chachmo

Well, I was at my delaer on Friday for the 15K maint. on my '08, and thought what the heck, I'll check out the '09 while I wait. I have been fairly critical of the body design since it was unveiled, and was not expecting to be impressed.

I must say, in my opinion the car looks way better in person. I still dislike the cheese grater on the nose, and the back still looks overdone. However, these shortcomings seem to fade a bit when the car is taken in as a whole. As a package I think it is quite attractive.

Once I sat in the car, the envy really began to kick in. For better or worse the move has been made from sport to luxury, and personally I like the result. The best new interior element has to be the Nav screen. The higher resolution makes a huge difference. The other new features (HDD, Weather, etc..) have brought the TL back to the cutting edge on the tech front.

I let the salesman "talk me into" taking a drive, and the move toward luxury was again aparent. The steering wheel is fatter and has a more substantial feel which I liked. The new power steering is really nice at low speeds and is a huge improvement. Acceleration seemed pretty similar to my base 08, though it did seem that road noise was a bit more noticeable at highway speeds. I meant to reset the trip computer to see what it calculated on mpg, since I am skeptical that this larger v6 can get the same 32-34 highway that I get in my 08. I forgot to do this however.

All in all I am definitely impressed, I think that aside from questionable exterior design choices, Acura has done a great job with this car. I realize that not everyone will agree with the direction the car has taken, but it works for me. I still totally love my 08, but find myself wishing I had waited a year. The new features are worth having, and I too hate being "out-body-styled.." If the wife lets me I may trade up!!!

KeithL

ACtually I took one ona 40 mile drive through 45 MPH ish windy back roads with little stoppig and did reset the trip compter I was surprised to see it got around 23-25 and considering it is the same engine ias my Type-S I was guessing it would porbably do a tad better than my Type-S since there is no powering steering pump drag. I suspect it will do very close to what a base 3G TL did and at least as good as a 3G Type-S. I can easily get 27-28MPG on HWY with my Type-S depending on how fast and steady I drive.

Cecilt

27-28 is a big drop from what I get in my base TL. I just got 32 on a 200 mile road trip with a little driving off the highway. This was with cruise set at 74 and not a flat highway. If the TL SH-AWD will get near this it will still be in strong consideration. 25-27 on straight highway trips will rule it out.

KeithL

I have not done many long straight HWY with my Type-S, the short HWY runs have been 27-28MPG, I also drive 80MPH+ so thats not to say ona long normal HWY run it maight get 30MPG, I have seen it get to 30MPG on the trip computer, but again if I drive hilly terrain or whatever it usually settles around 27. My base TL I had used to get about 1-2 MPG more on the HWY, well worth the trade off to me as the Type-S is an awesome car to drive. I used to get 22.5 MPG average on my base TL, my current Type-S is 22.3 over 8000 miles, but this Type-S has seen more HWY like driving, my last 08 Type-S averaged 21.5 over 7000 miles. 80% of mu driving is commutting 18 miles each way in suburban 40-45 MPH driving, my trip MID usually has a 27-30 MPH average speed.

TLTrance

In my 2005 5AT TL, I got 35mpg from Burlingame to Walnut going btw 63-75mph (varying). I drove nearly 420 miles and when I filled up, I only had to get 12 gallons. I could've easily made over 460 miles before the fuel light coming on (which comes on when 13.7 gallons have been used from full w/o topping off).

1075

The only TRUE way to accurately calculate mileage on ANY vehicle is to take the miles driven since the last fill up, and divide that number by the number of gallons required to fill the tank at the next fill up.

On board MPG computers vary widely and should not be considered accurate until checked against the method listed above.

TLTrance

I totally agree, and this is why I calculated as indicated my post above. I can tell you, however, that the trip cfomputer was very accurate in my TL... city or freeway driving.