lnthga

I have a question which I hope somebody who, unlike me, knows something about cars can answer. Why is it that Hondas and Acuras seem to have such large turning circles? My CL has around a 39 foot turning circle and I believe other Acuras and the Accord has a similar turning circle. I know my wife's Passat has a much smaller (around 36') circle and the Camry is similar (BMW, MB, and European cars seem to have smaller turning circles).

I would guess that Honda/Acura aims for a suburban American market where the turning circle isn't an issue while the German cars, designed for the European market need to be more maneuverable.

Another question (aside from the obvious one of "is this true or just something I've imagined") is: what would Honda/Acura have to sacrifice to get a tighter turning circle? Surely it's not just bad engineering which makes my CL such a cow to park.

SuperTrooper169

iTrader: (2)

My 04 Civic Si had a worse turning radius than a 72 Cadillac. It was horrible. My CL-S didn't seem too bad though.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

I've noticed it. The CL does have a large one. My guess would be FWD vs RWD. Since all the RWD cars I've driven have short ones. But that's not universal cause I've rented FWD cars that were short.

JohnBlayz142

I agree. There are exceptions, but for the most part RWD have smaller radiuses than FWD cars. I used to valet and first made that observation back then.

Cocoa

iTrader: (2)

The reason why the turning radius on FWD platforms aren't as great as the RWD platforms, is simply because we can extend the axle only so far. There is nothing else to it than that.

BENDER08

i loved my audi a4 awd ,bmw 328,vw golf, the turning radius was awesome i could do a u turn almost anywhere the tl is horrible i have to do a 4-7 point turn sometimes when i drove my friends cl it seemed the same.

mrsteve

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