csmeance

hey guys, got an 07 tl today and i thought i should share my inital thoughts on it.
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When i got in the car, the first thing that caught my eyes was the guage cluster. It looked a whiteish/silver color when off, but when turned on, it looked really good. The MID was much easier to navigate from the buttons on the steering-wheel rather than the buttons on the dash in my 04. The steering wheel, i love, but the spot where the Type-s logo should be located whas filled with a black painted plastic cover, which really disappointed me. The drive is the same as my 04, exepct it feels like it has less power when in fist gear due to the reflash ECU instated in TL's 06+

I will cover more in a few hours as i have to go out now.

blazinginder

Great pic...are you keeping both or is the old one "leaving"

The fog lamps, bigger grill, updated lights and mirrors make the 07 look sleeker and more appealing

csmeance

never...keeping the 04, have to give back the 07 on thursday... its a rental. I got it for my MDX since its getting some work done at the dealership. I musta fooled you guys that i got an 07 tl .

blazinginder

haha you coulda fooled me...is it the NEW MDX or 1st gen.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

damn - i was thinking this is one lucky dude to have two TL's. thanks for taking the time for the pics and the write up. i didn't realize that the regular 07's front grill was slightly more pronounced than on the 04-06.

csmeance

further review:
At first glance when i looked at the gear shifter, i i started feeling disappointed. The beautiful carbon fiber was replaced by some cheaper, uglier black wood on an ebony interior. Awfully, i looked around and behold, the doors had the same trim. While looking around, i saw that the headrests look a little different, and when compared to the 04 ones i have, they were smaller in height and had less definition to them. I looked at the silver trim as well, and it was almost the same as the 04 TL, except it had a rougher feel to it, on closer inspection, i realized that it was due to a design change that made it look it had more 3D groves/finish. when i shifted it into reverse, i felt better know that i was in an acura as the 07 had a back-up camera. Reversing out of the garage, the The gas and the brakes felt the same, touchy. When i pulled out into the street, the navi prompted for an ok button, which i gave (read the sig for the 04). I looked at the navi screen and it had loaded the map and area i was in fairly quickly. I pushed the audio knob and the screen greeted me with a new redone layout which was full of more bells and whistles. I browsed though and saw the dollby option along with speed control sound. The XM radio sounded a bit lower in volume though, but it was still crisp and clear like in my 04 TL. While driving, i noticed the speed control volume kicking in and on medium setting, it wasn't blaring loud nor whisper silent, but perfect. While driving, i felt a little bored so i threw it into sport-shift, which amused me. Then while starting from the stoplight, i couldn't go fast and the car was hitting redline, i quickly shifted up and saw the RPM guage displayed second gear. It suddenly hit me then that the 07 TL did not shift out of first gear, which i loved. I soon arived at my destination and then took a look around.

csmeance

NEW 07, my 06 was taken back by Honda due to being a lemon. It had just a few rattles and needed some accessories installed.

csmeance

thank you for the aprreciation. for members, now you can see the diffrence between ASM and SSM, ASM is the right, SSM is the left

csmeance

EXTERIOR
when i came back home, i looked at the exterior of the TL. The TL had the same fit and finish as the 04 TL's had. The bumper still had the infamous mismatch due to the flex agent. Also the paint was the same, easily marred. The bumper still did not fit as it should with uneven gaps on the rear, but from 3 feet away, it was not noticeable. The new rims, i really liked and i thought that they gave a more sport look to the TL. The front bumper i liked, the bottom of it had a different shape which gave it a lower, sleeker look that made it look like it had a half-aspec front bumper. On closer inspection of the front, the DRL's looked like crap. The reflective divider looked like some teenager quickly bondoed and painted a retrofit job. On a side note, i then realized that the base TL's had the full reflector while the type-s has the half reflectors for the turn signal. After the front, i moved to the doors where i noticed the euro-blinkers for the side mirrors, which looked very nice. On a side note, the mirror seemed like it had a wider viewing area which seemed a little odd. Otherwise the doors remained the same. I then moved on to the rear of the car once more and paid some attention to the lights and the deck-lid. The clear lights, i liked, but somewhat felt a little out of place. I then noticed that the TL was in italics and it looked really good. I opened the trunk lid and it barely popped up, it was confused and lost because my 04 lifted up at least 7 inches. i then picked it up by hand and it felt very heavy. It may have been the TL-S lip that the dealer put on, (they are a frequent visitor of acurazine and get some pretty cool ideas from here). Otherwise, the TL is the almost the same as my 04. If you guys ahve nay questions, feel free to ask.

csmeance

At one point i had 3 TL's 1 SSM, 2 AM as well in my driveway. I will post pics of this later. The SSM was mine, one of the AM ones belong to my cousin who was visiting from NY, the second AM one was a rental for my 06 mdx which acura kept becuase it was taken back due to problems.

csmeance

04 is in the garage, 05 is the one with the NYC plates, 06 rental is in the middle

blazinginder

Nice write ups....I really like the 07 MDX Sport's Black/Boredaux is my favorite combo ...stupid though that they don't sell it with a power mirror and roof racks standard on anything above the base model

csmeance

I think you meant the Day-night mirror, right? I have a nimubs Gray with Taupe interior. My First option was Formal Black with ebony interior, but they said that they couldn't get me one unitl march, so i settled on the Nimbus/Taupe one as i could get it in feburary,. My third choice was that cherry/burgundy color with ebony/taupe.

