Not feeling the new TL design at all. Acura has lost the clean design lines they have always had. I'll be replacing my current TL with an Audi A4 6MT turbo.

 

I am 46. I owned a 2003 CL-S 6 speed which I purchased new and put 183k on it in 4 years....absolutely loved this Acura. I now own a 2006 CPO RL. The RL does not excite me, but I drive 40k miles plus every year and the RL is a very pleasing and satisfying car overall. A terrific long-distance cruiser with great features (I have the CMBS package).
I do not like Acura's current design direction.
The side profile of the new TL is too similar to the prior generation Maxima. The front and rear are butt ugly. The cost cutting on the interior is very apparent. The interior door pulls are now cheap hard plastic and the map pockets are cheap hard plastic. The prior TL had padded fold out map pockets in the doors. Even VW uses soft skin over plastics. Acura seems to have benchmarked the Taurus for the current TL interior.
If it were not for the stellar Acura dealer service I would prefer the new VW Passat CC over the TL. The Passat CC is a stunning car. In this economy, I think it is going to be very hard for Acura to move product that does not immediately and without qualification, evoke strong emotional engagement.
I look forward to Acura's "return to grace"....so I hope!

 

1940's decade here
I sat at the curb in front of the local Acura dealer the other night hoping to see my first 09 TL in person..shows you how many they haven't sold around here as I haven't seen any on the road.

Anyway, they did have two that I could see....my first impression (not related to the beak) was that I couldn't believe how large vertically the front bumper was from the bottom of the lip to the headlamps.....I still can't get over it!! At least the grill can be fixed.
Second blunder was the wheel well bump on the top of the fenders...kinda reminded me of an old AMC (Rambler)Javelin tsk tsk

Funny, the TL was sitting next to a TSX...the TSX was a hands down winner looks wise....maybe when and if they put the 3.2 engine in it I may pick one up

 

I love these type of threads. Too much opinion here. The latest T-shirt going around is applicable:

"Hi hater, bye hater..."

Oh, by the way I test drove the Audi A4, extremely nice! It just wasn't right for me as the interior of the TL kicks it's butt. More options!

 

Agree. Please lets not let Acurazine turn into another Autospies. Just a bunch of guys talking about a bunch of nothing. Like I said a few posts ago; it's like trying to debate the best flavor of ice cream. There's no right answer. These treads get long with the haters just feeding off each other. Turns into a contest to see who can make the most clever disparaging remark to describe the new style. To use a popular recent phrase; It's a bridge to nowhere.

Most check into these site to hear discussion on real problems people are having with their cars, or stories about their experiences with handling, performance, mods, industry rumors, etc. The rest is just background noise.

 

I'm in my mid 40's and do not like the exterior styling of 4G.
Hopefully on the MMC or 5G TL they will turn the styling "BOLD" knob volume from 11 back to maybe a 8.
Love the interior styling however!

 

I was getting ready to replace my 2005 TL in year or so, but if when I do, it looks like the 2009, I'll just keep it or move on to another car.

 

"Anyone have an older persons opinion on the 4G TL Styling?"

Older guy here. Opinion here.

What the hell were they thinking? Hopefully this was done by a volunteer designer because if those guys paid them they lost!

This car looks like, any second, it will turn in to an animated character in "Cars".

 

Let me be sure I understand the logic here....

The thread asks for OPINIONS, specifically from older persons.
Many persons graciously share their OPINIONS.

And should those OPINIONS not be favorable, they are HATERS. Wow, how scarey is that?

Perhaps the thread should be titled: "Anyone have an older persons opinion on the 4G TL Styling that is in AGREEMENT with the self proclaimed NON
HATERS"?

You do not want opinions. You want affirmation. It is something you will understand when you become an 'older person'.

If you love your 4G TL more power to you. Then you need no opinion then your own.

If anyone disagrees, they are HATERS? That is frightening logic that wars are faught over.

