SouthernBoy

Well, I've cleaned out all of my personal affects from my '02 Altima SE and removed my Frankencar intake (there goes 14 HP), replacing it with the stock unit (I left the Mossy catback exhaust and Unorthodox racing UDP in place) in preparation for a test drive tomorrow morning of an '04 TL with manual transmission and no Nav. My title and the extra keys are in the glovebox, too just in case something happens.

What I am hoping to hear from y'all are any suggestions, comments, or pointers of and about which you believe would be in my interests during the test drive and inspection. Since you are owners, your input is most welcome.

Thanks!

ali_enterprises

I think you should get a navi model - Its something that you cant upgrade later on. I dont use it to much but it is real nice to have in the vehicle. If you upgrade anything to A-spec suspension, wheels etc.. Make sure you get all your orginal stock parts back.

neuronbob

As a previous non-navi TL owner (2G), I beg you to consider the navi. Ali is right--you won't be able to upgrade to a factory navi once you decide to buy without. For those of us with it, it is worth EVERY penny of that (in my case) $2000.

If you buy the car--when you take delivery, inspect fully. Most of the manufacturing gremlins should have been worked out by now, but you have to protect yourself all the same. If you want to swap your tires out for something more to your liking, try to write it into the deal. I wish I had done this in October when I took delivery.

Don't forget to post your test driving experience, all driving opinions are welcome.

Teh Jatt

yes plz get the navi... its worth IMO and you will be happy with the navi and voice commands

Good Luck

SouthernBoy

Ok, I see the first few respondants are heavily in favor of Nav. I wonder if you can offer concrete reason to select this option. My tastes are more along the lines of the performance-oriented driving machine.. a gearhead purist, in other words. A Z06 Corvette would be right up my alley for a fun car if I had the money and a three or four car garage.

Great responses.. keep 'em coming, please. I'm looking forward to the test drive and will certainly be happy to offer my opinions afterwards.

criss

Get the navi and the 6MT! The Navi is great. i have it in my TL and the wife's MDX. Though it would be a waste in the MDX when we got it last year but I found things in the DC area I never knew existed, and it's great for finding ways around traffic!!!

Don't buy from Radley in Arlington! (just my opinion) You'll find most of the dealers in the DC area won't deal much and if you get a Navi/6mt that makes it harder to get a good deal.

All the extras (bodykit/Wheels/Xtnd'd warr) can be bought online cheaper so don't fall for the high cost.

Most importantly get what you want at a price you are comfortable with.

Good luck and welcome!

Teh Jatt

if you want "PERFORMANCE-ORIENTED DRIVING MACHINE" then I suggest you get EVO or STi This is a entry level luxury car, u get bit of everything in it. (including performance)

rescueswimmer

Id say in the end the navi is going to have a higher resale value. Just the fact that finding a nav is harder than getting one without. 2k dollers seems like alot but if you finance the car for 5 years it works out to 33 dollars a month. Im sure you can come up with 33$. If your all about driving did you consider a 3 series BMW. The beemer is truely a drivers car. I personally think its not much to look at on the inside though. It seems there stuck in the 80's with their interior. Not to mention to get a 3 series equipped like the TL your probably aroun 38, 39k Hope this helps.

SouthernBoy

To AcuraTLjaTT559;

Funny, Acura advertises the TL as a performance sedan.. just the kind of thing I like in a sedan. I would never be happy with a Taurus or a Camry. First, you can't get a manual transmission in a Taurus and the Camry I find rather boring. That's why my current car is an Altima SE. I do like performance sedans.


To rescueswimmer;

I'm not financing.. paying cash plus my car if I decide to buy. The 3-series BMWs don't impress me that much. They are not all they're cracked up to be in the driving/handling department. My wife has a '96 328i automatic and I'd much rather drive my Altima SE with manual. The Altima is a lot quicker and is generally more fun to drive than her Bimmer. I used to have a 2000 SVT Contour (#379 in a model year run of 2150 cars). That SVT would spank the butt of a 3-series in the twisties. I have no idea how Ford managed to get a .92g 200 foot skid pad with a front drive street machine. I'd still own that car if the engine didn't have a serious throttle hang "feature". Ford claims they engineered this in to keep the EPA-nazis off their backs. But it was a real pain in the a--.

