jjsC5

I'm starting a new thread to show my new TL, as if you don't know what they look like

I'll also use this thread to post my thoughts on the car. I picked it up late this morning. As ya'll know, it's really my wife's new car, but shes at work today so I'm playing with it.

A couple of early observations. I could not believe that you cannot upload MP3's from a disc or USB to the HDD. Let me repeat - I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I could on my CTS. The dealer said it's because they don't want to encourage pirating. What a crock. So the only way to load to the HDD is about 15 minutes an album. Totally stupid.

Second, how many times do you guys hit the knob (what do they call the knob?) when you put the car in park? I'm two-for-two in changing the radio station when I put it in park.

I'll also be making some comments as I go comparing it to my Lexus GS350. Probably a little premature, but so far I'll say I think the TL Stereo is better in the TL than the Mark Levinson in the Lexus. The Lexus feels a little quicker - as much as anything it just feels more responsive in both the engine and transmission than the Acura. But it's not a big difference, and I'd bet that in a side-by-side full on race they would be extremely close. I've learned over the years that seat of the pants can be deceiving.

Here are some pics - I'm well versed in

krislv

Awesome, congrats!

Treblig

Schweet! Now where have I seen that car before . About the quickness or lack thereof vs your Lexus, once the TL loosens up a bit the quickness may improve.

Hapa DC5

Nice stable you have there.... Congrats on the purchase.

Willie3.5

Nice quality of cars! Your garage looks amazing as well, very sophisticated!

weather

Congrats on your purchase....Mine arrived last evening and will pick it up a week from today so I am looking forward to test driving it too. I will say that is sad that you cannot upload from your MP3, in fact, its pathetic really if that is the case. So let me get this straight, how can I get my MP3 (from USB or player) uploaded into the hard drive?

Secondly, I LOVE the color and Stew will attest to this as I am a huge fan of his, and love yours too Treblig. Mine is the SH-AWD (BWP) with Tech package but didn't take the cooled seats...I know I will get flamed but prefer the 18" wheels.

Finally, that is quite the collection of cars you have there!

Enjoy the wife enjoys the ride too.

jjsC5

Thanks for the nice comments

What they told me at the dealer is that the only way to download (or is it "upload"?) to the HDD is by putting in a disc - and not a disc you made at home.

I have tried the USB port with a thumb drive - it works pretty well. That is what I have in my Lexus. The Lexus is limited to how many songs it will handle on the USB, and the functionality is not all that great as far as searching for songs - very cumbersome. I'll be experimenting with the TL to see if it's any better. Might even read the manual - but I'll never admit to it here on the forum

weather

I will never ask you to admit reading the manual here but if you do, please PM me and maybe you save me from reading mine

I guess that I will not be taking advantage of the hard drive afterall. That is sad as it was something I was looking forward to have...All my music is either on burned CD or USB/player. CRAP!

Can anyone confirm this...not even burned CD will get uploaded on the Hard Disk?

nunyazz

I've use burnt audio CD's. Get you 2 re-writable cd's, make an audio CD (album) of your mp3 files.
You can load this CD to your car's HDD. While the CD is loading, write another CD from your computer. It only took me about an hour to fill my HDD up. Not the easiest way, but better than filling out info in the car's system.

jjsC5

I tried that already and it didn't work. I'm not sure if they were "re-writable" or not. I have several around the house - I'll recheck and try it. I'm not sure I understand your comment about using 2 Cds.

Thanks for the advice.

weather

From the sounds of things, it may be doable afterall. I don't think that it would dependant on how you ripped your CD that would prevent you from copying to HDD but I suspect it may just be a "read the manual moment" (teasing)

About the two disc, I think he is refering to the fact that as one is burning on the HDD, you can prepare the other disk and so on and so on .. it is simply a way to speed up the process.

Good luck

Stew4HD

Congrats! Sweet car, I must say!

I pretty much use my iPod because of the BS way Acura blocks us from uploading via usb.

