I have to say, being also an acura owner, honda's have their own seperate issues. The problem is these days that honda really isn't honda of japan. It's really honda of north america, with parts and labor sourced from north america. We've had our fair share of issues with the acura even though it's still under warranty. Getting warranty work done on it is like pulling teeth sometimes. Stealerships often assume, "hondas are so reliable, it must be a user operator error".
I guess I've been lucky with my A4. Like I said, mine's been pretty reliable since the stealership stopped touching it. And it's a car that's pretty easy to maintain, minus this big timing belt thing I need to do (arguably 20k miles earlier than really necessary). Parts are also pretty cheap, because of the platform sharing with VW. Locally, I found great source OEM parts are europarts-sd (http://www.europarts-sd.com/) in RB and puremotorsports in temecula (http://purems.com/). Usually 60-70% off from what the stealership charges. I also found out that it was worth investing in a nice tool called vag-com. In addition to diagnosing the check engine lights (should you hack around your car like I do), you can recode a few things, like auto-closing of windows/sunroofs with the remote, the way the alarm arms, auto door locking after reaching a certain speed, etc. http://www.ross-tech.com/
As such, I love the driving dynamics, and refuse to part with it. And my hobby has been to tinker with it, until the daughter arrived. Ok, truthfully, I'm trying to hold out 2 more years for the S5.
