As I said, Honda hasn't been denied benchmarking Audi/VW. From what I've read, SH-AWD is great. Too bad that the car it is currently on doesn't benifit from it too much as must RL drivers are less likely to take a curve the way a TL owner would. It does make sense for Honda to show case their AWD system on the RL, with the TL, TSX, RDX, and MDX getting it first then the Accord and Civic.

 

290+ HP and SH-AWD would hopefully put to bed all this complaining from the car mags about no rear wheel drive. Maybe then the car would get more respect in the press.

 

I think the TL has some level of respect from the mags. I think that they (auto mags) see the TL as a sports sedan and that image is muddied due to FWD. Honda has done a nice job of developing FWD compaired to the torque steer seen from Nissan's VQ however anyone has to admit that there is a difference between FWD and RWD in terms of handling. The TL just cannot be pushed the way a G35 can as physics dictates that.

Since Honda has no RWD platform (that we know of) save for the S2K and NSX then AWD drive is the key. So I agree that when the TL gets SH-AWD then the TL will be just about perfect and perhaps the best buy in its class.