My First Impression, SHARP !!!

The fit and finish is at least as good or better than the TL. After all, the RL is made in Japan. Chrome accents around the windows, the side moulding, and the front grill are well entrenched and add a nice touch. Upon getting in and closing the door, the 1st thing I observed was the electric tilt and telescoping wheel automatically moving itself into place (like top of the line Beamers and Lexus's) per the settings for keyless fob #1 along with the mirrors and driver's seat. I found the seat comfort comparable to my TL. The seat heater controls are buttons instead of rocker switches and are better positioned to prevent accidental turning on of the seat heaters. Being a sunny day, I found the power sunshade for the rear windshield a convenient asset.

No key needed to start as the ignition switch is simply a knob, this car is 100% keyless! Upon hitting the gas, you feel the low end torque missing in the TL. Though overall, I found the acceleration rate to be similar. The car handles the curves better than my 6MT with less body roll and sway. This may be attributable to SH-AWD's providing more power to the rear wheel opposite the direction you're turning. Upon hard braking, this is the 1st car I've ever driven where I wasn't at all thrown forward when stopping....impressive! I also learned today that an RL A-SPEC package is just around the corner.

As for the navagation system, I found the multi-function interface dial easier to use than I expected. No more screen touching! Though I didn't get to use the traffic system, I got a kick out of bringing up a restaurant's name and address and seeing the Zagat survery ratings...COOL! The Acura-Link system is designed to get data updates automatically via sattellite without having to buy a DVD every year or two. And the voice........well, you know how you issue a voice command in your TL (for example, "CD PLAY DISC 2 TRACK 4" or "XM CHANNEL 8") and then wait a few seconds for the voice to respond/comfirm? That wait is a thing of the past in the RL. Your voice command is repeated back to you and carried out IMMEDIATELY! And oh yes, the CD player will automatically detect and play MP3's. The other kick in the pants is that the complimentary XM subscription is for ONE FULL YEAR.

OK, I'm not ready to trade my TL in anytime soon, but I can proclaim without any reservation that anyone considering a Beamer 5 or 7 series OR a Lexus LS430 might do themselves a favor by checking out the RL 1st. Speaking of Beamers, 2 of them came in while I was there, one with a new 530i and one with a new 745i......to check out the new RL. Better yet, a 2004 RL owner of 6 months came in, test drove it, and cut a deal to trade his '04 for the one '05 on the sales floor ....... for delivery tomorrow!

This car may not be for everyone, but
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, THE NEW RL IS A WINNER !

See Also: http://hondanews.com/CatID3000?mid=2...35815&mime=asc

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Nice.. thanks for the review!

 

we do have a new RL FORUM
https://acurazine.com/forums/acurazine-articles-2/

 

Yes we do. But at the same time I think he was making a valid comparison to our TLs in case we're interested in the differences (like I am).

 

awesome review....looking forward to seeing the RL myself in person. thanks

 

I'm just wondering about something. You said in hard braking that you weren't thrown forward... is that because the seatbelt held you back? If that's not it, how did the RL basically counter momentum? I mean if you're moving fast enough and stop fast enough, your body is going to shoot forward, there's not much you can do about it... Just curious about that.

I was at my dealership a couple weeks ago and sat in an RL and checked out all the controls. I didn't test drive it though. Maybe one day. I have to say that I'm not too impressed with the layout of the console. It juts out from the center of the dash unnecessarily. And the beige and silver (I think those were the colors -- maybe it was gray and silver?) controls look cheap compared to the black on black controls of the TL. Otherwise, the fit and finish of the RL looked awesome of course -- being built in Japan and all.

I don't know if the "variable" seat warming is totally necessary... I think it had five different levels of heating. I found that kinda weird. Personally, I think LO and HI are just plenty of options.

Finally, I think the RL is definitely not targetted for the same audience as the TL. It's targetted towards the 5 and 7-series drivers who tend to be older than TL drivers. And I would think they also want a cushier ride than the TL provides (then again the 5-series with those huge wheels is quite a sporty ride). I think the TL is perfect for our market segment, and I love my baby. I wouldn't spend another $15000CAN for an electrically tilting and telescoping steering wheel. AWD would definitely be nice though. :P

 

Great review. Thanks!

 

Acura RL ::thumbs up::

 

yeah, Acura RL: thumbs up
Acura Rl pricing: thumb down

 

EXACTLY

 

You've obviously never shopped for a high end car with the RL's high end features.
At $49K, it's a bargain and a half!

 

i meant great car with zero affordability for me. i am 24 and could not spring for a 50G car

im lucky to be doing a TL in th near future

 

Great review!! I find it puzzling why Acura would omit the TL in regards to MP3 playback. The TSX offers it, now the RL offers it...UM HOW ABOUT THE TL????

