jiujutsu

Ok, I've been lurking since I bought it at the end of October. 05 SSM 6spd non nav. Leased.

At first, I was pissed that I didn’t get the navigation. I read all of the posts of guys who swear by their nav, and being BRAND NEW to CA from NY, I should've got it. In it's place I went out and bought the TOMTOM 700 (wow). Tinted the windows, plan to debadge, and turn into Honda Euro-r look a-like.

Well it’s been a couple of months and my impressions are good. Good power, very tight feel, pretty good mpg, great looks, great stereo (just renewed my XM for the year @ $77 thanks to this board!!) love the fit and finish [read: Honda].

A couple of quibbles: A little tight in the back for the car seat, tires lack grip, clutch has a spongy feel on the up-take, squeaky moon-roof, again... I was pissed I didn't spring for the nav (more on that later), lots of wheel gap.
Why can't I rev the thing to redline? I wanted to hear the motor and when I went to rev it, it only went to approx 4500rpm then cut back down like I was hitting a soft-rev limiter or something. The car will pull all the way to redline while driving (fun), but not from a standstill. How do mags test the 0-60 times? Don't they usually drop the clutch at optimal (balance between bogging and spinning) rpm?

I raced a Hemi Charger (05) the other day, [wife and kid at home, don't worry] and while I knew I wasn’t gonna win, I wanted to really get on it once and for all. Well, after a pretty good launch [didn’t really pay attention to the aforementioned soft-rev limiter] we were neck and neck until I hit second. Then nothing, the car fell flat on its face. I guess the rpm's dropped too low and by the time the revs got to 5k rpm, he was gone...GONE. So I'm not too happy about the gearing. But how often am I gonna race the thing?....pretty much never.

Drive-by-wire: Not really a big fan yet, I like to match revs on down-shifts and I've been doing it for 11 years with my now-gone 94 Accord ex and motorcycle (RC51) and I just cant seem to get smooth down OR up shifts. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not bucking like a bronco, its just not as smooth as I would like...yet.

So I bring the car into South Bay Acura in Torrance CA (310.539.4892) to look at the aforementioned moon roof, clutch, and to replace a blown fuse disabling my accessory sockets. First thing, I had a GREAT experience with them. I parked, someone took my car, I was seated with my service rep, and my loaner car was just cleaned and gassed up waiting for me.

Ok the loaner car: 05 black 5at WITH nav. WOW!!! black is awesome, but in socal I don’t think I can afford the car-wash payments. So I'm glad I got the SSM.
AT: not really a big fan, I like to row my own so no AT is really gonna light my fire except maybe an 05 M3 I recently drove with SMG (awesome), but 75k is a little out of my price point.
Nav: here goes...I'm soooo glad I DIDN'T buy the nav. I was very unimpressed. I didn’t like the way it looked like a computer screen from..1972. The text was slightly fuzzy, and it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I found myself looking at the screen instead of the road trying to find out how to lower the fan. Now I know with a little more time it would've been easier but first impressions were not that great. I am basing my comparisons to the TomTom I just bought. The Go 700 has an awesome 3D view, multiple voices, blue tooth, real-time traffic, and very intuitive operation and although I cannot speak to it, I can take it from car to car.

So after 2 months of pouting because I didn’t have the nav, I was now smiling and couldn't wait to get my baby back. So after all this the consensus is this:

I LOVE MY TSX!!!! Gonna get the Honda stuff (grille, front lip, badges) and make it a little more personalized, but no suspension, so power additives...remember: Lease. Thanks for reading and glad to me a member!!!

GIBSON6594

Glad to have you here, welcome to the forum and congrats on the TSX

CJams

Welcome! Didn't read it all, but did you debadge a leased vehicle? I suggest not doing too much to it since you have to give it back. But it's gotta be hard to drive a stock one.

fdl

Good review. I hear ya about the 1-2 shift/gearing. We had a long thread on this subject back when the tsx first came out. I'm not too happy with the 6th gear gearing as well.

waTSX

Welcome to the site. Not sure of what to make not being able to rev to redline. With the six speed, it should be a no-brainer.

LoveMyTL-S

Welcome to AZ Nice review.

GIBSON6594

Honda put in a governer that prevents the car from reving past 4500 rpms when the car is not in motion. Honda has a reliability reputation to uphold.

All TSX's have it, don't worry

SSN_FT1(SS/DV)

I'm pretty sure there is a soft rev-limiter at 4500RPM while the car is idle...I have a 6MT and can't rev it at idle. I remember there being a thread about this awhile back.


EDIT: DAMN...beat me to it Welcome aboard

Newplay1

No suspension? omg own'd...

At least new rubber + rsb + pro-kit.

jiujutsu

thanks for the warm welcome guys.
I figure with just debadging and getting the honda grille and front lip these are things i can easily put back to stock when i have to turn it in. Then i could probably sell the parts on ebay or something.
no suspension, even though i REALLY want to. but with my wife and kid in tow 95% of the time...is it worth it?
thanks again

moda_way

Well, I dropped mine and I take my son to and from daycare everyday with a Comptech Exhaust blaring. He seems to enjoy it at almost 17 mths old.