I have never hit the knob when putting my car in park.. and have had it nearly 2 months

nunyazz

Yes, that is what I meant by using 2 discs. While one is burning on the computer you can have one downloading in the car. And by using re-writable discs, you are only using 2 discs instead of many. You just have to burn them as Audio CDs, not mp3 cds.

jspagna1

It's a beauty. My wife loves the WDP with the Ebony. Congrats.

types1fan

Congrats on the ride, great choice of color combo.

jjsC5

Yes, you must say

I'm the last guy on the planet without an iPod

I have very big hands. In fact, big hands and big feet.....that's all though

Okay, that is what I thought as well. I did not understand in your first post - they can't be MP3s??? That sort of defeats the purpose doesn't it? I would think there would not be much to be gained if they are not compressed files.

ostrich

I swear that all of the available SH-AWD Advance in BWP have been snapped up by the members in this forum! LOL

Congrats on the purchase! It's beautiful. You/your wife will LOVE it!!! :-)

jjsC5

OK, I have more observations and questions. My wife and I went to dinner in it, and I've spent probably an hour or more messing with settings and learning the controls.

Item: The default was set so that everytime you highlight something in the audio system, "nav lady" would tell you what you just highlighted. If you are just scrolling through the stations - even if you don't select them, she would announce every station you scrolled through, for instance. GOD was that irritating. It took me a few tries, but I think I finally shut her up.

Question: Does the phone book download (from your smart-phone) happen every time you get in your car and the phone pairs? I don't see a way to turn this off so it only downloads when you want it to. Kind of a pain because it takes time for it to load.

Question: How does the memory system work on the audio and climate controls? Does it simply remember the setting when each driver turned the car off, or does it always go to some pre-set setting?

BTW, I actually did read a lot of the manual - neither one of these issues was answered in the manual.

We really like the car a lot. But it really is a techie car. Fortunately, I like that sort of stuff. My wife is good at learning to use the features once they are set up, but I don't see her wanting to do all the set up work up front. Not her thing.

pickler

nice i see '12 TLs quite a bit now here in toronto but mostly in dark colours

Treblig

The Factory default has the "nav lady" repeating your commands and highlighted items while the vehicle is in motion. This can be turned off. As soon as I call the pathway I will let you know what it is, unless someone elas beats me to it.

I can't answer the phonebook question.

The memory system works on the audio and climate control settings by remembering the last settings just before the car was turned off by the last driver (Driver 1 or Driver 2).

nunyazz

The phonebook only downloads 1 time.
The audio controls (channels and settings) mirror settings need to be saved to the driver# memory button. It will remember the last setting if you are the next driver to unlock the car, but if a different driver# unlocks the car they get reset to that drivers last saved settings.

Back to the HDD music downloading. It was a bit of a pain, but I chose to put some 'old faithful' (Beatles, Bob Marley, Jazz, etc...)type music on the HDD and use the USB stick (16gb) for my 'current' song selections. Being that I won't need to continue to update the HDD songlist, the onetime pain of downloading the CD's to the HDD wasn't that big of a deal.

jjsC5

Thanks for the replies. Everything is good and set up now, but I'll never quite get past the issue of not being able to download MP3 formatted files to the HDD.

Stew4HD

I hope that someone can come up with mod to be able to use the HDD in the it should be used.., but I am not getting my hopes up

crxb

the hard drive is about as useful as the DVD-A (DVD-A - great sound - except you have to buy DVD-As on the Antique Road Show)
- just use an iPod type device

Stew4HD

^ What?? I bought DVD-A's from Amazon.com 2 weeks ago... no, not all are still available new but many are. I listen to DVD-A's a lot.

ZCL

Phone Book is flawed. Most 2012 TL's have the design flaw and Acura does not have a fix yet. In the current state it will try to download every time you get back into the phone application, not just the car.

Set speed dials for the frequent numbers and just wait it out with Acura.

In fact, call Acura Client Services to complain about it so that they keep working on a fix, that should exist already.

jjsC5

THANK YOU. After reading an earlier reply I thought maybe I was dreaming it did it twice in a row.

I was out on my motorcycle all day today, so I had to let my wife drive HER new car today . She called me at lunch and could not say enough about how much she likes the car. When I got home she raved about it again.

kixo

What also sucks is that the system saves the downloaded music from the lossless CDs in a 128k compression format. Very poor sound, and a bit pointless when Acura raves about the audiophile quality of its ELS sound system.

