I figured I would post a short story, and before you guys tell me I am an idiot for driving in poor conditions, I know, but it could not be avoided.

During a snowy December night I was traveling from Spokane to Seattle on I90, during my travel from Spokane I did not encounter any snow till I reached Ellensburg.

I was traveling about 55MPH with snow on the ground, and snow coming down, lots of slush, and ice, and packed snow, basically the worst road conditions. I changed lanes from the further most right lane to the center lane, my TL started to yaw, and I had began to lose control. I tried to correct the car, but it began to over-correct, I knew that I was going to go into a spin and would end up getting hit by the cars and trucks behind me, or skate onto an unimproved surface and crash. About 2 seconds into my loss of control the VSA kicked in and straightened out the car. I was amazed, I knew the system was designed for this type of thing, but I didn’t think even it could work that well, but it did. In another 2 seconds I was again in control.

I was thinking about getting rid of my TL. But after this, I have decided to keep it for another year or so, I usually do the 3 year thing with cars, but I was a little disappointed with the TL because of the rattles and such, I can over look those pesky niggles for life saving technology.

 

Glad that you made it unscathed. The TL is a mighty fine car.

 

i haven't had an experience like that with the VSA, but when it's slick out and my TL can't get any traction, the car kind of takes over and doesn't let me hit the gas...no matter how far i put the pedal down, it rolls slowly for me, not sliding around or anything...i assume that's how the VSA is supposed to work...the VSA orange light on the dash will flash on and off quickly, i guess indicating that it has taken over for a moment...

 

Wow, sounds scary. glad everything turned out OK.

More piece of mind for me, since my last car was RWD and sucked in anything other than dry pavement.

 

wow, glad everything came up ok, my car did, sorta the same thing as well. glad to hear!
~Jason

 

glad you ok, and happy that we dont have snow in NY yet..

 

Wow. The Acura is a mighty fine vehicle where it counts. Living in the desert I haven't had to drive through ice (ever) but it's nice to know that if I ever did, I'd have an extra layer of safety.

 

awesome

 

the wonders of technology.... its good that you have decided to keep the TL, as for the rattles, there are plenty of fixes for them that are on the boards here.

 

 

Saved from the Darwin Theory by technology. Hopefully you'll slow down next time. And you're lucky that there will be a next time.....

 

Thats awesome but I bet right before it came in you felt your heart drop into your stomach.

 

yes yes .. vsa has saved me once when i was driving a little to sprited through a back road. i under estimated a long right turn which quickly turns into a sharp right turn and began to oversteer ... vsa kicked in and save my life and my beloved car.

 

Hey guys,

My heart did drop, and everything turned to slow motion, its weird. And yes, the lesson for this is to drive my Explorer next time, it handles much better in poor weather conditions.

I have purposely lost control of other cars on snowy icy parking lots to understand, and know how the vehicles would react, I did not do this with the TL because I was afraid of hurting it, I have a pretty good idea of when im about to loose control, but in this car, this was the first travel in the snow, and the last.

The stock Pilot Sports do not do the car justice. The TL is without a doubt one of the best handling cars I have driven for a good smooth ride. Say what you like about the competition, but for the money, the ride and handling is the very best.

I have to remind myself like all things in life, focus on the good aspects, not the negative, but that’s human nature. Most of my rattles have been fixed, and the fix for me to appreciate the car is to not drive it for a week, and use the Ford, then come back to it, and I like it all over again, like when it was new.

I knew within 3 minutes of the test drive it was my next car. I didn’t think the technology was that great in the car, because of the no switchblade keys, the manual fuel door popper, and some other things.

But in the end, after using the Navi, and the VSA, and the brakes, I forget, I always forget to brag about how this car stops better than anything else I have owned, when I panic stop, which has happened twice, the TL applies maximum brake force to the ABS to stop the car and protect me from crashing, the system learns my driving habits, and amazingly knows when I am in trouble, I love it, I guess my TL is my mechanical angel, haha, anyway cheers!