 

Both correct. It would probably be a good posting in the RL forum, and if DMZ woud consider it, I think it would be a good idea to repeat his initial posting there.

This thread also has application and a great deal of interest to us TL people, particularly the chosen few who can afford an RL and are thinking getting one, but also for the rest of us who can only dream.

There is no way we can move a thread into another forum, so the only place this one could go to is Cars & Bikes, which I will not do unless it goes too far off topic. So far, it is a good thread for our forum.

And it is a great review.

 

I dont like the new toyota camry...err.. um... the RL.... I will stick to my TL, looks a hell of a lot better, better body, better lines, sharper car.

 

The RL targets very different demographics than the TL. I bet the TL will outrun the RL around a track even though the RL has SH-AWD and more horsepower. Can't beat physics and even though you may have struggle a bit with the TL's torque steer, from a performance standpoint, the TL is just plain faster. If I decided to spend $50k on a luxury sports sedan, I'd probably go with a CTS-V, S4, or S60R.

 

Didnt know the TL was faster, good to know, can you elabortate on that a little bit?


Thanks

 

The RL is a mid 6 second car to 60. The TL is an upper 5 second car to 60. Thats about 3 car lengths in front The TL is also 500 lbs lighter!

 

RL is a geezer car. But that i mean it has 'softee, gushy' features that have nothing to do with performance (like steering wheels that move), has squishy tires, and has a lot of mass to sling around. I am sure it is a fine, big, soft car - even though i qualify chronologically as a geezer candidate by some standards, those in the S2000 or SVT Cobra scene know "the codger has game" when it comes to hustling a car through the twisties, and doing his own wrenching. So, the RL does not appeal to me - when it does, I will offocially have entered the Geezerhood, and will shout it from the mountain tops (or whisper it in the closet).

And I do not subscribe that Made in Japan = perfection. US-made cars compete favorably in all quality aspects, as verfied by the mfr's themselves in their quality audits.

I think my S2000 (one of the last made at Tochigi) is particularly well srewed together, but that is likely the result of the "hand-made" status it enjoys being built side by side with the NSX, by Honda's best assemblers. Had the best assemblers been US or Hungarian, thge results would be fine as well.

Have you seen a VW Toureg up close? Magnificent assdembly, and it is done in Slovakia - quality is not a racial heritage, it is a mindset achievable by any group of people with the determination to do it right.

 

Variable seat warming is a useful feature. I formerly had a Volvo with the seat heating controlled by the automatic climate control. As the car warmed up the seats would automatically get cooler. It's one of those things that you know you don't need until you have it for awhile.

 

Made in Japan does not necessarily mean it is built better but the factory where the car was assembled does have a correlation with quality. Toyota's plant that makes the Lexus vehicles (except the IS300) has the world's finest quality rating by far. Nothing Honda makes can compete in terms of the QC there. I might add that Infiniti has also had higher quality ratings than Acura each year in the last 5 years according to both JD powers and Consumer Reports and all Infiniti's are built in Japan. Nissan has a plant in Tennessee and that plant consistently has quality problems relative to their Japanese Nissan counterparts. So although the country origin may not necessarily mean better QC, it seems by de facto circumstances that the Japanese counterparts produce better quality vehicles because they have better factories which eventually leads to: Japan > USA in terms of quality. (IMO)

 

Again, it is people, not a regiono r a race. But Honda's own internal memos, the Marysville plant has one of the lowest defect rates of Honda world-wide. And JD Power ratings are pretty meaningless, as they rely on perceptions - and it is well-known that an older demographic cites fewer problems - the Buick Century was up there, as its name likely indicated the average age of its owners. No doubt the Lexus is well-made, but that is because of strict QC rules, and the fact that they can afford to have the line stop, or move slowly, since the car is a premium priced one. One imprtant factor fo quality is the supplier quality, too. Japanese mfrs are great at that, with their kansei practices. Mercedes has sourced parts from hither and yon, and cannot oversee the quality, and are paying the price.

My NSX and S2000 were made at Tochigi, and I would compare either to the LS430 plant(s). But I do agree that the Japanese buying public is quite picky, and shoddy craftmanship will always be punished, so they may have better crafted cars overall. Yet the Asian car collectors love American muscle cars for their looks, sound, and outrageous powertrains - even though they were made by blind people, or so it would seem. Cheers!

 

I drove the RL today...

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.....

I love how the dash seems moved down and toward the front of the car... feels very spacious front to back from the driver's seat...

