hate to be the bearer of bad news but what you read is true.

I had a '01 CL that was a blast to drive - that is until the tranny crapped out on me - the life of the tranny varies and it depends on how hard the car was driven. I only had to replace it once and then I sold it but I've heard stories of people replacing it 3-4 times.

Is this the first tranny on the car? They did a recall back in 01-02 but even if you take that into account the tranny probably has over 100k on it? The thing is it'll come abruptly so easy driving doesn't really help - it happened to my grandpa's honda odyssey as well... overall honda fucked up in 99-03 with those trannies.