krnboy817

Just purchased a 2012 left over TSX wagon from Vandergriff Acura in DFW. Got lucky since the white is the only color i was considering to purchase... but with the black interior i was willing to work with the black if needed.

i took a couple of pics of the TSX i took tonight and also gave a little comparison with my other vehicles in the garage at the moment since i basically paid no more than $25k for each of them... yes even the TSX.



Full rear shot with the diffuser. i didnt expect the diffuser to be painted black with "pearl" effect instead of matte plastic but as i was taking these shots i realized it and was ver surprised and liked it.



Headlights are pretty bright for its projector size. i knew a lot of people want the tsx projectors when it comes to doing a retro and finally saw why they would. i think these are brighter when even compared to my previous cars Mercs w203, BMW e92-e90, Mazda3, Audi A3, VW touareg.



straight shot



Headlights



orange reflectors do mess it up... but thinking about leaving them in for now... and glad acura brought the black housing in gen2 i personally like the black housing much better



Here is a shot of my 2012 subaru outback headlights. much much bigger than TSX and chromed out but not as bright or effective as the tsx headlights in my opinion.



Here is the rear shot of the two side by side. Subbie is much taller and higher but about same width and length overall. Subbie has better hatch opening (wider opening) but harder to load since it sits higher off the ground. Subbie is also easier to get in and out since you do not have to bend your back or anything either compared to the TSX.



rear quarter view of the two



rear quarter view of my other... the Mazda CX-5. Almost tall as the Subbie but much higher green house and narrower overall with heck of a lot shorter car overall length compared to TSX and Outback.



The TSX key fob... the worst key fob i have had out of 12 cars i have had thus far. Audi/VW wanna be but flimsy and cheap feeling... too light in weight... button feels cheap when pressed... material overall just lacks in quality. and too thin.



TSX interior with tan leather seats. i prefer these over the black and the SE seats... but leather feels thin compared to the gen1 seats... idk perhaps its just me. until i took these i didnt know the steering wheels lit up green... just looked white when i was driving. steering wheel leather feels the best by being smoothest leather i have tried... definitely opposite of my previous BMW leather



Interior shot of the CX-5. i really like the looks and design. super easy to reach everything while driving and super simple compared to the TSX. just wish i got the leather wheels and interior space feels bit smaller than TSX and definitely smaller than the outback.



The top of the dash is an amazing soft touch material... something you definitely should feel. TSX dash top just cant even compare to the CX-5 dash top because TSX feel like a compressed styrofoam and CX-5 feels like a one solid piece of soft high quality rubber. (hard to explain)



TSX



TSX gauges close to the quality and design of the Mercs... but for some reason Merc's floating gauges are definitely sharper looking and functions smoother, brighter and sharper and less hurting to the eyes at night. Definitely beats the BMW e92 red gauges but wish it was easy to read as they were





not bad... i personally prefer the blue over the SE red.



CX-5 gauges for comparison... less complicated easier to read and better info screen with less button pushing or scrolling than TSX.



Push button keyless start and entry... something we all know TSX is missing as a standard option.



CX-5 center stack... bare... and very spartan... lacking.



TSX center stack... nice and love it. dont know why people complain about too many button issue. it only takes 5 min to get used to them... if not less.





ELS... dont know why people pay $6K for B&O. this is just as good imo... by far the best i have heard and tried. HK in BMW cant even be compared.



TSX screen is much better than IDRIVE and Merc's COMAND... less content but all you will ever need unlike the other two i have mentioned. HDD i really dont know why thats going away in cars... because i really prefer them over pluggin stuff and USB.



As far as Driver seat goes... its comfortable and wide... not too stuffy or narrow. good for long hauls. just wish there was a 3rd button like most these days. Lastly, the key fob again... oh well i guess i can get use to it.

More to come. as the build begins.

WheelMcCoy

Pretty. And I like that you include other vehicles for a little comparison. I almost got a CX-5, but went with a TSX Wagon.

mykey06

Congratulations! $25K for TSX is a great deal. A few dealers still have the 2012s (here in Cali anyways). I have the exact same color.

krnboy817

CX-5 was picked up a week after launch date so it was probably marked up a bit. its a good confortable car but bit small and TSX would be the better choice for the price. the new 2013 have 2.5 189HP 180TQ for same price so that almost made me get another one too instead of this TSX.

krnboy817

awesome!! personally i think white seems to suit this car very well... its the only color i would consider purchasing honestly...

krnboy817

Alright, so i bought this leather care cream that looks like women's make up in korea when i was there just 3 weeks ago. amongst the pretty ricer KDM products, this was the one thing that i was curious about and thought it would be worth spending my $25 on. been dying to try it out and my wife wouldnt let me try it out on her hand bags so i had to wait until i got a car. now that i bought one... here we go lets see what its like.

info: bullsone leather carejam

??? ??????? (google translate the page if you cant read korean)

ill post pics later once applied.

