Yes I have owned the car since new, but I bought it at a dealer 15 miles down the road from this one. I stopped going to the original dealer for service when they charged me $50 for my first oil change and insisted on re-balancing the tires (and charging me for it) when I asked them to rotate them after only 8k miles. When I got the car home I saw I still had the original rusted weights on my wheels.
I've never changed the transmission fluid in any car I've ever owned, this one included, and this is the first transmission problem I've ever had. I'm one of those people who rarely takes a car in for scheduled maintenance. I only bring it in when something is wrong. I change the oil, filters, etc. myself. The only reason I originally brought it in for an oil change instead of doing it myself was I kept burning my arm on the exhaust manifold when I tried to remove the filter. I figured out a way around that later on.
That's great that you haven't had any problems after 90k miles. The only caution I can give is that I had absolutely no warning the failure was going to happen. The car was running just fine. Then, I was at a stop sign, I stepped on the gas and the engine raced but the car barely moved. Out of the blue. My transmission fluid level was fine, and did not have a burnt smell to it. I was lucky I was able to limp it to the the dealer.
Good luck!
Not trying in any way to side with the dealer that unduly rebalanced your tires but it is entirely possible that the tire balance technician didn't remove the original weights before the tires were spun to check for proper "balance".
I have seen, again and again, the technician remove the weights from the wheels prior to putting them on the spin balance machine but then again my own experience (insofar as I can remember) always involved new tires on the old wheels.
I admit that were I the technician in question I would not bother removing the old weights first given the tires had only 8k miles.
I understand your point, and I agree that the balance should be checked prior to pulling the weights off, but not when I'm objecting to it. Please note where I mentioned the dealer insisted on checking the balance of the tires, and thus charged me for it. I told them it wasn't necessary, and I was told "We don't rotate tires without balancing them". If they did check the balance before pulling the weights off, over my objections, and determined rebalancing was unnecessary I should not have been charged for it.
This is the same dealer that charged me $50 for an oil change. I think I'll stick with servicing my RX at the dealer that just gave me a free transmission post-warranty instead.