NoRespect

We just recently took the TL for a trip from Houston to Ashville NC. I just thought I would post my impressions Good and Bad.

Good:
Mileage - 29 going east, 28 going west (could be a speed thing, we were going faster west bound than east )

Power to pass - excellent

Comfort - good for the driver, no complaints from the passengers. (wife and 2 teenagers) Right arm rest postion could be a little higher and further forward to facilitate right hand postion on the wheel. ( that would be a personal thing I am sure, everyone is different)

Satelite radio is a necessity (kept me awake between news, comedy and music channels) Dvd-A is nice but lack of titles puts me back to listening to CDs for the most part. Still great audio though...

Best cruise control I have driven. Even if the steering wheel buttons are different from what I am used to. It maintains speed on hills without the all of the downshifting that our Grand Cherokee did.

Bad:
Road noise and ride over concrete roads. Harsh is the only word I can think of. The expansion joints really suck on parts of I10 in TX and LA. No problems on asphalt. This aspect affects the audio performance. Why have a nice audio system if the background noise smothers it?

Handling - Squirrely behavior from rear of the car fully loaded over the expansion joints and rough road. you hit a bump and the rear of the car seemed to kick right or left depending which tire hit the bump. Kinda unnerving. Never experienced it before this trip, but I never had the car fully loaded with passengers and luggage.

Tire wear - significant wear of rear tires... Can't give you an specific numbers but the tires started out equal at the beginning of the trip and now the rears have about half the tread of the fronts. (yes they are OEM tires EL42s)


Thats about it. Got lots of looks from other drivers. DGP freshly washed and waxed does look nice. It almost made 15 hours in the car at stretch enjoyable... Almost

1995hoo

Regarding the mileage, what was your average speed, if you recall?

Jesstzn

If you wore out 1/2 the tread on a 2000 mile trip I would have the 4 wheel alignment looked at .. something is really out of whack to do that. Even if the passengers and luggage weighed the rear down it might have shifted the camber but that usually wears the inside of the tire.

This also makes me suspect ----> Handling - Squirrely behavior from rear of the car fully loaded.

Usually if anything the complaint on a fully loaded car is the front end gets lightened and the steering mushy..etc.

Also did you add air for the extra weight?

TampaMike

Thanks for the observations.

Were you referring to the arm rest did you know it can be adjusted? The console armrest adjusts fore and aft, but not height.

I would agree with your observations on road noise. The TL can be silent on asphalt roads, but loud on concrete or coquina. Much depends on the roads surfaces in your region and and the tire behavior with different road surfaces.

NoRespect

Average speed according to trip was 65 mph east and 68 west. What speed was I setting the cruise control? I would set it at about 80 east and 83-85 west. Yes I do have a good radar detector.

I have the tires rotated about every 5000mi and I just had them rotated a week before the trip. No signs of strange tire wear. But having said that I will be taking the vehicle to have it's alignment checked, and corrected if need be... Air pressure was 32 all the way around. I actually stopped, and checked the air pressure because I thought I might have tire going flat. Not the case.

I tried running the arm rest forward, but without the ability to increase the height, it wasn't much help.

ttliang

Jesstzn hit all the good points. we had some good threads about alignment and tire wear in the tire section. do a search and you'll see. people have corrected their excessive tire wear problem by getting the alignment re-done. i had an acura bad alignment QC theory IMO. if you don't want to spend $60 for the alignment, u can take it back to the dealer. of course you have to deal with their usual crap. if they tell you it's normal for your new car to wear 1/2 the rear tires on a 2000 mile trip (EL-42/loaded or not), please let us know their name.

stavebomb

You mentioned squirrley handling, was that when you were on a concrete road that had peralel lines cut into the road? I have noticed that my car slides back and fourth while going above 60 mph on those type of roads.

NoRespect

No parallel groves, Just the bumps/holes/cracks in the concrete. It usually occurred when hitting only one side. The parallel groves cut in the road used to be a real pain on my motorcycle.

1995hoo

Thanks on the mileage. It's interesting to compare what people get at different speeds. I averaged 30 mpg for a 241-mile drive at an average speed of 71 mph on Sunday, which is what prompted my query.

stavebomb

So is it normal that my car slides back and fourth while drivin on the grooves?

ChuckDu

Normal? Maybe. Desirable? No.

It sounds like you may want to get your alignment checked to ensure that all is within specification. Look closely at rear toe-in and make sure it sits at least towards the middle of the range at 0.08 deg.

One of the advertised features of the TL is an increase in rear toe-in as the suspension is compressed. Basically, the front of the rear wheels will point slightly more at each other as the car goes over bumps, is compressed in a turn (outside wheel), is loaded with passengers, or even while travelling at highway speeds due to aerodynamic downforce. The increased toe-in may be what makes the rear of the car feel squirrelly over grooves.

I found the rear skittishness on one particular stretch of undulating highway unnerving enough that I changed to the aspec sport suspension and a Comptech RSB. This improved the issue by 90% or so. On the other hand, while handling was greatly improved, I'm left with a suspension that is not aligned to within Acura specs.

NoRespect

I have an appt. for next week. I will update with what it currently is and what they set it to. I don't want any misconceptions on how much tread actually wore out. The tire started out at ~1/3 of tread remaining and the rears are now getting really close to the wear bars. The car currently has 13k miles on it and I will be getting new tires really soon. (after newyear) I'm not overly impressed by the EL42s, wear seems excessive, dry handling is ok and the wet handling/ hydroplaning is just scary. Time to start the research on new tires...

DMZ

You neglected to say whether your TL is a 5AT or 6MT.

NoRespect

5AT

neuronbob

Thanks for the opinions, NoRespect. I've taken my TL all over the country and agree that it's a great cruiser. I haven't had any trouble with excess tire wear except when the alignment was off.

I also have difficulty on grooved roads undergoing repair even when I'm the only one in the car. I think it's a function of the relatively low-profile tires? Instead of the car itself? Not sure.

Juronimo

How are you guys getting such fuel economy? During my recent road trip I got at best 24mpg and the other times I filled up the mpg was 22mpg.

ttliang

proper tire inflation + all highway driving = 30mpg one time for me. my city+highway is usually 25mpg. i have 6mt.

neuronbob

How new is your car? How fast do you drive? The mileage should improve after a few thousand miles on the odo. In my case, with my wife and me in the car, cruising at 80 mph, A/C on, I still get 29-30 mpg on freeway-based road trips. I'm sure I'd get over 30 mpg if I drove the speed limit in the eastern half of the U.S. (65 mph).

NoRespect

If I am driving around town my mileage is only 18-19 best. Highways with just myself at 80 mph I can get as high as 31. Cruise control helps alot, and yea that pure highway driving.

1995hoo

For starters I have the 6MT, which helps. Maintaining a steady speed and using cruise control where possible will help as well. The type of terrain will make a difference too—it's reasonable to expect better mileage on flat roads (my trip last week was in southern Florida) than in the mountains.

NoRespect

UPDATE:The tire wear issue was resolved by Dealership and Acura Factory Rep. Two new tires and reset the tow to 0. They are doing the alignment for free, and I am buying 2 new tires to go with the free ones on back. Unfortunately they are only going to put the Bridgestones on... At least that gets 1/2 priced tires...