don't want to keep paying for a car I can't drive. The service manger says he will call today (October 14) with some options for me. Let's see if Honda can restore my confidence in them or will I take my money elsewhere.

Did Honda sell me a LEMON?

Update from Dec 16, 2014: UPDATE: The assistant manager of my local dealership (Big Island Honda - Hilo) gave us two options. 1.) The dealership would buy back my car, paying off the remainder of the loan at Kelly Blue Book price. That is a $10,000 LOSS for me!!! The car was only a couple months old when we first started complaining about the problem and it's only a year old. How does a car depreciate that much in a year?!?! 2) The second option was for us to file under the lemon law. HOW is that an option for the dealer to offer us? Isn't it MY choice? So ultimately they gave us ONE option which was an insult. We declined their offer. In November, We sent a certified letter to American Honda which is the beginning of the Lemon Law process. A representative from American Honda called us but we were not home. It then took almost two weeks to get our call returned.

The representative took the tone that I didn't know anything about the new CVT transmission and/or I didn't know how to drive. He insisted that we take the car back to our dealer and go on another test drive. That test drive occurred in the beginning of December. I spent about 1.5 hours (26 miles) with the technician who left it up to me to drive and the length of time was up to me. I couldn't get the car to duplicate the problem. As soon as dropped off the technician, our service rep said they would send the info to American Honda.

A few days later, we got a survey call about that visit to our dealer. I was very candid about what happened and told them that as soon as I left the dealer and went to pick up lunch, the problem occurred. The survey caller then told me he would contact the dealer to call me to take the car back in for another test drive. About a week and a half later, I'm still waiting for that call. We then got a call from the American Honda rep and he asked why we didn't take the car back after the problem occurred... because I had food in the car and people waiting for lunch. The American Honda rep also told us that they don't have or haven't had any other complaints like mine. There must be a disconnect somewhere because some of you have been nice enough to contact me directly and I have read many complaints online about the same problem. I'd like to ask you to please contact American Honda and voice your concerns because they don't read sites like these. You can contact me directly if you want the address.

I hope my update helps in some way. I'm hoping that Honda does the right thing and I don't have to continue with filing a complaint under our State's Lemon Law. I'll be calling my dealer today to get another test drive scheduled so I can waste my time and gas... again.

Update from Oct 6, 2015: Sorry for the late update...

After taking in my car for the last time in December 2014, American Honda and our local dealership claimed there was nothing wrong with my car even though their own technician told me there were other complaints for the same problem. I decided to file a complaint under the Lemon Law.

After a lot of paperwork and communication with the Department of Consumer Affairs, we went through the arbitration process. In the end we prevailed.

We WON the Lemon Law case against American Honda.

It took a while before we were paid by Honda but we did get our money back and the car was sent to auction. I hope no one else has to go through what we did. Don't settle, its your life on the line.

After 3 months of owning the my new Accord, I noticed that the car started having issue with the transmission engaging after the car would sit for a long time. (over night or for 3-5 hours in work parking lot) I noticed that when I cranked the car, placed it in drive, that the car would rev up to drive but the transmission would not engage. I crank the car, put it in drive, and start to drive, but the car would start rolling but not go anywhere, and then after a 15 seconds or so the transmission would finally engage and the car would jerk and take off. This started out happening once every week or two, then it moved up to once a week, to almost every day. I took the car to Coggin Honda of Jacksonville, they did an update to the computer, they said this was the fix, but it fixed nothing. Don't get me wrong, for a week it seemed fixed, then it was right back to doing the same thing again. I took the car back to Coggin Honda of Jacksonville, but now they are telling me they have to see it happen. I left the car over night and went and tried to get it to repeat a few times, but of course it would not happen there. So now I have to wait for it to happen more often so that it will hopefully happen in front of them.