Wid-TL

Great writeup! And IMO, I like the SSM much more than ASM. My wife's '04 MDX (whatever silver that is) has a similar difference when parked next to my TL, and I like mine much more.

Steering wheel mounted "mode" button and the TMPS are 2 awesome improvements I wish I had.

Didn't even know about the speed sensitive volume for '07... my BMW had that and I never noticed how good it was until I got my TL and have to adjust the volume much more.

csmeance

^the 04 MDX i think had Billet Silver Metallic. Also its not really speed sentive, for every 10 MPH you go up, it raises the volume more an more, it can be adjusted so the volume can go up by a little bit, a bit more or atlot. Now i'll stop with the SIG,

Also I can post pics of the wheel difference between 04 and 07 side by side if you want

blazinginder

yeah i meant the day/night mirror inside

timnguyen9

Great write-up, also an 04 owner here, but have since sold it to get the 07 G35 Sport. Would be curious to know more about any changes in the navigation features. Also has the resolution of the 9" screen improved?

csmeance

yes it has, it is now like 10x better than the 2004-2006 navi screen. the scren has really imporoved, now when a dvd player is hooked up to an 07 one, it will have mcuh better quality,

pnoi521

Our screens are 9" i thought theyre 7"?

pnoi521

Our screens are 9"? i thought theyre 7"?

csmeance

sry, yes, they are 7 inches. more review here: DAY 2

While looking at the interior to see what had changed besides some audio and tech stuff, i noticed that acura build quality and customer relations was better. I have this rattle that comes from my headrest and the bottom of the headrest on my 04 is leather. Well on the 07 TL, the bottom is made out of a felt/swede material that causes no rattles from the headrests. Also on the rear shelf, the covers lock into place and do not rattle when the volume is at 40. Acura said that they used better quality leather on the 07 vehicle, such as in my 07 MDX, the leather is softer. But in this car, the leather was hard and scratchy somewhat, but a little bit of TLC should take care of it. Also I noticed that the sliding armrest in the front had a much firmer lock mechanism so it would not slide back and forth when your arm is positioned on it. I played around with the navi system some more today and all i can say is wow. It is much more improved than the version 3 disks. The menus have become more easy to navigate and much more simpler. The navi acutally gave me the right home address, **53 instead of **55. This makes me think that some futher refinement was done for better accuracy.

johnny--2k

I thought our screen was 8"?

csmeance

i'll measure it later.....

dampfnudel

You're correct.

csmeance

today i examined the car a little closer and found that alot of things had changed to reduce rattles, squeaks and creaks. The inside of the rear armrest cover was covered with felt to stop squeaks. Like I said before, the headrests were lined with felt and this reduced the creaks and squeaks considerably. ONE thing that was not fixed by design was the front seats rattling/ groaning when cornering hard or going over bumps. This still existed, but it may be due to the abuse it has suffered in it's 7000 miles as a loaner car. Overall, so far I am pleased with the changes, but would not trade up my 3.2 04 TL for the 07 3.2 tl, but the 3.5 TL due to the extra power coupled along with the additional features presented. Guys, if you want to know anything about the 07 3.2 TL, ask me so I can check for you....

timnguyen9

How about the flatspotting, and vibration when the tires are cold? That was probably the most annoying issue for me, even after changing to Pirelli PZero Nero A/S. What stock tires now come on the 07s?

csmeance

they come with the michelins MXH4 tires on it still. REMEMBER, this is a 3.2 TL with Navi! where i live it doesn't get that cold, but the tires are still pretty good, not to much road noise and are sticky. No vibrations at highway speeds, but the alignment of the car is off a little, I have to hold the steering wheel at the 11 o'clock position to go straight.

micwiltay

I took my 2006 TL to the dealer today and received a 2007 TL loaner. Here's my quick two cents:

Pros

Tight as a drum - no rattles or squeaks at around same mileage as my car
Leather is softer and of higher quality
Headrests have a much better tilt action and stay put when angled forward
Backup camera!
SS doesn't auto shift out of first gear - sweet!


Cons

Thinner, wimpy feeling steering wheel - a real turn off
Has more road noise and tire whine with same tires as my car
Fake black wood trim


As for the rest of the goodies (MP3, Dolby surround, trafffic nav) these are things I felt I was missing out on, but now don't seem that important. In short I don't regret jumping on a 2006 at year end at a fire sale price