No.. the TL appeals to most all of my automotive interests for a normally driven vehicle. I like the blend of performance it seems to offer coupled with a nice measure of luxurious touches, not to mention the car is drop dead gorgeous. Of course, this is all from the outside looking in since I have yet to drive one.

rescueswimmer

Southern I think youll like the TL I was impressed with the cars handling and get up. I had an older mustang I redid from the frame up so I understand the rwd in the twisties. Then we must compare apples with apples. The TL is definitly worth every penny. As far as the nav goes I think its mainly personal prefrence. I think the non navi looks kind of cheap with that dumb clock there. I personally cant wait to get mine. Im waiting to find out about the 05's I personally find it hard to drop all that money on an 04 when in less than 3 months it will be 1 year old. Now if I can get a good deal on an 04 when the 05s come out thats a diffrent story.

Hawhyen51

SouthernBoy, I would recommend driving both the 6MT and 5AT (if they have them) and you compare between the two. Personally, I prefer the 6 speed and as far as NAVI goes, that's totally your decision. Have fun on the test drive!!!!!

SouthernBoy

To rescueswimmer;

I was wondering what takes up the space when there is no Nav. Guess I'll see this morning, eh? I was going to wait until the '05s come out, too, but I figure I'll lose around $2000 if I do, plus there is that thing hanging around that the pre-cats seem to destroy themselves indiscriminately in the Altimas. When they go there is the very real possibility that the engine gets lunched as well. A number of members of the Altima site I visit have already seen this happen to them.


To Hawhyen51;

Since I would never even consider buying a car with an automatic transmission as my personal vehicle, the 5AT is not even an option for me. But thanks for the suggestion. I just don't care for automatics. I've only owned one for my personal use in my entire life and the only reason I bought it was because I thought I was going to tow a boat with it. That didn't happen since we wound up towing with my wife's car at the time. The old argument about manuals and traffic doesn't sell with me, since I would very soon get bored stiff with an automatic. A car has to entertain me, otherwise I lose interest once the newness novelty wears off. Besides, manuals are SO much less expensive to own and operate. Nothing to go wrong.

Thanks to both of you for your input!!

neuronbob

My particular urban area doesn't change much from year to year, so the navi is of great use when I have to go someplace familiar in town. I don't have to carry a map anymore. I travel enough out of town that it is useful on major routes and in other large urban areas. Don't worry about us navi lovers, it's all your decision.

As far as performance-orientation....you can add to the performance of the suspension with the A-Spec kit. If you don't care about the baubles that go along with it (I didn't), you can (shhhh) find the suspension kit online separately from the A-Spec kit as dealers aren't allowed to part out the kit.

Enjoy your test drive!

SouthernBoy

To neuronbob;

Yeah, there's a host of bolt-ons for the Altima SE (the standard engine is the 214 CID V6). I have used the Frankencar WAI with the Apexi filter which makes around a 14 HP and 12-13 lb/ft torque improvement, though I removed it last night just in case the examine my car. I also have the Unorthodox Racing underdrive pulley (6.5 HP, 3 lb/ft of torque) and the Mosssy catback exhaust (around 12 HP and 10 lb/ft torque). There are also headers with downpipes and suspension kits available plus other goodies.

Don't know if I get the TL whether or not I'll do any mods. I suspect I might be inclined not to.

neuronbob

SouthernBoy, the only engine performance mods available for the TL so far are the Injen and AEM intakes. Comptech is planning a supercharger, Icebox (e.g. CAI), and exhaust, but none is released yet. ECU chips are being considered by Hondata and Unichip, but are unreleased. Headers are reportedly difficult for this car because of the stock design. Even with all these goodies coming, I agree with you when you say you're not inclined to stick all this stuff in. I upgraded from a 2nd generation TL-P (e.g. "Premium"=base model) with 225 hp, so the upgrade in hp and torque with the new TL was all the engine mod I needed. So I concentrated on making the ride more performance-oriented, or as much as a luxury sporty sedan can be.