 

I'm an older person, 50 years old. I went a to pick up my 05 from the dealer tonight. It was getting some warrenty work done. Anyway, I had time to give another look to the 09 they had sitting in the showroom floor. I really like the inside but the outside is slowly growing on my. They had a regular non SH-AWD black on black with big 19" wheels. The grill was painted black too. This car is big, very big. Because it is a big car, needs big wheels that look proportional to it's big size. This is a big beast that can be modded into something very sinister looking with an attitude. Would I buy it? Maybe, maybe not. With my 05 there was no question that I wanted. Even after 3.5 years and 50,000 miles I still turn around at stare at it when I walk away. I don't have that feeling towards this design. It is a nice car but the passion is not there. I don't want a car that will slowly grow on me.

 

40+ I think the car must be a great driver but a couple things get me about where they are going.

I think the styling is a botched attempt at copying Cadillac's Arts&Sciences styling. There are too many angles where not needed such as the fog light area. It might be easier to swallow a radical styling job if the performance were on par. if the car did the 0-60 in the high 4's but isn't it a bit pretentious ?

So tell me is the fact that geezers look at the new TL and say EWW, enough inspiration to go an buy one ?

 

Tampa...YOU ARE THE MAN !!!! I think your thread stops the "haters" syndrome in it's tracks. I read your post and thought, "man, why did I write that?"

THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST !!!!

 

, I also still look at my 05 3G the same way. What lines, curves and angles, everything is so well proportionally done and it all flows together.

Maybe the 4G was the design to have "jumped the shark".

 

More like; "Nuke the fridge".

 

I still agree with bmode. To me a hater=Someone who continues to teardown something long after their point has been made.

Maybe I'm a little hypersensitive because I also own an 07 RL and had to listen to this chatter about the new 09 RL shield for the last year. I had fun for the first few weeks bashing it too. But it kind of got boring after a while. Then it became annoying to hear people keep talking about it. Now I buy a new TL and have to listen to this crap all over again.

We all know the shield is a radical change. Some like it, the majority don't. I'm one who doesn't particularly care for it. What else is there to say on the subject. Let's move on.

 

I'm sure there are Honda/Acura marketing people browsing through all these auto forums. Only by keep repeat ourselves on the same point (in this case, the "too-radical" signature grille), this is the only way we can hit home our points which may perhaps make Honda to realize it's radical grille design is heading in the wrong direction.

If car buyers all shut up their opinions and not making more noise than is necessary, Honda may continue to hurdle towards this dead end path in which me and you may never buy another Acura product again.

 

Best post on this or any other board since the car came out. Thank you Tampa.

 

Both of my managers like it. Personally, I think it looks okay. It just doesn't fit in well with the other and previous Acuras. If it were rebadged as Lexus, then I think it would flow very well with other current Lexuses.

The only mistake I believe Acura made was to apply the shield grille to all of the sedans in the same year. The 09 RL looks great and sharp to me. The new TSX improved in every way except power. The TL improved as well, yet no one is willing to get pass the exterior. I have yet to read a bad review about the new TL, aside from its subjective looks.

 

Let's not flatter ourselves. Acura is not reading these boards looking for styling feedback from us. We're way to small of a sampling and inherently biased towards the current style. Most of the people on this TL forum own a 3G TL. Thus, the feedback will be naturally biased towards that style for various reasons (familiarity, ego, etc.). Fast forward 4 years and most of the people on here will own 4G TL's and there won't be any negative comments about the shield anymore (assuming they don't change it before then) because all these current posters will have liked it given the fact that they bought one. At that time a new style will be emerging and all the 4G owners will call it hideous and the cycle will begin again.

The only way to judge if the style is well received is by broad samplings across all car buyers (NOT just Acura car buyers). Also, sales figures.

 

As always, wise words from SpiceyMikey

 

There was a thread here not too long ago with some current 4G TL owners started to paint over the giant shield, and other dealership(s) showing 4G TL's with painted-over giant shield in the showroom(s). Why ? To make the front end look less hideous. These are not 3G TL owners, they are genuine 4G TL owners.

Hardly we see many 2G and 3G TL owners and dealerships who painted over their TL grilles as if to hide something visually unpleasant. Now this should tell us something.

 

For crying out loud, Acura practically hides the grille themselves in the print ads and commercials (always dark and lit so that you can't really see it - at least doesn't highlight it). As someone said, the only people that don't find it ugly are the owners.

