ram_g

I agree with the sentiment already expressed that Acura is the Japanese Audi. Both build beatiful, FWD or FWD-oriented-AWD cars that lose out to more directly performance oriented brands but offer tremendous competence and satisfaction for those who seek the road less trodden.

Here's a prediction - this is the niche that Lincoln will strive to get into as well - the American equivalent of Audi/Acura, leaving Cadillac to chase after BMW/Lexus.

In our case the wife used to drive an Audi A4 which we replaced with the RL. At some future point we may well have an Audi again.

William4

They *only* reason I picked the Acura RL over the Jeep SRT8 was the adaptive cruise control. About 90% of my "normal" driving is done in adaptive cruise control mode. The RL is such a slow pig it drives me nuts.

Mike_TX

No rocket sled, but not a boat anchor by any means. What are you used to driving - a Testarossa?

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neuronbob

The RL? Slow? Nah. It's never going to do a 12 second quarter mile, but this car's primary sin as far as its engine goes is the lack of low-end torque. Once you get into VTEC range, though, this is a different car.

ram_g

Wow...I wouldn't categorize the RL as "slow" and certainly not as a "pig".

William4

Maybe not, but it can't even break into the 14s. To be honest, at least to me, it doesn't even feel like it is breaking into the 15s.

The VTEC range seems like too little too late. This is - by far - the slowest 300hp car I've ever driven.

The RL is only my daily driver / beater car, so I don't really expect too much from it. It wasn't meant to be a substitute for any of my weekend fun cars. Still, you've got admit that the RL is slower than most of the cars that it competes with. I wish the aftermarket would provide some performance products for it, it really needs about another 100hp.

VOdoc

Hello? Can you say "global warming?" Future cars will all be about trading off performance versus economy. For those of those who lived through the gas crisis of the '70s, this is very predictable.

Really friends...we need to figure out how to move people more efficiently from place to place. (As a conservative Republican, I'd favor a crippling gas tax find out who is really serious about driving, and restore freeways to free flow by reducing volume by at least 20%.) There are now 6+ billion of us on Planet Earth, and there are resources to support perhaps half that many.

If there's some future chance of a fuel-cell conversion for my RL, I'd love it. Unfortunately, the laws of thermodynamics still apply, and there has to be some energy penalty for creating that hydrogen until we can do it via solar or nuclear energy.

plastikman

William4, honestly if you don't like the car so much, why don't you trade it in for something you like? I mean that sounds like the reasonable thing to do.

plastikman

I do understand that some people feel the need for speed, but I cant bring myself to ever buy an American car again. First off the quality is not great, the interiors leave a lot to be desired and the resale value is proven to be horrible. I will stick to Japanese and German cars ! I am just fine with what my RL offers, actually I am better then fine.

William4

For my daily driver I need adaptive cruise control and a fantastic navigation system. Despite being too slow for my taste, the RL is the only choice. No other company has a nav system that even compares. Hopefully the other car companies will start improving their nav systems, and hopefully Acura will start offering optional engines. William4 would be a happy camper.

William4

I tend to agree. I'd love to have a pure electric car. If the Tesla was a bit larger and had a roof I'd buy one.

neuronbob

So I take it you voted for a V8 option in the recent polls. It's OK, I did, too.

Even so, I fully understand why some folks have a fun weekend car and once I take care of my more important financial priorities, I suspect that's one way I could go.

dwboston

It looks like a lot more hybrids, diesels, and fuel cells are in our future. Congress is set to raise the national fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg by 2020. Cylinder deactivation technology is also mentioned as one possible solution for the automakers. In any event we'll all be paying $2k-$3k more for our cars.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/01/news...ion=2007120113

William4

If the car is a pure electric car then how do they determine it's gas mileage?

Mike_TX

Not sure I understand how someone can talk about "global warming" and "crippling tax" and call himself a "conservative Republican". But I guess it takes all kinds.

I personally consider global warming to be fake science that is increasingly coming unraveled as its proponents continue to be discredited. And we good conservatives don't believe in ANY kind of crippling tax.