I made an error in my post above--I meant "unfamiliar".

SouthernBoy

Well I bought one.

Anthracite/Ebony/6MT/Nav.

Driving impressions:
My initial impressions were that the clutch takeup was short with full engagement coming quickly and early in a short travel. Similar to my 2000 SVT Contour. The shifter takes a few miles to get used to, but not much more than that. The car feels very solid; Bimme-like, or Mustang Bullit-like, though it certainly rides better than a Mustang (of course.. different cars). While not as powerful as my '02 Altima (in the torque area), it makes up for this in excellent throttle response which gives the impression of torque. Clearly, the engineers have tuned this smaller V6 engine to deliver the goods across the power band.

Nav takes a college degree to use, right? I mean WOW! This thing does everything but make your dinner.

The A/C is not as good as what was in my Altima SE, but then again, I'ever never owned a car that had one that cold. Sucker put out some really cold air.

A beautiful car, no doubt. I have one question. How do you get the HomeLink to work?? I tried it several times using the instructions in the manual and it didn't seem to take (instructions appeat to be the same as for my Altima as I recall). My garage opener is a basic Sears unit without rolling codes. I'm going to search around, but I welcome any ideas.

rescueswimmer

Southern good for you. Did you notice the diffrence in the look of the navi vs. non navi. Hell if you use one time in an emergency its worth it. Hell if you never use it. Your friends will be impressed.

neuronbob

Congratulations, welcome to the club. I still sometimes wish I'd bought the 6MT. Unfortunately, there's the wife to consider.

As for Homelink:
http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80367
http://www.acura-tl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80659

HTH!

Hawhyen51

Congrats on the car, and also a good choice of color......ENJOY!!!!

dseag2

Congrats! Glad you took the plunge.

Good color choice, and you won't be sorry you got the Navi. I almost never use it for directions, but the display looks great and it's nicely integrated into the dash.

Enjoy!

SouthernBoy

Thanks all!

Search is my friend. I found out though searching this site how some had also had problems with setting up their HomeLink. My Altima set up first time and worked like a charm. But what I discovered on this site was that it seems as though you have to hold the "trained" button down a little longer than with the Altima.. like about 1 second. Then it works.

I also noticed that when I was driving home, then taking my wife for a ride, that the car had a SLIGHT tendency to pull a little to the left. I immediately suspected differing tire pressure in the front tires and early this morning, check all four while the car was closed up in my garage. Problem solved.. the front left tire was down 4 pounds. I know that the recommended pressure is 35 front, 32 rear, but I'm going to try 34 front for a while and monitor the wear. Not for any theory of a softer ride, because I don't like cars that ride "soft", but strictly for wear characteristics.

I should make another comment about the throttle response with this engine. In a word, excellent. Of course, I am in the break-in faze and will be for 1000 miles, but it's evident right away that the engine and ECU produce excellent throttle response right off idle. So the perceieved feeling is one of having more torque available than just 238 lb/ft. When the response is this good and you get the multiplication of first and second gear times the final drive, all is good in the world. The best correlation I can remember to this was a test drive I took in a 1988 Ford Mustang GT with a 2.73:1 rear end. I had just ordered an LX with the 302 CID package (the 302 (5.0 liter) LX was quicker and faster than the GT). I ordered the lowest gears available for the LX which were not really low at all at 3.08:1 (I later installed 3.55's). Anyway, my new TL feels very similar to the Mustang GT I test drove as best as I can recall.

neuronbob

Manual says 600 miles before you can have fun. Why are you punishing yourself?

SouthernBoy

To neuronbob;

Thanks, I went back earlier today and saw that in the manual. Even when I hit 600 miles, I'll still be pretty easy on it (I don't rag my cars, but I do like to "enjoy" them).

When did you do your first oil change? I know the manual says to wait until it tells you to during this period, but in the past, I have tended to change it at 1000 miles, and then again at 3000, then every 4000 thereafter.