 

Exactly. And as consumers begin buying the "power plenum" Acura's, the opinion will shift towards those who like it on these boards. More importantly, as more and more are seen on the road, this style cue will become an icon of Acura. This icon is not what will make the car sell. It's the product associated with it that matters. Every style cue can (and does) become accepted over time. There's a saying "Familiarity breeds contempt". That's often true when getting to know people. But with style the saying is "Familiarity breeds acceptance". Anyone old enough to remember winged cadillacs, bell bottoms, or Afro's will know what I mean. At first they seemed ridiculous, then accepted, then cool.

We're all mostly gear heads and mechanical guys on these boards. We know a lot about cars but it's obvious we know little about marketing. This cue has everything to do with marketing just like Audi's (now signature) drop jaw grill. Considered hideous at first, admired now.

 

The jury will be out for quite awhile on the power plenum grill before we know if it will be accepted or not.

One of its issues is that Acura has no real halo car to lead this styling theme.

I don't know if you are old enough to remember it but one of Ford's marketing trick grills that was a major league bust was the Edsel horse collar. It took the entire car line down in about 4 or 5 years

 

I will agree with the halo car statement. Very insightful. Probably would have been accepted quicker if it was introduced on a very desirable halo car. The 2009 RL does not qualify for that title and the image immediately became associated with a failed vehicle rather than a desired image statement. Kind of the Edsel situation. The Edsel didn't fail because of the horse collar. It failed inspite of it from other factors. You are old enough to remember it so I'm surprised you would perpetuate that myth which has evolved over the years. Fact is, the signature grill became the icon for the failure but not the cause. That's the double edged sword of an icon style. It will get you remembered for better or worse.

http://www.failuremag.com/arch_history_edsel.html


Jag has been using the horse collar grill forever. Hasn't brought them down? Back before the latest redesign, the S type front looked strikingly like the Edsel front (in a more modern way). Even the current designs still have the look

http://www.jaguarusa.com/us/en/xf/ga...hotography.htm

Even the Audi grill is somewhat of a variation on that style . Regardless of the outcry in the beginning, it has become accepted by most as the signature of Audi. We've come to look passed the pure appearance of the grill itself and see what it represents. On a purely esthetic basis, I still think it's ugly.

 

Well, let's face it, unless your name happens to be Barack Obama, people don't like change. For so many years, Honda/Acura was famous for making conservatively-designed, practical automobiles. Now they change their design philosophy and come out with some radically-styled cars. Is it any surprise what people's reaction will be? Time will tell where this new philosophy will take Acura, but given the long and prosperous history of Honda, I wouldn't bet against them.

 

Don't like change? Well that statement can go both ways.

I did not like the 1st Gen RL
I did not like the 2nd Gen TL

But when the 2nd Gen RL was launched, I loved it.
When the 3rd Gen TL was launched not only did I love it, I thought it set a new standard in automotive styling.

I was not resisting those changes. I embraced them. I even bought them....BOTH of them.

 

Very true Pete. I suppose it could have been predicted. But i remember the buzz on the BMW boards a few years ago and also the Audi boards when the latest design changes were introduced. It's predictable in every instance

 

Tell that to anyone who bought an Edsel or an Aztec.

Nobody has mentioned the other possibility: that even in a few years from now, these cars will look even more ridiculous than they do now ("look how fat and big it is!"). I can't picture them showing up at any classic car shows anyway.

If people didn't like change, they would still be driving around with AM Radios and crank windows. What some people don't like is change just for the sake of change, or worse, a change in the wrong direction.

 

Consistency ..... is the key. The Audi "drop jaw" signature grille is applied to almost all of the Audi vehicle lines. Unlike Acura who applies one variation of it's signature grille on the new TSX, another variation on the new RL, and yet another extreme variation (giant shield) on the new TL.

In order to unite an auto brand, you have to be consistent especially with something considered signature. You want to do the same grille treatment to the brand's all vehicle lines.

Let's see if this same TL giant shield signature grille will continue to be used on the '10 RL, and perhaps the NSX replacement, and the MMC '11 TL. Then we'll know how popular this new grille design is.