Puppetmaster

Great pictures and congrats on the new purchase. This is now the 2nd fire-sale price for a TSX wagon that I've heard, and it makes me contemplate trading in my 2011 Base for a 2012/2013 Tech if prices really are that low.

terdonal

Congrats, nice stable of cars and nice comparo comments and pics.

iSeeYouTwo

Thanks for the detailed review. Made me finally realize all of the differences in the center stack compared to my '09. Sweet pics!

SlowLane

Congratulations. Thanks for the pics and comparison.

krnboy817

thanks guys for all the comments. hopefully ill do some more comparison with few other vehicles. because i was really torn between 4 other cars before ending up on TSX unexpectedly.

as to the fire sale... well i never buy brand new off the back when it comes to cars... even the CX-5 was a demo with 6 miles. the TSX on the other hand i think i got lucky or was meant to be mine and ended up getting a good deal on it. it was priced out at $31,520 + TTL but offered $25K since it had 3012k miles and i also asked to be certified. sales rep came in and said ok off the back with 8.9 APR and i said 4.9 with 0 down. 5 min later signed.

there is one more exactly like the one i have at the dealership i bought it from but with 6k miles and certified if anyone is interested or is wanting to getting into one under $27k OTD.

savclaude

cars look great, what camera was used to take the pics?

xxpnoiboi03xx

Lol, i was about to ask the same thing.

krnboy817

Nikon D7000 with 18 -105 mm 3.5 - 5.6f ( 67mm DX lens )

krnboy817

Alright so i tried out the leather cleaner i have mentioned earlier... and it turns out that i cannot really tell the difference using the product on my tan leather seats. what i can tell is that its heck of a lot softer now especially on the shift knob and steering wheel.

so i wanted to try it out on an old black leather and found my wife's shoes that are about 3 yrs old. this is what it did... before on the left and after on the right.

pretty satisfied with the result and probably going to use this as a conditioner more than a cleaner on "touched every day" kind of spots.



Wife being happy as well with her shoes now, decided to go out for dinner all nice and happy.



then my wife found out that someone rubbed out on the side of the TSX and i was pretty (really) upset so decided to detail the whole thing to see if it would buff out. its only been 2 days since i detailed it last but oh well its worth a try.



realize i ran out of clay after getting home so found my liquid clay sample i got in the garage and decided to give it a shot. washed the car with soap then rinse and spray the clay and work it with the microfiber.



cant really tell but most of it rubbed off thankfully and im pretty happy with the result... still upset that it happened but it could be worse i guess.



works really well if bugs and bird drops too



then decided to do the whole car while i am at it.

718Tsx

beautiful shots D;

odus

iTrader: (1)

nice why did acura make the steering wheel light up green so random and dumb i like my white on my 09. white wagon is nice i would get that if i could but need black interior. all ready had a pearl white car with tan and ivory interior.

ed_423

those are some pretty nice shots man!

krnboy817

how was your experience? bad? im kind of worried about my dark denim rubbing off dye on to the seats... perhaps im just paranoid.

iSeeYouTwo

Really? Because I drive an 09 and my steering wheel lights up green as well....

odus

iTrader: (1)

holy crap this whole time i thought mine were white need to get my eyes checked. also i tried looking into this demo car not around me and I called louisville kentucky were my parents are they had a white tech demo with 3k on it and quoted that 31k for it and i offered 25k got told not in a million years.

888PTA

Nice pics, i really like the wagons, unfortunately AUS do not sell them

krnboy817

not sure about the dealer in kentucky but the dealer i purchased it from had 2 white 2012s on the lot. both were optioned out exactly same and priced the same.

to sum it up...

the other one besides the one i purchased had 6k miles and was already certified as far as the difference goes but everything else same according to their webpage inventory listing. when i was actually up at the dealership the next day (2hrs before closing... not on purpose) asking for the specific cars i wanted to look at and knew what i wanted they didnt bother me with trying to sell me anything else and brought the 2 up front.

i made sure it was the ones i saw online and wanted to get about $2k off the price ($31,520). but before telling the sales rep what i wanted i just showed dislike in the price and just talked a bit and the sales rep knew i was going to walk away and purchase the other car i had in mind which was volvo s60 premium plus for $28,000 +TTL. he asked his manager and came back and asked if they can run my credit score and see if i even qualify to talk further in the deal. so i said ok and 10 min later they came back and told me they would give me a internet price which is $25,990 at 9.7% for 72.

i said NO WAY and told them ill keep the price and bring me 4.9% as highest then we got something to talk about... plus i gave them my credit union account number for them to call as well just in case if they can work something out with them. 20min later the sales rep came back and told me that i previously have history with BMW at 4.9% with $7k down so we will go with the same but with $2k down. so i said 0 down and $25,990 for 72months and certified it.

