I drove a couple different cars this past few months and noticed one thing in comparison to our CL's... Our turning radius is so large!! Is this because our front wheels aren't as close to the bumper? pulling into a tight parking space is always painful- i'm looking for a way to correct this.. hopefully sway bars will help!

 

yea parking this car sucks. it can't make a tight 90 degree turn, plus it is long as hell too and the sloping body lines don't help in knowing the distance to the wall.

 

3PointZero, I'm not sure what other cars your referring to, but with a turning radius of 39 ft, the CL is on par with other cars of this size. Because the CL is a "luxury" car it has a very soft ratio, so it might feel like it has a large turning circle...

The things that affect the turning circle are the length of the vehicle, the steering gear ratio, and the number of turns before lock. The sway bars will not help you.

If you seriously want to work on this you could swap in a rack with a faster ratio. The Accords are 16.3 ratio versus the CLs 17.45. Swapping racks would net a 1.3 ft smaller turning radius. Worth it? Doubt you'd even notice. I'd suggest getting a CRX if parking is a problem

 

Try driving your typical rental cars (Grand Ams, Tauruses, Maximas, etc.) and then see if you still think the CL has a large turn radius! Whenever I take a trip I can't wait to get back home to my CL, and turn radius is one of the things I miss.

 

A buddy of mine has a Benz C class, about the same length as our vehicles, but it turns so much better... My girlfriend's protege turns better... my sister's corolla turns better.. my other sister's civic turns better, my mom's minivan turns better

Botttom line is i think the turning radius sucks, whether or not it is on par with other vehicles in our class. The only reason why i brought this up as an issue is cause i think autox'ing would be much better for me if i could get the car to turn better, but like you said, there aint much i can do about it

 

i make U turns in my girls 4 door accord better than the CL. When in the Cl i have to reverse at least 1 time. the accord 4 dr is so much better. The acura Legend has the best turning radius.

 

There ya go. Legend has a 34.8 turning diameter. I bet the rack would bolt in too.
Or how about 4 wheel steer from a Prelude? That'd give you a shorter circle than the Corolla (31.5)!
BTW, the preludes have 'bout the fasted ratio I've seen on a Honda, but they don't allow many turns lock-to-lock, so the radius is still average.

 

The CL is supposed to be a sport car and the TR for it absolutely blows. Hell, my GF's frickin' Ford Explorer has a smaller TR!

 

If the CL is supposed to be a sports car, its a failure in the tradition of the titanic.

Sports cars usually do one or more of the following:

- Go Fast
- Stop Fast
- Corner Fast

But if by "sports" you mean "entry-luxury", I couldn't agree more.

 

I've also noticed the wack turning radius. I had a 93 corolla before my CL, and it was much more agile then the CL. I'm glad I don't live somewhere like NYC where you have to do a lot of parallel parking, cuz if that was the case, turning radius and size would be a factor and I probably wouldn't want a CL.

 

i think the radius is fine. i pull illegal U's on a 2 lane road all the time no problem. i havent noticed this prob. i drive my girls 00 celica and i dont feel it turns that much better. my cousins 4 dr cord dont seem any better either. idk. my $.02

 

I have definately noticed this problem. The turning radius sucks, thats all there is to it. The cl is like driving a school bus when trying to pull a u-turn.

 

I couldn't agree more... I'm happy with it. I was actually just complimenting it the other day when i swung it around on a residential street. Maybe because i've only driven 68's and 74's- i don't know... Diff. opinions i guess...