Unfortunately, the libs in Congress have sold themselves to it and we may indeed have to go through the same old crap we suffered through in the 70's. If we go all the way backwards to a 55mph speed limit, though, I may just shoot myself in the head and get it over with.

In the meantime, though, notice that the automakers are turning out V-8's that get far better mileage than 6-cylinders got just a few years ago, and they're now doing it on regular gas. We have 4,000+-lb. cars with over 350hp getting 30mpg on the highway! Back in the 60's and 70's we were proud as peacocks if our cars got HALF that! And they polluted 50 times as much as today's cars.

I'd love to see Congress take some of the tax dollars they're wasting on welfare programs and build some friggin' roads! The population keeps growing, but no major roads have been built since shortly after the Eisenhower administration. The only way we're going to avoid gridlock is to build roads and/or increase the speed limits so people can get the heck out of the way instead of bogging down.

So, to the extent we keep going to little weenie engines and little weenie cars, we're doomed to slow-moving masses of irritated people eventually grinding to a halt. Not a pretty picture. Choking down traffic flow is not the answer, and penalizing people with high fuel taxes discriminates against those who can't pay.

[Where'd that soapbox smilie go? ]

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CL6

You'd spend $100,000 on an electric car..?

VOdoc

The polar ice caps are melting, temperatures are the highest in recorded history, CO2 levels are higher than ever, weather patterns are changing, and there was no snow in Aspen last week...but I'm willing to consider that global warming really is just an Al Gore conspiracy theory.

Call the "crippling tax" a user fee (see, I really am a conservative!) and use it to build and/or repair roads, rather than diverting it to welfare programs as we do here in California.

"Discriminates against those who can't pay"? Sounds pretty bleeding-heart to me, dear Mike! ;-) Perhaps folks who are strapped for cash could consider car-pooling, mass transit, living closer to work, or a Yaris.

I agree that V8 engine technology has improved hugely since my 1969 GTO and its 12 mpg. I probably would be interested in an RL with a V8 that gets better mileage than the current V6. There! You got me to say it.

CL6

The Earth used to be covered in ice so I guess things have warmed up in the last 10,000 years.

Here's an interesting fact as to what is the largest cause of global warming:



Putting it all together:Total human greenhouse gas contributions add up to about 0.28% of thegreenhouse effect.





http://mysite.verizon.net/mhieb/WVFo...ouse_data.html

William4

Yes I would, esp. if it was fast and/or had a super high-tech interior.

I've got my eye on the Fisker:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007...-and-quan.html

Mike_TX

Yeah, and patterns like this have come and gone for eons - ask any geologist. It's just natural fluctuations, and they happened long before Man even appeared on this planet. And just about 20 years ago, the "sky is falling" crowd was telling us to brace ourselves for a coming ice age. Remember that? It was on the cover of Time Magazine and every newspaper in the country. No, sadly the global warming thing has gone beyond Al Gore - he's just the Al Sharpton of the cause.

You missed the sarcasm of my "bleeding heart" comment. The Liberals always scream discrimination and "poor affected most" when taxes they don't like are offered up, so they'd never let that happen.

For those who DO believe in global warming, look at it this way ... with the year-round summer, we'll be able to get in two extra crops of corn to make ethanol with.

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neuronbob

Sounds like a political party slug-fest in here (who's the most conservative or progressive, etc, etc.). Reminds me of why I'm not in politics.

Keep on topic, please, and the political stuff belongs in our Politics and Religion forum.

Mike_TX

Guilty as charged, I guess.

But while politically-oriented, it actually does relate to the whole "what car would we want" discussion topic, since politics is increasingly shaping the future of the automotive landscape. As such, it's hard to separate it from the debate.

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black label

If this keeps up you'll need to get Mr. Steve over here so we can see his avatar.

I want a turbo diesel RL that I can convert to run on used veggie oil

Mike_TX

Heck, why not a turbojet you can run on kerosene?

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black label

^^^
'cause the mileage sux.

I'm serious about my veggie car, I just don't know whether I want to be high class in a Benz or Ghetto in a Rabbit.

revit

550i definitely