I have had three different generations of TL's and two RL's. I have been trying to decide between a used RLX or a new TLX. Reading many comments on the RLX forum that have me concerned about the suspension. Would find very beneficial comments from owners of the TLX with the advance package and with tech. Are you happy with your decision or which you had bought the other. Those with the advance package what do you enjoy most about the features the advance has over the tech. I like the puddle lights, fog lights and parking sensors and all though always garaged can see the remote start as a nice feature. What is the Front seat belt e-pretensioner system? What is the difference between Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with low-speed follow and Collision Mitigation Braking System™ (CMBS™) with head-up warning? Thanks for helping me with my decision.

 

I have both theRLX Adv and TLX Adv. The TLX is my wife's car. We chose the Adv version becuase she was quite accustomed to the nice amenities of the RLX. ACC is for hwy driving and allows you to follow a car at a set distance while either maintaining the st cruise speed or slowing down as car in front slows. Low-speed follow works abotu the same, uses the same tools but allows a driver in heavy traffice to let the car infront be his guide; it moves, you move, it stops, you stop. And, with brake hold activated, the car will possibly drive itself in the low-speed follow situation.

The added features of the Adv model was an easy choice over the tech model; heated/cooled seats (auto, BTW), CMBS, LKAS, RDM (the streering wheel will slightly shake if you begin to veer out of your lane). The TLX is a fine car, although back seat room is not usuable for adults to be comforatble on long trips.

 

Thanks for the info. I saw one review, think cnet, where they said the back seat room in a TLX was more than the Lexus ES350. I find that hard to believe. Smaller back seat room is no problem for us since it is just the two of us. I would love for Acura to come out with a CLX. I emailed them and tried to see if they would give me a hint of a possible coupe in the near future and as predicted they were not very helpful.

 

I've noticed the added features on my Adv MDX really get utilized with a lot of hwy driving or in unfamiliar city driving when traveling out of state. In my home town, I don't get much use from the added features other than the cooled seats since I'm so familiar with the roads and driving styles. If Acura would offered cooled seats on the tech model would be a winner for me in the southwest for a commuter vehicle.

 

No regrets about getting the Advance(Elite) model, and wanted every one of the additional features. You I could live without them. I was originally set on buying a car from another manufacturer but their 2015 introduced model did not have some of these features so they lost out.

You need to establish your priorities/wants and this should be easy based on the cars that you have already owned:
- new vs used (this is fundamental)
- mid sized vs larger sized (is this a need or want situation)
- tech vs advance features (is it gee whiz or will you really use them)

A few minor quibbles with your statements. Acura could have dropped the low speed follow statement the description as ACC could adequately cover it (maintain a safe gap to the vehicle ahead up to a set max speed). While ACC is active if the car ahead comes to a complete stop the TLX will flash the "stopped" message. To get going again you have to tap the accelerator or ACC resume button, as it will automaticallly restart.

Second, brake hold has nothing to do with ACC. It will keep the brakes enabled when you stop even if you take your foot off the brake. Pressing the accelerator releases the brake.

You are dreaming if you think they would give you any information. Something like that is the most highly classified information that a car manufacturer has, and employees have lost their jobs for less incidents than leaking that information.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g...-fixes-921770/

I thought this was a good comparison of the RLX vs TLX. Having said that I'm comping from the base TLX and to be honest I'm not sure if I had gone for the Adv or Tech packages for a couple of reasons:

- I'm in IT Consulting and I consider any new features more of a liability waiting to fail or become obsolete whichever comes first.
- Coming from a Mustang in my previous life I didn't want the car to drive me instead.
- Wife was confused plenty with just the backup assist camera hah. She really wanted the cool seats though...

My apologies if I'm playing devil's advocate here. We're a young family just starting out so the leatherette in the base and the less roomy back was a great compromise if not a fine choice for the agility you get with the TLX. I plan to do my own mods to add Navi which was the only must have from the Tech package for me. I suppose it boils down to what fits you (and your wife) best.

 

^^ Exactly! Select what fits you the best, but sometime it is difficult to make that final selection if you have not experience a particular feature. Last thing you want is buyers regret at not getting something that is subsequently determine to be rally good to have.