Paddle shifters (autostick) shift rather well and if you time your shift (don't let it get too close to redline) you barely feel a jerk...

Very nice...

 

While I do not always agree with statements proclaiming Japan > US in terms of quality, I don't think you can use a manufacturer's internal quality audits as "evidence" that the build quality is really there.

I work in public accounting, and if that's taught me anything, it teaches me that unless you have an independent third party performing the audits and the testing of evidence to back claims of X or Y, you cannot make an assessment that can be trusted. That's why even internal audit departments cannot be relied upon for financial statement audits (but they can provide a "heads-up" to the department being audited in terms of what the external auditors will likely find).

 

well u can go to RL forum and read there or compare tl and rl on acura.com :P

 

MP3 just wasn't important enough to invoke a redesign in the ELS/Panasonic sound system from '04 to '05. In all liklihood, MP3 is one of those things that sounds nice on a features list but as a practical matter, I'm not sure how many folks take the time to burn MP3 audio onto CDs.

In my opinion, MP3 audio should be delivered via a MP3 player like the iPod. I would much rather have a direct-connect external audio interface than a CD changer that plays in the MP3 format.

 

Along that train of thought, anyone could have easily compared the G35 to the TL on the Acura website but would that really give them any idea how the car handled or felt compared to the TL? At least the original post gets us one step closer to that understanding, even if it's limited since it's 3rd-person.

And, I defer to Ron A's statement from an earlier post, which I quote:

 

Good review, thanks. I really would love to see a 6spd offered.

 

geez dude chill ok i'm just kidding around....

 

Not a scientific study, but my observations:
* From a side view, the RL has a very MBZ S class look (not that's a bad thing), very classy
* Inside is nice, comfortable and clean, although the "knob" is IMH ugly, yet functional
* Front and back view is nice from the outside, yet un-exciting
* The car is definately more exciting in person than on Tv/or ads (as is the TL)
* Haven't driven it yet, but can't see $15k worth of advantage..

I am one man with one opinion!

 

Nice review, DMZ. I plan on test driving the RL soon. I don't think I want to trade up, but do want to see what all the fuss is about.

 

I test drived RL too and I am amazed by the SH-AWD. RL handles much better than my Stock 04TL auto. The car handles like or better than RSX. Super fast cornering and also much less body roll.

However I do fine they both accelerate pretty much the same and I am not impressed by RL's 300 hp. People already explained to me that although RL has additional 30hp than TL but it weights 500lb more than TL, so RL actually is slower than TL

I am also one of those who does not like the interior I-drive turning knob and also find center console a bit confusing because it has alot of buttons. Nonetheless I like the interior and also its exterior style too. At first I really thought the new RL looks like Camery but in life RL does not like camery IMHO. I do wish if RL's exterior style is more agressive but that just me. After saw the mugen RL picture, I would say RL is sexy!

 

according to www.carpoint.com 0 to 60 tl auto is 6.66 and the stick is 6.74

 

I forgot to mention the paddle shifter in my review at the beginning of this thread. Not only does it work well, but the sportshift will not allow you to shift into a higher gear than the drivetrain can handle at a given moment....

AND FOR SPORTSHIFT ENTHUSIASTS:
THE GEAR INDICATOR DISPLAY STARTS WITH 1 NOT A 2
THE SPORTSHIFT WILL ALLOW YOU TO BE THE ONE WHO DECIDES WHEN IT'S TIME TO SHIFT FROM 1st TO 2nd !!


Also, having a tire pressure indicator on the trip computer display comes in really handy.

 

 

I thought the 17's on the RL look inappropriate for the size of the vehicle... the A-spec 18's, while nicer than the 17" rims, still don't quite do it for this beautiful luxury vehicle. I think they need to go back to the drawing board and create some unique rims for each a-spec line, rather than use the same 5 split spoke design for the TL, TSX, and RL.

 

I believe the old TLS did the 60 in 6.6 seconds. Car & Driver got 6.2 for the auto and 5.7 for the manual. This was in the comparo about 4 months back.

 

Personally I think the SH-AWD would have made more sense on the TL. From the posts here it appears that the average TL owner/buyer is more interested in performance, than the average RL buyer. As such an A-Spec version which at the very least offered sh-awd would probably be something that quite a few people would spring for (myself included).

Here's my idea for an A-Spec TL

300hp
SH-awd
6 speed only (with more agressive gearing)
Adjustable suspension (similar to that of the Volvo S60R) or at the very least stiffer suspension.
Brembos all the way around (not just the fronts)

I love the TL, I just think that it could be made quite a bit better.

In my opinion the average RL buyer is a bit on the old side... at least older