5 min later i was done.

krnboy817

So last night after the wash i left the sealer on the car over night and this afternoon after lunch it was warm so i decided to continue the job.



so this is the liquid clay i used last night. it was my first time trying it out but im satisfied with the results. 90% of the regular clay results with out the time consumption which isnt bad at all. plus it was a free sample.



so i think its really important to seal and glaze the paint after claying and i think this product is pretty good for the money. i know you can go crazy on these products but i try to stay under $15 per product... and this seems to work the best so far.



so i use a polymer wax over the carnauba since the sunlight strength and the heat would just dissipate carnauba based waxes. yes polymer is same as well but seems like it tends to lasts longer... plus it doesnt dry out in the winter as easy in the garage and easier to work with in any season.



so after waxing i leave it on for about 15 min then wipe off. some of it comes off easily but some dont. instead of wiping it harder or forcing it, i just spay a bit of quick wax to loosen it up and wipe. this is really good when working on the hood area.



then i use a paint brush and quick wax to get in the edges and badges and taillights to get any wax left out.













then after all the work... i decided that i want to de-badge the boot lid... took me a bit with the dental floss because i didnt heat the badges up before taking it off. had to use a lot of 91% alcohol to get it off which i hate using on the paint. so far paint seems to be ok and came out clean enough.

krnboy817

Finally got my bulbs in in the mail. I purchased these off of ebay because i totally forgot the vendor i usually purchased nokya bulbs for my previous cars. anyways, its in and about to be installed.



so i wasnt totally satisfied with the packaging and this being my third set of bulbs i have purchased through out... the packaging threw me off and i compared it to my older H8 bulbs i purchased from a vendor. its been about 2.5 yrs since i bought these so packaging might have changed but still... feels like i got the fakes.



the new one doesnt even have a authentication sticker... yeah i know its just something someone can just copy... but the new one doesnt even come in a hard case and just plastic flimsy packaging.



easy mod... just unclip... turn right... pull out carefully. then slide in the new ones match the grooves and the shape of the bulbs and then press and twist to lock in the bulbs.



passenger side... the coolant reservoir slides out of the clip its held at and clips right back in when done switching the bulbs.



here are the results. Nokya 2500k hyper yellow H11 DRL mode

krnboy817

so i just got my tint done on the tsx... fellow member gave me a heads up to a pretty good installer for a pretty good price.

Tint film: 3M Ceramic (no interference)
Installer: Dallas window tint in garland
Grade: 32% (state dot ray gun shows 25% which is TX limit)

fronts: in sun light rear: light shade hatch: well shaded



up close. looks lighter in the sun and with the tan interior



back hatch



reflection



interior light with the tint



naked view and view through tint



low light

savclaude

damn some real photo skills, the wag looks awesome man

01Blacuras

Photo skills are sick! I just bought a cannon along with a new tsx so im trying to take nice pics but they arent as good as yours! haha Keep up the good work man

MC MiYoung3269

Welcome to the forums~ Awesome deal you go on the wagon and hooray for more Texans lol

Nice pics as well They really shows how crap my 18-105 has gotten over the past 3 1/2 years lol

I swear the TSX didn't have Taupe interior with BWP... maybe that was just the sedan... This is was the color combo I was looking for

odus

iTrader: (1)

wagon only gets taupe interior sedan can have either black or taupe sucks cause i would love a white wagon with ebony inside.

MC MiYoung3269

lol I have BWP and Ebony... wanted Taupe
Tan doesn't look right so I was like fuck that

krnboy817

i really didnt have a choice in color... the two choices i had were the exact same car one with 6k miles and one with out.

at first i didnt want the light color interior but after living with it for a bit i think im done with black interiors i used to prefer.

last car was black on black and doesnt do too well in tx summer.

VortexBlueTSX

You sir, take amazing pictures! Congrats on the purchase

opboarding

Where in Texas are you?

Edit: I see you are somewhere near garland!

krnboy817

no im about 1.5 hrs away from garland... i just got my tint there since i was out near 75 central that day anyways.

im located in fort worth near I20 and hwy 377.

opboarding

Oh yeah I remember seeing your post now on the regionals thread. That is really far from me However, I sometimes visit my friend in downtown fort worth so maybe some time you, trentimus, and I could meet up.

krnboy817

yeah for sure... on the weekends my wife "needs" to go to dallas so we are near around 75 central when we do so if that works out at times we can do that too.

krnboy817

its been about 5 days or so since i got the Nokya hyper yellow 2500k bulbs placed in as DRL and highbeam but im not satisfied. the color of yellowness is the same as day 1 and i usually experienced with them getting yellower to a certain point after few days of usage.

may be its the bulb size or the type... the difference between H8 and H11...????

well here is the comparison with my BMW e92 on its DRL rings.





the tsx