Anyone know what TL stands for?
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Originally Posted by darksom1
NO! TL means this:
Very nice pic... you might need to upload it to another server because the way its set up now is it gives x's and people have to download/open it to view it. (Its basically a blown up pic of his avatar)
~Da Nocturnal Cheetah~
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,798
Likes: 4
From: Germantown, MD
Originally Posted by Elegant TYPE S
Very nice pic... you might need to upload it to another server because the way its set up now is it gives x's and people have to download/open it to view it. (Its basically a blown up pic of his avatar)
Do you have a recommendation? Imageshack doesn't seem to be too reliable...
Nice avatar darksom, now I have to change mine to copy that. jkidding! Your car is gleaming! If only you cropped that red shopping cart out...(us acurazine guys are so irritatingly picky eh?)
~Da Nocturnal Cheetah~
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,798
Likes: 4
From: Germantown, MD
Originally Posted by rockyfeller
Nice avatar darksom, now I have to change mine to copy that. jkidding! Your car is gleaming! If only you cropped that red shopping cart out...(us acurazine guys are so irritatingly picky eh?)
Ask, and ye shall receive ye shall...
(p.s. - look close and you can see the blue inside)
Intermediate
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 41
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From: Foster City
The TL has stood for "Touring Luxury" since it was introduced in 1996. I actually remember an Acura commercial at the time stating that's what it stood for. For what it's worth, also take a look at the second paragraph of this 1996 review of the 1st gen TL from The Auto Channel:
New Car Review
1996 ACURA TL 2.5 FOUR-DOOR SEDAN
by: CAREY and BILL RUSS
Acura was the first Japanese luxury marque. It is the upscale division of Honda, and its first offering, the Legend sedan, was introduced in 1986. The V6-powered Legend was soon followed by an entry-level series of four-cylinder sedans and coupes, the Integra. An exotic, high-performance sports car, the NSX, became available in 1991. As the Legend increased in price, the gap between it and the Integra became wide enough to receive the five-cylinder Vigor in 1992, and the original Acura lineup was complete.
With the exception of the NSX sports car, all Acura automobiles have previously received names. In a major philosophical change of direction, new Acura products will have alphanumeric designations in order to better emphasize the Acura nameplate. The first model for this new era of Acura cars is the TL, a mid-size four-door sedan positioned in the highly competitive entry-level luxury-car market. TL stands for touring luxury. It replaces the Vigor and is available in forms: the 2.5 TL, powered by a 2.5 liter inline 5-cylinder engine, and the 3.2 TL, which uses a 3.2 liter V6 powerplant.
New Car Review
1996 ACURA TL 2.5 FOUR-DOOR SEDAN
by: CAREY and BILL RUSS
Acura was the first Japanese luxury marque. It is the upscale division of Honda, and its first offering, the Legend sedan, was introduced in 1986. The V6-powered Legend was soon followed by an entry-level series of four-cylinder sedans and coupes, the Integra. An exotic, high-performance sports car, the NSX, became available in 1991. As the Legend increased in price, the gap between it and the Integra became wide enough to receive the five-cylinder Vigor in 1992, and the original Acura lineup was complete.
With the exception of the NSX sports car, all Acura automobiles have previously received names. In a major philosophical change of direction, new Acura products will have alphanumeric designations in order to better emphasize the Acura nameplate. The first model for this new era of Acura cars is the TL, a mid-size four-door sedan positioned in the highly competitive entry-level luxury-car market. TL stands for touring luxury. It replaces the Vigor and is available in forms: the 2.5 TL, powered by a 2.5 liter inline 5-cylinder engine, and the 3.2 TL, which uses a 3.2 liter V6 powerplant.
Keep Right Except to Pass
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,411
Likes: 45
From: Kingstowne, VA
"CL" stood for "Contemporary Luxury," based on news articles at the time.
"RL" stood for "Road Luxury," although how exactly the asphalt was luxurious was never clear. (So said either Car and Driver or Road & Track at the time.)
"TL" stood for "Touring Luxury."
"EL" supposedly stood for "Entry Level." (For those unfamiliar, it's basically a Civic EX sold in Canada as an Acura.)
I don't believe the names are currently considered acronyms, although I may be wrong.
The "-SX" designation seems to imply a different focus. Recall that when Acura first rebadged the Legend and the Vigor (and introduced the CL) they used the alphanumeric names listed by "sol-tsx" above. The TL was either the 2.5TL (which used the old Vigor inline-5) or the 3.2TL (which used a new 3.2-litre V-6) until the 3G TL was introduced. The RL was originally called the 3.5RL, and the CL was the 2.2CL (later 2.3CL) or the 3.2CL. Based on all of this, I surmised that the Integra would be renamed the "1.8PL" when they got around to it, based on its 1.8-litre inline-4 and the performance focus (hence "PL" for "Performance Luxury"); I guess it would have become the 2.0PL with the 2.0-litre engine in the last-generation RSX. But they chose "RSX" instead, I guess to tie it to the NSX. But why the NSX was named the NSX was never clear to me, since it didn't really fit in with "Legend" and "Integra." The CSX has replaced the EL, too, and I don't know what "CSX" denotes.
