I test drove the Acura RL today when I had my 04 TL serviced. The car's interior first of all isnt that much bigger than our TL. The seats felt very comfortable, all the controls were easily recognized and at your fingertips. The salesperson had me take the car down a straight path where I was able to floor it. It had an ok pick-up but the TL feels faster. The accerlation though felt smoother, I couldnt feel the gears changing. The Navigation is easy to read but the nav's voice is weak. The nav's voice is hard to understand. Our TL's Nav voice sounds much clearer. I perfer the TL over the RL. I can't justify spending $18 grand more.
Just for the heck of it, I got my car appraised. It has 23,000 miles with A-spec kit, 18 inch rims, minus suspension, has Nav. The dealer will give me $27,000 for my car and sell the RL $47,500. THats $2,000 off sticker price. Don't know if thats a good deal but I just was curious.

 

Even Consumer Reports feels the TL is a better value than the RL- they state the interior of the RL is about the same size as the TL. I also looked at the TL, but since the TL is faster (0-60) and cheaper, it represents a much better value.

 

I have seen the rl, in the new york area, discounted to almost 43,000, because it is not selling in the numbers they thought. Thats a considerable difference then they were offering it to you, so take that into consideration.

Much regards flatfoot

 

Wow, $27k for your TL! That's not very bad depreciation for a car that wasn't A-Spec straight from the dealership (you did say you have the body kit and wheels but not suspension.....)

 

My guess on the $27K trade is the dealer is offering the RL for $47.5K, which is crazy high....they can be had for $42-43K all day long...dealer lots are overflowing and they need to move stale RL's...but I agree with you guys...the TL is a better value...the RL is too much Honda Accord, not enough power, needs a 6 speed transmission and some cool stuff like cooled/ventilated seats to make people want it. Acura has repeated the mistake of the first gen RL...too plain, not enough power. Just my

 

You cant get RL's below invoice all day ($42k-$43k). Although people have gotten it for around $43k, it's not very common. The average price is more like $45,000. The RL is NOTHING Honda Accord. The TL is more Honda Accord than the RL. As for cool stuff, the RL has everything + more than what the competition has except for cooled/ventilated seat. It also has more power than ALL the 6 cylinder cars in it's class. So I don't know what your talking about.

 

vteracer- The RL just felt slower. I test drove the Lexus GS V8 and that had power. The RL was boring and it doesn't justify spending 18 grand more than our TL's. I expecting more when I got behind the car. I guess its just built for much older people because I'm just 26 yrs old. It didn't have any flair it was dull just my opinion.

 

The RL is a little bit slower, but likely handles better.. it has some cool features, but just feature ratio between the RL and TL aren't enough to justify the price difference (not $18,000, though).. the difference is in the FEEL. The RL simply feels much better, the fit and finish are better, the quality is better.

 

Just curious...how have the RL sales been so far? I asked my TL salesguy and he said that they have been pretty disappointing at his dealership. Anybody have numbers on how many units are sold so far per month?

 

AWD? and a sophisticated system at that

 

I drove a RL a while back, I love how the car handle with the SH-AWD... you can take a corner at full throttle (wich I did) and not even feel it... for a luxury car you would expect it to be heavy and lean a lot. I took the same turn in my TL, and the back end whiped... But the TL is a much faster car, better price too... I think the RL is over price.

 

They have to give away first year RL's. Until they put a V8 in it, it will lanquish in sales just like the last generation. If you can get an Accord V6 for $25K, why would anyone spend $48 for something on the same platform with similar power?

 

For the final price I paid for my RL(44k), I cannot say I had a bad deal. I am not here trying to defend the RL against the TL (owned one before accident). Each car has its advantages. The TL is faster than the RL. It feels faster; however, the RL handles significantly better. The AWD in the RL (as somebody mentioned above) allows the RL to go into turns at high speeds whereas the TL will lose control. The interior is very similar in size to the TL. The materials are of higher quality than the TL; however, not by a large margin.

IMO the RL is not worth the 50k sticker price. At 45 and below it is worth it. When I was considering the RL as a TL replacement I took into consideration each additional feature and I came up with a list similar to the values listed below.
Keyless entry: $800 (Missed this feature from the FX35)
AWD $2500
XM Nav Traffic $500 (On the other hand, after having the car for a longer period of time, I cannot justify $500 for the feauture - it does not always work)
Onstar $300
Active front lighting $500 (Today I would say it is worth more - I love this feature)
Better leather seats (lack of buttprints) $500
Acuralink $400
Other interior materials (headliner, buttons on radio controls, etc) $1000
5-star crash test ratings on all sides $1000 (I guess this played a big part of my decision after the TL accident)
Audio system is better in the RL (IMO at least) $800
Active noise canceling (ANC) $500 (after driving the car for a couple months I am not really sure how valuable this is though)
Paint quality (MUCH better than the TL; however, still lacking) at the time I thought it was worht an additional $500

In that price of 44k the clearbra and tints were included. Clearbra at an outside place was between 600-1100 and the tints were 200-325.

So, at the time, I found the car worth the extra money (for my wants and needs). This, of course, does not mean it is the car for everybody. Between the RL and TL today, I would easily choose either one. The TL is still one hell of a nice car and comes very close to the RL in many ways - just not all.

 

i got 27K for my base 5AT TL with navi at the Lexus dealership with 22K miles. i'm not a huge fan of the RL. i was considering the GS300 AWD, but i'm going to stick with my TL for now till they come out with the IS350.

 

Spoken like someone who paid list.....

 

THE RL STILL DOESN'T HAVE 8-WAY PASSENGER SEAT!!! When will Acura learn???
I took a PAID survey on the RL for Acura, and I mentioned that 4-way passenger seats was not acceptable. $50K, and it's missing basic features that you could have had almost 15 years ago an a BMW 525i???