wallyo

I've had my 2018 Hybrid for two months (and 1200 miles), and am enjoying it a lot. If I had a single disappointment in the vehicle dynamics, it was the looseness and slight inaccuracy of the steering on-center, which produced some slightly squirrely behavior both at low speeds on city streets and on the highway at speed. The steering wheel was also slightly off to the right on level pavement, maybe five or 10 degrees. I attributed all of this to the electric assist and the rather numb and loose on-center feel that a lot of electric assists provide. But it turns out the alignment was seriously out. For those interested in technical details: the toe adjustments were as follows (with the corrected alignment in parentheses). Front left -0.08 (-0.02), front right +0.05 (-0.02), rear left +0.19 (+0.16), rear right +0.03 (+0.18) . Caster and camber were also significantly corrected in the new alignment.

The difference with this new alignment (which the dealer did under warranty without my even asking, even though I'd changed out the tires), is very dramatic. The car tracks perfectly at low and high speeds, among the best I've ever driven, including a lot of BMWs and Mini Coopers. The feel is now tight and accurate (even in comfort or normal mode), a real transformation. As the car felt squirrely right from the beginning, I can only conclude that the factory didn't take the time for a careful alignment, which I've seen on a lot of new cars. I'd guess this will hurt Acura in the long run, as the corrected alignment is providing a dramatically better and lower-workload dynamic experience.