Doctor V

Well, after three months and three days, I finally picked it up on Saturday! What a feeling finally laying eyes on my gleaming new TSX (number 11,287).

I'm about two hours drive from the dealer, and I've been spending the last day and a half, beginning with the triumphant drive home, getting to know my car (300 miles so far!). A few comments, good and bad:

1. The car feels very solid, substantial, quiet and responsive. I've been religiously following the break-in rules, so I haven't pushed it too much, but it feels like it has plenty of pep for me, especially since it handles so well. At my age (43), and where I live, I'm in it for the twisties, not drag racing. Shifting is so smooth, and the car is typically Honda - you just drive the thing, with no surprises. I'm already easily shifting, with no notchiness or missed gears, although sixth is a little tricky, being one more than I've ever had. Trying to stay below 4000 RPMs makes shifting and clutch work a lot tougher, but I'm determined to stick with it. Bumps in the road are felt quite a bit, but I'm very willing to have more road feel in trade for the tight suspension.

2. The navi is a great deal of fun. My twelve-year-old son thinks it's the coolest thing ever (he's especially interested, since this is very likely to be the car he learns to drive in). Voice recognition has been very accurate, as long as the correct screen is up and background noises aren't too loud. Even having the sunglass holder down affected the accuracy. It's already been useful having the navi - I found a new, faster way from the dealer home and found a party my son went to today in a part of a town with which I'm not familar. Having the map there was nice. I live in a part of Pennsylvania that's pretty rural, and there are a lot of "unverified areas" to deal with, including where my house is. I hope the updated DVD has more of these filled in. Anyone know when it'll be released?

3. No rattles at all, even with the volume and bass way up. Maybe things will loosen up, but so far, so good. With all the posts here about this problem, I thought it'd sound like I was in a baby convention!

4. I've never had a car with HIDs before, and they take a bit of getting used too, but the hill lighting problem doesn't seem to bother me at all. I'm a little disappointed with the brights - they seem weak. I'm sure brighter, whiter halogens are available for a minimal aftermarket project for me.

5. I spent the late afternoon today putting Zaino's polishes on. It looks great (I'll have some pics tomorrow), and the products worked well. I had a little trouble with water still lurking in a seam or two, but the polishes didn't smear or streak. It helps to have a lot of towels.

6. Fuel economy is good, 29 mpg so far, but I've been very gentle, and it's mostly been interstates and other divided highways. That won't last. If I can believe the trip computer, the range is very good, about 450 miles, but I haven't emptied my first tank yet. If true, that's a nice bump up from my Civic, since I had about 350 miles between fillups with it.

7. The dealer (Rahal Acura, in Mechanicsburg, PA), was pretty good to work with. There was a glitch along the way (they mistakenly told me my car was in a month ago) but they made up for the inconvenience by throwing a few things in for free, and giving us a few gifts (tumblers, pens, keychains) on Saturday. The car was immaculately prepared and waiting for us. During the orientation, the salesman was having as much fun as I was, working the navi - the vast majority of the cars they get in there are non-navi.

8. No dumbstruck stares yet from the locals, but I've been out in the country for the most part. Now that I'm all Zainoed up, I'll cruise around the college town nearby, State College, in the next few days and see what attention I get. Out where I live, the latest Dodge Ram would get a lot more attention (James Carville once said that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh in the west, Philadelphia in the east, and Alabama in the middle).

I'll take some pics tomorrow, now that it's all nice and shiny, and put them up for you all to see. Thanks to all of you for being there on the other site and here, to help me with my decision, and keep me reasonably sane these last months. I learned so many things to watch out for at the dealer, look for in the car, and just get ready for in general. It was nice to have this place to come to, and I'll be posting more to help others, now that I have one to talk about!

rb4580

Congrats on your new TSX... Keep up posted on everything!

TSeniorX

Nice job with your first post Doctor V. It sounds like the looonng wait was worth it for you. We're all looking forward to the pictures, and whether your politics lie with James Carvelle or you're a Mary Maitlin fan, I know you're going to be proud to go head to head with all those Dodge Rams in Central PA!

finalheaven

Congrats

CraZydudE

where does it tell you what your tsx number is?

Jason

So what were those negatives Doc? Congrats on the car. Try not to pick up any co-ed honeys when you hit the college streets!

Brad

Wow, three months and one day!!! Congratulations!!! Now I don't feel quite so bad. I'm quickly approaching a 60-day wait. I'm awaiting a CG/Ebony 6MT, NoNavi.

adam fiooz

Very nice post.I enjoyed what he had to say good and bad.

Doctor V

The last digits of the VIN are the serial number. Mine ends in 0011287. There's a full guide to deciphering the VIN here. I'm not sure that link will work if you're not a member over there, though.

That deciphering was very useful to me last month, when the dealer gave me the VIN for a car that came in that supposedly was mine. I checked the VIN on a whim, and found their mistake.

Doctor V

I'll leave it up to my son (soon to be 13) to ogle the co-eds, although it wouldn't bother me at all to get a few interested stares from them at my shiny new car. After all, I'm a husband and father twice, but I'm not dead!

The negatives were the weak high beams (maybe they just seem washed out after the HIDs white color), a little bit of sharpness on road irregularities, and, I forgot to mention earlier, I can't easily play some CD-Rs when I burn them on my desk computer (although skipping to the second track and back works, as I learned in a thread here), but they seem to work perfectly when I do it on my laptop. I'll just burn them on my laptop, I guess. Oh, one more thing. The accelerator is touchy at low RPMs. It takes a gentle foot to avoid some surging or bucking.

lshenretty

Congratulations. I'm coming up on two months myself.

My wife's 328i has the xenon lights, and I think you're right. The lows are so bright that by comparison the high beams don't seem to provide enough light.

Doctor V

I just posted a few pictures, at the dealer and at home, over in the Gallery section.

rzee

Congrats!

I wish I have the time and patience to do the waxing myself. I just spend $100 yesterday to have my car detailed.

CraZydudE

Thx for the tip, now I know im number 6546 , and congratulation on getting your tsx

finalheaven

Yea i wish the car had bi-xenons, like bmws and mbs. Other then that you can try slowing down your burns on your pc, and are you using the same program on both? to burn them?

Doctor V

Itried slowing the burn down to 1X, and had the same result. Both computers use the same software (Mac OS X iTunes), but the desktop is a few years old, and uses a different CD/DVD drive. I'll stick to the laptop (PowerBook G4) for now. Thanks for the suggestion!