hank1105

I have some follow-up questions since I last posted. This past weekend I took the TL for a test drive, excellent ride. Anyway here are some questions:

(1) To bring the mirrors in, is it a manual push or is there a switch to do that? I am not talking about positioning the mirrors, but I am talking about moving them in, like when going through a car wash.

(2) When is the autostick useful and how responsive is it? I am assuming it is good in snow, downshifting down a hill and also when you want to drive more aggressively. I tried during the testdrive and noticed it will upshift for you when hits a certain RPM.

(3) I am thinking of the Athracite (tricky color name), how easy of a color is that to maintain? I usually get silver, just because you will not see dirt or dings that easily with that color.

Thanks again for any replies, I appreciate your help.

Hank

andym22

1. The mirrors are manual push in.
2. I use the "auto-stick" just for fun and seems to be very responsive. It will auto shift for you from 1st to 2nd just to protect the tranny after that you're on your own and you can shift at any point.
3. As for Anthracite I couldn't tell you. I got the silver usaully it doesn't show dirt or scratches, but it does seem to show a lot of dirt on the back end (trunk lid and bumper).

Hawhyen51

Anthracite Metallic (AM) is very easy to maintain. As with the SSM, the back side does show accumulation of dust. But overall, it's hard to tell whether it's clean or dusty. I usually wash once/twice a week just to get the dust off.

FugittiveTLS`03

My '03TL-s was Anthracite and was pretty easy to take care of...but not as easy as my new SSM.
The only thing about AM was it would show water spots unless you totally dried it.
I personally loved it

apwalsh

SSM will always look good even when it's moderately dirty. When the Anthracite gets dirty, it looks very dull and crappy. The Anthracite does look sharp when it's clean though.

svtmike

The only time I've found the autostick truly useful is when driving in snow, and using it to start out in second gear.

The transmission has a feature called "grade logic" that will downshift on hills when necessary. It works well on what passes for hills here in Illinois.

The upshift that you noticed on the test drive when in autostick mode should only happen between 1st and 2nd gears - the rest will go all the way to the rev limiter and will require you to upshift manually.

Mike

Repecat

Beyond what the others have said, I use the autostick when decending steep hills especially in congested areas. 3d and sometimes 2nd makes for a safe and uneventful decent. I suppose it would be good in the snow, but since we haven't had any of that stuff here in over a year I haven't had a chance to try it out.

hank1105

Thanks for all the replies! Glad to see AM (much easier to say) is somewhat of an easy color to take care of. I am neat freak, so this helps a lot.

As for the autostick you guys are exactly right, it did shift automatically from 1st to 2nd. I was in 4th, switched it over to autostick and dropped in 3rd to pass someone, definitely was fun to try. Thanks again for everyones help.

Now I just have to figure out which dealership I should try (Curry Acura or Ramsey Acura), we shall see.

Hank