 

I'd like to meet the person(s) that decided that all cars within a brand had to look similar. Following that logic, the Mustang would have looked like a Falcon and the VW Bus would have looked like the Beetle. Why not put the Impala's taillights on the Corvette? Let's put the Pinto's nose on police cars!

Stupid.

 

...or have a Lincoln look like a Ford!

 

This is "Brand Recognition", and it is what Acura has been dying, but failing, to achieve as genuine luxury brand, not the wanna-be luxury brand Acura is in now.

This is all to do with luxury brands. Almost all MB vehicles look the same, almost all BMW's look the same, and almost all Audi's look the same. This is the sole purpose of the signature grille for luxury vehicles. When people see a MB, BMW, or Audi, they immediately associate it with the brand name. They pay big premium for the BRAND NAME. They don't mistake an Audi as a VW, but many can't tell an Acura with a Honda.

This brand recognition has nothing to do with cheap economy brands which carry no premium for buyer to justify, and so it sounds more stupid to name the economy brand Mustang, Falcon, VW Bus, Beetle, Impala, and Corvette as examples.

 

^^^ agree

I also agree with your earlier comment. They need to be a bit more consistent in how they implement this icon grill. However, Honda has a bit of a problem (which has caused so many issues with Acura over the years), Acura's have mostly been rebadged Honda's. Looks like they might be trying to solve that issue too, but it will take time. As we know, the RL and TSX are both Honda's. The TL is an exclusive Acura brand. Does that mean the TL implementation is the way they really want to go I hope not. I'm not so much against the shield as others, but I think it should be implemented in a more "balanced" way. I also don't like how it protrudes onto the hood line. The TSX is the best implementation IMO, but I'm sure that was done to retrofit it into the Euro Accord design that already existed.

 

Anyone that uses "Corvette" and "economy" in the same sentence I don't take seriously. And your "logic" also works on the models I quoted: people look at the car and say "that's a Corvette". And they don't confuse it for a Cobalt or a Cavalier. So you see you made my point for me.

To be sure, people will be looking at the TL and saying "that's an Acura", but probably not in the respect that the company intended.

 

Spicy, I found the TL front end on another Honda, nicely balanced

http://www.wheels.ca/reviews/article/473277

 

There ya go, much better. I heard that's a preview for version 2 of the power plenum

 

Too bad the Corvette is marketed under the Chevrolet name plate. As a result, it is classified as a expensive economy-brand sport car, despite how fast it can sprint from 0-60 and how many Ferrari's and Porsche's it can dust.

Chevrolet and Pontiac are always GM's economy brand. Buick always GM's more upmarket brand, and Cadillac always GM's luxury brand, unless some white knights come in to buy up GM and decide to complete revamp all these GM divisions.

So Corvette and the "economy" brand Chevrolet always go together, whether we like it or not.

But if instead, market the Corvette under Cadillac, then the Corvette would become a luxury-brand sport car and would likely cost twice as much as the current economy brand sport car.

This is exactly what Acura wants to achieve. This is exactly the reason why Acura decided to drop model names like Legend, Integra, Vigor, etc., and instead started off using alpha-numeric designation for all it's model lines, in the same way as for MB, BMW, and other recognized luxury auto brands. Why the numeric part was latter dropped, I don't know.

Acura wants people to associate the RL, TL, TSX, ....., as an Acura, not an individual entity. Honda has no such problem with brand identity, so all it's model names (Accord, Civic, Odyssey, .....) will continue to stay for years to come.

 

I was at the LA Auto show today and they had a light blue TL with the body kit and the 19" wheels, It didn't look too bad. It has Lexus GS look to it. It could use a drop though. Sorry guys, but I just couldn't get past that unpainted front grill. If Acura wanted a defining feature, good or bad, they found it in that grill. It will get either get laughs or looks, but you'll know it's an Acura.

BTW, that Honda fuel cell concept was just plain F'in ugly.

 

Yes, I already posted links to pics of it on another thread, but, here again are the links:

http://www.vtec.net/articles/article...8laias-022.jpg

http://www.vtec.net/articles/article...8laias-021.jpg