VERY Favorable Long Term Test Review By R&T
05-01-2010, 03:04 PM
#1
I feel strongly both ways
Thread Starter
VERY Favorable Long Term Test Review By R&T
I’m standing in the cutout of a concrete floor at a test facility in Northern Minnesota, looking up at a car that’s been driven multiple times through a muddy trough of ice slush and then left to solidify overnight in a sub-freezing shack. The buildup of ice layers positively encases everything you can see on the underside of a vehicle, including things that work best when they’re allowed to move, like suspension arms, tie rods and the like. I imagine the total mass of this torture test to weigh in at no less than a few hundred pounds, and I’m quite confident that this car isn’t going far—at least not until spring gets here.
Moments later, an Acura engineer hops in this poor TL, starts it up and drives away. The ice audibly protests every movement, but amazingly this has little effect at stopping the TL in its tracks.
After my glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of Acura vehicle development, the veil of mystery that once covered the TL SH-AWD’s source of rock-solid performance starts to lift. If you design a car to perform in the absolute worst possible conditions, then you can expect some phenomenal results when the weather turns in your favor.
This is the first time Acura has implemented its torque-vectoring Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system on a TL, and the execution couldn’t have been better. It allowed one of our first test examples to dynamically trounce a 3.6-liter 4Motion Volkswagen CC in a head-to-head comparison, while in a more recent test it lapped the Streets of Willow in the second quickest time (behind an Audi S4) despite having the lowest power-to-weight ratio of the group.
Indeed, the TL has proven itself time and again thus far, but how would it hold up for an entire year, subjected to the rigors of testing at the hands of the Road & Track staff? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
We were elated when Acura pulled the trigger and decided to offer a 6-speed manual transmission for the Acura TL with SH-AWD. There was simply no question which transmission we’d opt for, even with the average take rate of manuals being a whopping 5 percent of total TL sales.
We won’t deny that the 5-speed automatic works quite well in this application (and surprisingly even matches the 6-speed’s 17/25 city/highway EPA fuel economy), but it simply detracts from the driver involvement factor that the TL has preserved in its rise to “star athlete” in Acura’s lineup.
To please the geekiest of staff members, we literally couldn’t resist stuffing our test car with every available tech option—it’s required when you get the manual transmission. For buyers not wanting a manual, the options come conveniently bundled in what Acura calls its Technology Package. It’s all or nothing, buddy.
The Tech Package is surprisingly affordable ($3730) by premium marque standards considering what’s included. For starters, there’s Acura’s 10-speaker ELS surround sound system with enough hard-drive media storage space to play music for 10 days straight without repeating a song. The navigation system includes a 90-day free trial subscription to AcuraLink Real-Time Traffic and Weather (through XM radio) that interfaces with the route guidance to provide the quickest possible path to your destination with respect to current conditions.
Need more tech? Well, the upgraded climate control is linked to the GPS so it can tell the position of the sun relative to the direction you are traveling, while a dash sensor measures the sun’s intensity and adjusts the climate settings accordingly.
Rounding out the options is a perforated leather interior, voice command for various car functions, keyless entry and ignition and, of course, Bluetooth.
Having driven the TL on both all-seasons and summer tires (HPT option), we feel the performance tire is well worth the extra dough, granted you live in a neighborhood that’s as mild as ours.
And even if you see nowhere near the amount of sunshine California does, at least you can rest assured that an Acura engineer has most likely driven your TL through much worse.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/lo...cura-tl-sh-awd
Moments later, an Acura engineer hops in this poor TL, starts it up and drives away. The ice audibly protests every movement, but amazingly this has little effect at stopping the TL in its tracks.
After my glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of Acura vehicle development, the veil of mystery that once covered the TL SH-AWD’s source of rock-solid performance starts to lift. If you design a car to perform in the absolute worst possible conditions, then you can expect some phenomenal results when the weather turns in your favor.
This is the first time Acura has implemented its torque-vectoring Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system on a TL, and the execution couldn’t have been better. It allowed one of our first test examples to dynamically trounce a 3.6-liter 4Motion Volkswagen CC in a head-to-head comparison, while in a more recent test it lapped the Streets of Willow in the second quickest time (behind an Audi S4) despite having the lowest power-to-weight ratio of the group.
Indeed, the TL has proven itself time and again thus far, but how would it hold up for an entire year, subjected to the rigors of testing at the hands of the Road & Track staff? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
We were elated when Acura pulled the trigger and decided to offer a 6-speed manual transmission for the Acura TL with SH-AWD. There was simply no question which transmission we’d opt for, even with the average take rate of manuals being a whopping 5 percent of total TL sales.
We won’t deny that the 5-speed automatic works quite well in this application (and surprisingly even matches the 6-speed’s 17/25 city/highway EPA fuel economy), but it simply detracts from the driver involvement factor that the TL has preserved in its rise to “star athlete” in Acura’s lineup.
To please the geekiest of staff members, we literally couldn’t resist stuffing our test car with every available tech option—it’s required when you get the manual transmission. For buyers not wanting a manual, the options come conveniently bundled in what Acura calls its Technology Package. It’s all or nothing, buddy.
The Tech Package is surprisingly affordable ($3730) by premium marque standards considering what’s included. For starters, there’s Acura’s 10-speaker ELS surround sound system with enough hard-drive media storage space to play music for 10 days straight without repeating a song. The navigation system includes a 90-day free trial subscription to AcuraLink Real-Time Traffic and Weather (through XM radio) that interfaces with the route guidance to provide the quickest possible path to your destination with respect to current conditions.
Need more tech? Well, the upgraded climate control is linked to the GPS so it can tell the position of the sun relative to the direction you are traveling, while a dash sensor measures the sun’s intensity and adjusts the climate settings accordingly.
Rounding out the options is a perforated leather interior, voice command for various car functions, keyless entry and ignition and, of course, Bluetooth.
Having driven the TL on both all-seasons and summer tires (HPT option), we feel the performance tire is well worth the extra dough, granted you live in a neighborhood that’s as mild as ours.
And even if you see nowhere near the amount of sunshine California does, at least you can rest assured that an Acura engineer has most likely driven your TL through much worse.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/lo...cura-tl-sh-awd
05-01-2010, 03:17 PM
#2
Back From The dead
That's what I'm talking about.
05-01-2010, 04:48 PM
#4
Back From The dead
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