I have no idea whether the "-SX" denotes something particular. Does anyone know? Note that there was also the SLX (a rebadged Isuzu SUV) and that this designation is now gone in favour of "-DX" designations for trucks (the MDX and RDX).
The reason for the renaming was that people didn't talk about their "Acuras" enough, instead bragging about their "Legends," and Honda didn't like that.
"RL" stood for "Road Luxury," although how exactly the asphalt was luxurious was never clear. (So said either Car and Driver or Road & Track at the time.)
"TL" stood for "Touring Luxury."
"EL" supposedly stood for "Entry Level." (For those unfamiliar, it's basically a Civic EX sold in Canada as an Acura.)
I don't believe the names are currently considered acronyms, although I may be wrong.
The "-SX" designation seems to imply a different focus. Recall that when Acura first rebadged the Legend and the Vigor (and introduced the CL) they used the alphanumeric names listed by "sol-tsx" above. The TL was either the 2.5TL (which used the old Vigor inline-5) or the 3.2TL (which used a new 3.2-litre V-6) until the 3G TL was introduced. The RL was originally called the 3.5RL, and the CL was the 2.2CL (later 2.3CL) or the 3.2CL. Based on all of this, I surmised that the Integra would be renamed the "1.8PL" when they got around to it, based on its 1.8-litre inline-4 and the performance focus (hence "PL" for "Performance Luxury"); I guess it would have become the 2.0PL with the 2.0-litre engine in the last-generation RSX. But they chose "RSX" instead, I guess to tie it to the NSX. But why the NSX was named the NSX was never clear to me, since it didn't really fit in with "Legend" and "Integra." The CSX has replaced the EL, too, and I don't know what "CSX" denotes.
I have no idea whether the "-SX" denotes something particular. Does anyone know? Note that there was also the SLX (a rebadged Isuzu SUV) and that this designation is now gone in favour of "-DX" designations for trucks (the MDX and RDX).
The reason for the renaming was that people didn't talk about their "Acuras" enough, instead bragging about their "Legends," and Honda didn't like that.
Keep Right Except to Pass
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,411
Likes: 45
From: Kingstowne, VA
Originally Posted by bhilley
I looked this up when I first got my '06 TL and found it on the Acura website:
This is official from Acura.....
TL=Total Luxury
RL=Royal Luxury
CL=Coupe Luxury
This is official from Acura.....
TL=Total Luxury
RL=Royal Luxury
CL=Coupe Luxury
Blazin with your Moms in
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,340
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From: Mass Histeria
Originally Posted by bhilley
I looked this up when I first got my '06 TL and found it on the Acura website:
This is official from Acura.....
TL=Total Luxury
RL=Royal Luxury
CL=Coupe Luxury
This is official from Acura.....
TL=Total Luxury
RL=Royal Luxury
CL=Coupe Luxury
Racer
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 260
Likes: 0
From: Allentown, PA
Sorry to burst your bubble but they actually mean nothing at all, they are randomnly assigned.
From CNN-Money.com:
Acura
Acura's two- and three-letter combinations mean absolutely nothing. They're just completely made-up combinations of letters.
One exception that rule -- or lack of one -- predates Acura's overall move to letters. When the Acura NSX sports car was in development in the 1980s that name stood for New Sports Experimental.
From CNN-Money.com:
Acura
Acura's two- and three-letter combinations mean absolutely nothing. They're just completely made-up combinations of letters.
One exception that rule -- or lack of one -- predates Acura's overall move to letters. When the Acura NSX sports car was in development in the 1980s that name stood for New Sports Experimental.
Keep Right Except to Pass
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2,411
Likes: 45
From: Kingstowne, VA
I don't know if I still have the magazine, and even if I do I don't know which issue it was, but I searched back into old posts on this forum and in a post from July 2005 I had definitely cited a Car and Driver issue in which they said that RL stood for "Road Luxury." So it seems to me that we have something of a standoff on authority. Perhaps Acura originally intended these designations to have meaning but later dropped the idea as the model line expanded. That possibility makes sense to me, given that when they first did this in 1996 there were five Acura models (the 3.5RL, the 2.5TL/3.2TL, the Integra, the SLX introduced that year, and the NSX); the CL and EL weren't introduced until the following year, the MDX came along in 2001, the RSX renaming was in 2002, the TSX came along in 2004, the CSX in 2006, and the RDX in 2007. (BTW, these years are all MODEL years. The vehicles were usually available sooner, of course.) So it seems to me that Acura's "alphabet soup" naming really came along in the current decade, and I think it's very plausible that any official meanings for the letters were dropped around the time the MDX and RSX came along. But there's definite evidence that RL, TL, CL, EL, and NSX originally meant something.
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 119
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From: Sunnyvale, CA
Originally Posted by 1995hoo
BTW, you guys do know that the word ACURA itself is an acronym, right?
American Carmakers Usually Recommend Acura
American Carmakers Usually Recommend Acura