Acura did it so its marketing geeks can advertise that the HDD holds 3,000 songs, albeit highly compressed. Why didn't Acura allow the user to choose the level of compression, or at least choose a lower compression ratio, like 192k, so you can get the most out of the ELS system?

jjsC5

I just went out to the garage and did a back seat and trunk comparison between my Lexus GS350 and the TL. The back seat in the TL wins this round. The seat sits higher off the floor which supported my thighs better, and the TL has about an inch more head room.

Comparing trunks is not so easy. I had both of them open with the cars side-by-side. At first look the Lexus trunk appeared bigger. But the way the wheel-wells and hump for the rear differential intrude is completely different on the cars. I did not try putting anything in the trunk, but I took a couple of quick measurements and just kind of eyeballed them. The TL trunk is 1-2" higher in the main part. Right now I'm thinking the TL has more overall space. But they are close I - and neither of them is as big as I think they should be for a car this size and designed as a full size luxury sedan.

As to some other comparisons, no doubt the TL, especially with the SH-AWD is much more the "sport sedan" of the two. We drove the TL downtown last night (I live 25 miles out in the suburbs) on roads I drive all the time in my Lexus. The Lexus rides better, the TL much firmer. But neither my wife nor I thought the TL was bad at all. It is not harsh and the shock damping is well controlled.

Also, I got about the same gas mileage - which I think is excellent in the Lexus. I seldom drive into town in rush hour, and getting to the freeways is not bad for me. I'll always hit a few lights red, but my driving is not a lot of stop and go. I reset the average MPG when I left my neighborhood in the TL last night. When I got off the freeway into downtown Houston the average showed about 28.7. We did hit a lot of red lights going through downtown into the "mid-town" area. When I left the restaurant the average was 25.4 and stayed there until we got back on the freeway. From there back home it climbed up into the upper 26s. While city driving is not very scientific because it varies so much, from what I've seen so far the TL seems to suffer more in the city than my Lexus.

I like my Lexus a lot, but let me say I'm really enjoying the TL - and my wife REALLY likes it a lot.

Linmk2

Congrats. Great looking car. Great looking surroundings too.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

Congrats man-that's a hell of a trio of rides in that garage....




.

Stew4HD

jjs' vette looks better in person!! It is very drool worthy!

Thanks for the comparisons, jj. I think I like my TL more every time I drive it... isn't is so cool when the love affair is still new and fresh and exciting

jjsC5

Thanks Stew - good meeting you yesterday. BTW, I saw the comments in another thread about your rear body skirt kit. The rear looks better in person than the pics you showed.

I had my TL and GS parked end to end in the driveway all day today. Last year I would have never said this, but the TL is a better looking car. I know some people think the GS is a little bland looking but I always thought it has very classy lines in a tasteful, understated way. But the TL looks better without being over the top from any angle now.

omaralt

congrats; please tell me how to turn off the annoying voice that reads everything out loud everytime you highlight it! i'm going crazy; read the manual, went through all the settings.. lol thanks

jjsC5

Honestly I'll have to go back and look at it. The setting is not very intuitive. My wife has the car at work now, but I'll try to remember to look it up tonight. Yes, it was incredibly irritating.

jjsC5

Okay, go to "Setup" (button to the right of the dial), then "main menu" and "interface dial feedback". Turn that puppy off!

omaralt

awesome, thanks a lot; worked perfect

jjsC5

Good. BTW, I notice there is an ON, OFF, and AUTOMATIC setting. I have no idea what the automatic setting gets. I can't find it in the manual either. They need an 0n-line manual with a search feature. Anyone know if they have such a thing?

Brother Acura

The instructions are in the Nav System manual under"System Setup", "Interface Dial Feedback". It's on pg. 95 in my MDX Nav manual.

jjsC5

I'm sure I'll stumble across it somewhere eventually. There are about four manuals that came with my car - total pages I'm guessing is close to a thousand pages. I just looked - about 650 pages just in the main manual.