Man, I am terrible for doing this. I sorta promised my source that I wouldn't mention this, but you guys deserve it. My source is an Acura employee that was just at their managment meeting.

So, here it is....

Drumroll please.....

There will be a special send-off to celebrate the retirement of the incredibly successful TL.

Available around September/October there will be a limited number of TLS 6-speeds made available to the public to put the TL to rest.

I know you all will flame, and none of us can be sure of this until it really happens, but my friend doesn't lie, so if the info. they gave him was indeed correct, than this will happen. Talk about a rare car.

I hope this is a new trend for Acura. If the TLS does go stick then every Acura except for the RL will have been available with a manual.

 

WTH? Was the TL doing that poorly?

 

Huh?

 

Very cool if its true, but I'll believe it when I see it!

I don't know why they'd make a '03 TL 6-speed in September tho when its already been more or less confirmed that the '04 TL will come optional with a 6-speed.

 

When/where has this been confirmed?

Who knows. Maybe this is what they were talking about.

It did seem a bit late to introduce the 03 with a manual when the 04 was slated to come out in the fall.

I guess we'll see. Just to confirm, though, he did say it was the current model and I asked him this question specifically.

It would make sense if the 04 was not coming out with the manual.

 

The photographer of the spyshots on ClubTSX.com said that the cars he took shots of were manual transmission cars. The preview video for the '04 TL concept unveiling had little funny previews, with "old rich" people and stuff like "Convinced VTEC is traded on the NAQDAQ", and "Thinks a clutch is a type of handbag" <--- CLUTCH!

Also a lot of the people who claim to have leaked specs keep saying 6-speed... I don't know if its true or not, but there seems to be a lot of evidence pointing to it. That and the fact that the competition for the TL (Maxima, G35 Sedan, BMW 3 Series) ... All come with manual options makes me think that the 6-speed on the new TL (especially since Acura reps have said its more "performance oriented") will have a 6-speed. The surprise will be if the '04 TL has a SMG-like option too. (Not SportShift, I mean a real SMG type transmission with no torque converter).

 

I thought it was true.....guess I was right.......http://acura-tl.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56572

 

Its all worthless to me becasue its still going to be FWD... Im still waiting to get an STI at MSRP

 

Highly unlikely. Re-tooling a production line is an expensive task, even though the Honda manufacturing system is very flexible. If there were a 6-sp manual TL-S , it would have shown up early in the model year, not a couple of months before being replaced.

Now people all talked about 6-speed transmission. It could well be a 6-sp auto box instead of a 6-sp manual box. Can someone please verify ?

 

Tell your source to quit dozing off in those meetings and start paying attention . You're playing with a lot of people's emotions here.

 

y they gettin rid of the TL that sux i know they r a good seller man everything that is good is always gettin takin off the market man it happens at Taco Bell all the time......Damn

 

It wouldn't be too difficult, I don't think. They will probably already have the drivetrains, perhaps from CLs that will never make it to the showroom floor.


Like I said, my friend wouldn't lie. All I know is that he told me what he heard--we'll see if that is right or wrong eventually.

I wouldn't be too surprised if they finished out the year with the 03 and then introduced the 04 early in the 04 model year.

 

They're not getting rid of the TL. They're redesigning the TL. The 2004 TL will be an all new TL based off of the new 03+ Accord platform.

Honda has a 5 year cycle for their car designs (at least for the TL and Accord). Its time for the TL to be updated!

There are a lot of new features that will be built into the new TL I'm sure, for one Voice Activated NAVI!

 

Its already been 100% confirmed that the all new 2004 TL will be released in the September time frame. Most 2004 models come out in the spring of 2003 or fall of 2003 ... Acura would lose tons of sales trying to sell a 2003 model in the fall when everyone else is already selling a 2004 model. Yes some people really are that dumb.

 

It would be very easy to put the 6sp manual from the CLS in the TLS. They are nearly identical cars aside from the body. Thus all the parts should be interchangeable. Seeing as they are retiring the entire CL line this year and a complete redesign for the TL, why not get rid of all the parts while you're at it.

 

maybe honda just realized there re-designed 3rd gear clutch packs for the 5 speed still suck...so instead of buuilding defective cars....there just gonna do the right thing put the six speed in the cars they have left to build

 

it would make absolutely no sense for them to release a six speed tl in the current bodystyle unless they are trying to get rid of the leftover cl-s six speed trannys now that its going to be discontinued. and that would only be true if the new tl will use a different 6 speed tranny than the current CL which would also make no sense especially for honda who loves to use the same parts in multiple platforms

 

why would they have made MORE CL-6 tranny's (besides the ones reserved for recalls/dealer requests) ??

Supply = demand = #of CL-S chassis built .. they wouldn't have made 1000 more tranny's than the amount of total 6-spd CL-S's that were to be built....

 

i dont know why they would have more maybe they panicked in the wake of all the 5AT tranny failures and stocked up so they didnt have to make customers wait so long for new trannys after failures





is the same tranny from the cl in the new six speed accord?

 

BULLSH!T

there would be way too many changes needed to convert a tl to a cl interior in order to accomodate the 6-speed.

the whole console is different, they'd have to change the e-brake, etc. etc. etc.

would make absolutely no sense on a limited production vehicle, especially one like the tl which had no sales problems to begin with.

 

yea it would be nice but i doubt it it would be almost like w chevy did in 99 when they re did the suberban 00 was what the current models look like but they had some 99 left overs so the put pushbars on it and changed the rims and said it was special edition

 

If you think carefully, the 6-spd manual CL-S's are produced in limited numbers, and Honda manufacturing is using a just-in-time delivery system. This is one of the major reason why Honda and most Japanese car companies can produce a car at the least production cost, because there are no excess parts being put on the shelves. So I don't think there will be any 6-spd manual parts to get rid of, in terms of dumping them in the TL-S.

If you ask someone who works in an auto assembly line, he will tell you that setting up any branch out (such as 6-spd manual option) from the standard production procedures involves expensive re-tooling, line slowing or even stopping, and revised robot programming. All these cost money. Unless Honda can price the "6-spd manual TL-S" in the same range as the limited production NSX, it makes absolutely no sense to do such a stupid act.

If Honda is to boost up the total sales of the model-year-end TL/TL-S, it would dump lots of special features, special emblems, and rebates into the auto TL/TL-S, not to release a manual model which appeals only to a comparatively small percentage of buyers.

 

I second that explanation.

 

Amen, does that mean we should request a lock on this thread?

 

I dont know, They released a A-Spec for Canadian Market.. They might just release 6-Spec For US Market.. HAHA 6-Spec

 

yea def cuase we live in the us we got locked out of the a spec give us somethin that is exclusive to the us only fair

 

you guys already have the navi exclusive to US and not available in Canada.

 

Usually expensive, but not in this case. Are you forgetting that the CL/CL-S is structurally and componentally identical to the TL/TL-S? And it's offered with a stick. It won't be that hard. Acura already has the transmision, and the necessary mounting hardware, which fits on the CL, and will most definitely work on the TL. They would just have to make a new gear gate cover for the center console.


As for the next generation TL, it'll be offered with a 6-speed MANUAL transmission. As for the auto, who knows if they will keep the 5-speed or move up to a sixer?

 

It would be way too evpensive, they would have to certify the whole package with epa & dot, each drivetrain variation has to be crashtested thats the reason BMW & Benz offer so many more power train options in Europe than we get. Acura is not gonna go through all that red tape for such a small run.

 

ditto.