Well mine was stock before and it's just like you say... blows stock outta the water. I friggin love it.

The A-spec package includes brake upgrades (for 5AT)? I wasn't aware of that... makes sense... but I wasn't aware...

 

i am pretty sure. but i think they are just pad upgrades. the manual gets brembos, i think.

 

holy thread revival batman!

 

A-Spec comes with scortched brake pads

 

and the a-spec steering wheel....so unless you have those, its not really an a-spec

 

you definitely get more head turns. at university village (local shopping, dining, hangout location near my old university), i parked next to stock TL's all the time. same car, but side by side comparison, i much prefer the A spec package over. Well, it also helps when you have an NBP with blacked out headlights and NBP painted grill.

 

Today, I saw literally about 10 TL's and I was parked outside a italian restaurant waiting for some food that the family ordered and 2 more WDP's parked across the street stock...

Earlier, on my way to the restaurant, a very attractive female () pulls up next to me at the stop sign signaling me to lower my radio (mind you, she's in a WDP) asking me where I got the bumper from, and proceeded to let her know its the A-spec kit, etc. It made my day today.

edit: It's the next day already so it'd be yesterday.

_fred

 

Yes...to keep on topic from 3yrs ago.

I'm a big advocate of the A-Spec package. What I think is interesting is they came out with the Tyoe-S and I thought that was the equivalent of the A-Spec. Then I saw a recent post that there is a Type-S with the NEW A-Spec body kit?

I love my A-Spec kit and I love that you don't see many, even in Dallas/FW. I went the extra mile back in '04 to make sure I maximized my purchase and got the "ultimate" TL.

I've now got ~68k miles on the car and have driven it on a road course and can't tell you how well the car handled. Only issue is that it's FWD and I'm an old school RWD person. SO driving the corners was a challenge to keep the car from understeering.

Other than that, everything about the A-Spec and all that has been discussed here makes it worth getting the package, if you can afford it or want to afford it. I also agree with others that mod their car with aftermarket improvements on suspension, wheels, etc.. If you can afford to "upgrade" your car's performance then you will love your car even more.

TL is a car that performs well straight out of the box but, if you want, you still have room to improve it to meet your driving needs.

 

ok, so i keep reading that the aspec interior mods include steering wheel and aspec badging. so i got me the steering wheel, should there be anything else inside that says aspec???

 

There was nothing inside of mine that said "A-Spec"...except me. I always made a point of reminding passengers that it was indeed an "A-Spec".

 

The body kit adds a nice touch

 

YES!! I would never drive a stock TL ever again after having been an Aspec-er for over 60k miles now...

 

Actually -- the plastic body moulding was engineered to reduce drag (if this hasn't already been mentioned)

 

I live in chicago and NEVER change my 18" aspec rims/tires at the season change for winter.

I use Pirelli PZero nero's and they are ultra-high perf. all season and are good in snow and dry .. the Kumho Ecsta ASX's are also good tires, slightly cheaper in price, but did the job well. The Kumho's are a firmer tire and better IMO on dry compared with the seemingly softer Pirellis.

The Pirellis are quieter IMO also

 

Does anyone have a A-SPEC MT with 19's???? Please post pics!!!

 

Yes if you can afford it. If you cant just body kit.

 

Thank you so much for that. Very thorough

 

well, after reading this thread, I'm still undecided.

I'm not a big mod person. All my previous cars were always stock.

But now comes the TL, which does look much better with the aspec kit.

I can't decide between spending about $1000 for the aspec kits, or not spend at all.

Of course the complete package (+wheel + suspension) is best option, but I dont' wanna spend $4K for modifying a car that's worth 15K, and I might sell in a few years.

Look forward to hearing for more comments!

 

i just got the lip kit n i love it. just think of it this way, its a dollar a day for 2.5 years n eventually it pays for itself? i dontknow

 

wow, these ppl are funny.

yes the lip kit is worth it.

the rest is up to you. I personally hate stop light wars, and I don't go to the track at all. SO, suspension and a-spec wheels are up to you to decide.

I got the A-spec badge cuz it's my money and I have an a-spec body kit, it justifies having the badge.

 

It's such a subjective thing. How can you even ask this. I think there's a guy Tim selling this kit for $700 now. I think it completely changes the look of the car and is worth it. Then again, I've seen some of the newer 07 08 ones with really good drop and have thought they looked great without it. Whatever you want!

 

revived

 

Personally I love the a-spec springs and I love the look. However I want mine to look as stock as possible so I went with only the springs along with Koni Yellows. IMO a perfect compromise between comfort and performance for a DD.

 

Not in my opinion. Should have just bought a TL-S.

 

Wow...I didn't even catch what a revival this was! haha...
ha

 

with OEM wheels + suspension on, how much lower does the front lip add to the TL? It doesn't seem to be a lot from looking at pics.

I hate to have to manuver for every road bump or dip.

 

If yu are not lowered you wont have to worry much.. im slammed and Im not worried about hitting anything except the bumper stops in parking spots..

But freals.. holy thread revival batman!!

 

Yeah super old thread haha.

Sometimes i contemplate pulling the $780 trigger for the A-Spec, but there is something i just don't like about taping pieces to my existing bumper.

I think money well spent would start with performance mods, but money to blow would be on this. I do think it looks good after dropping your car and getting rims.

my 2 cents

 

Obviously this is subjective.

 

The regular TL's non-Type S are starting to look old and dated to me. I think a good way to keep our cars looking current is A-spec kit. Think I will do it as well sometime this year.

 

Its your car do whatever you think makes it look nice and personalize it to your taste.

 

you should really look at the last date posted on these threads, you're bumping up threads from '05 ....

 

^^^

and this is not the only thread he bumped LOL

 

haha yeah i noticed, all he says is "nice job" or "looks good"

just looks like he's post count whoring

 

or just a notorious guy

 

04' bumped in 07'
07' bumped in 10'
10' bumped in 12'

Someone edit this in 14'
3 yrs, 3 yrs, 2 yrs...so next will be in 2 years again
I think

 

^I'll try to do the honor of that sir!

 

I has da spec-a.