Wow, seemed to have a lot of inaccuracies. Some praise but lots of negatives too.
Said that the 07 interior controls were improved over the 05? that just about sums up the reviewers knowledge of the car.

FULL REVIEW 07 RL CNET

 

Thanks for posting the link to the CNET article. Is there any truth in its generalized description of RL owners:

"But the 2007 Acura RL fits a certain type of buyer, a person who finds themselves making more money than they ever expected, yet would feel uncomfortable in something ostentatiously luxurious or powerful. The RL fits well with IT professionals and technology executives with humble aspirations who still need to commute into work every day and aren't going to race around mountain roads on the weekends."

Interesting observation ... but probably inaccurate by most accounts.

 

This is a good example of how subjective these reviews are based on the writer. Cnet gave a very favorable review of the RL in 05. In some ways they gushed.

Same car, two years later, it is bland, boring and not luxurious? While the RL may not have had major content additions and understandably the ante is upped when each new cometitor model is released. But how could an apple in 05 be so good and an apple today be not so good? Same car, different opinions from the same source.

Sounds like Cnet flip flops to meet the expectations of other press?

 

Another useless car review.

 

I think both TampaRL and Rob have hit the nail on the head.

The RL was the king of the tech block for about a year after it was released, then its features led others to release cars with similar content. That, in combination with the drop in sales of $50k cars in general and Acura's lack of marketing, doomed the RL to monthly sub-1k sales in subsequent years. It also led to more lackluster reviews than at the beginning because the RL was no longer fresh, and the HP race and cylinder envy continue in the $40-50k car market.

As we have learned, that is simply the way of the world and we await Acura's releasing another RL. Maybe this time the designers in Cali will make US-only sheetmetal, with features we have asked for here on this board, and perhaps Acura will market that. We will see in 2009.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my RL. In fact, I'm driving in to work in a few minutes as I'm on call.

 

Regardless of the press, I still think the RL is the best kept secret for it's price point especially with the discounts. It's more a driver's car than many of it's competitors (especially with a few mods).

 

Bad gas mileage? That reviewer must own GM or Ford stock. I just got 30.2 mpg (average speed 62 mph including stops) on 800 mile trip to and from Pittsburgh. Of course, that was tempered by no more than 68 mph in Ohio. There were police from every possible jurisdiction every few miles. I hate Ohio!!! It's the only place where I have been stopped in 45 years of driving. I got a "warning" for going 58 on I-70 27 years ago during the first OPEC rear ending.

 

as what my 8 yr old cousin would say:

"Cnet reviewers are a bunch of poo-poo heads".

 

Their employees can't even figure out how to read a map... who cares what they think about cars!

 

They sure used a lot of words to not say very much. Besides getting some information plain wrong, it seems ridiculous to compare single elements of other cars (some of which aren't even competitors) to say the RL is lagging.

The concept behind the RL (and most Honda products) is to bring together the best of many features for an overall well-rounded package. When it does so much, so well, nothing will stand out to the casual reviewer.

Rob144