 

here's a link to the "fact sheet" that compares the different trims. Just make a list of pros/cons for the trims you are comparing (including cost difference).
Good luck

http://www.acura.com/tools/pdf/GetFa...modelYear=2015

 

Ask yourself...

What Advance features are an absolute MUST have?
How often do you think you'd use them?
And does the hike in price justify having those features if you know you could really live without them?

Personally speaking, I feel like automakers make decisions like this too hard with so many different trims, added packages, features and price points.

The average car buyer probably rarely uses all those "safety nannies" and don't even know how to use them. Whatever happened to keeping your eyes on the road and just plain good old fashioned driving. Just my

 

If someone wants to spend the $, why are you berating them? A lot of people like the extra bells and whistles.

Why do you have a ZDX when a CRV or, heck, an S10 would have done the same thing?

Don't judge.

 

Actually the opposite, ES has 5.5 more rear legroom based on the specs, and that looks about right. I have a '13 ES, too.

 

I'm not judging. I was simply offering my opinion. And by you asking me why do I have a ZDX...aren't you doing the exact same thing???????????

Yes I know some people don't mind spending the extra money for all the bells and whistles. I was basically saying that if he feels he won't use the advance features, then go for the tech and save. The TLX is a fine vehicle and one can't go wrong with either trim.

 

No, I was using your words against you is all, not judging.

I was just giving you a hard time.

 

I wouldn't worry much on trying to justify a trim or even a car as a whole. Sometimes external factors *cough *wife *cough will just decide it for you. Btw I gave out the wrong link in my first post so posting the correct one here

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...arison-922016/

 

I agree that we don't always use best judgment when car buying.. common sense says that a car is just transportation but we know it's more than that to most of us here. We identify more deeply with them. Speaking strictly for myself, I go ahead and buy the "loaded" model. I'd rather have it and not need it than vice versa. I had bought an '08 base model and immediately wished I had bought the nav model but didn't want to spend the extra $$.. silly me, I then stripped out he sound system and added a Kenwood unit with Nav, overall, costing me more than I would have spent on a Nav model.

IMO, there is not a huge $$ difference between the Tech and Advance.. it's a matter of do you want the parking assist, remote start and the "nanny" stuff the Advance has or not. I like tech toys so it's a no brainer for me.... and one day soon, I'll get to play with my Advance SH-AWD

 

I rarely buy a car, and no matter what type of product I buy, I rarely buy the "high end" of the line. I usually buy something in the middle. This would mean I generally would have bought the Tech instead of the Advance trim. I decided to go a bit crazy on this purchase and went for the Advance because I thought the ACC, parking sensors, ventilated seats, and remote start could be useful. I've found ACC isn't useful in the city, and I'm not patient enough on highway trips to let it do its thing, so I switch to normal cruise. I may have to revisit this. The parking sensors have been very useful. I haven't really used the remote start much because I keep forgetting to (lol). CMBS can be annoying, but just when you think you don't need it, it may save you, so it's more insurance than anything. Puddle lights are borderline useless to me outside of they help me view the path my car in the garage without me having to turn the lights on. The seat-belt tensioners basically pull the seatbelt snug against you when you get in the car. Also, they tug against you if you slam the brakes or take curves fast. I actually love this functionality as silly as it is. I also like the ventilated front seats after sitting through 100+ degree days in the car here in Dallas. They do help cool the front seats down pretty rapidly. Just keep in mind the seats are ventilated, not actively cooled, but ... it's still a good feature.

As for ACC vs. CMBS, they're 2 different systems. ACC basically is a cruise control system that slows your car down when the car in front of you slows down and then speeds up if it speeds up. It adjusts the speed of your car to keep a certain distance away from the car in front of you. This is so you don't keep having to go out of cruise control and back onto it every time you hit the brakes on an interstate with cruise control on. CMBS is a collision mitigation braking system. It slams the brakes if it thinks you're about to slam into the car in front of you and you're too busy looking for the last french fry in the bag while staring at the stars through the sunroof or trying to hit "repeat" when your favorite Justin Bieber song comes on.

Do I think Advance was worth it over Tech? Not sure, really. I'd probably like to use it for a year before I decide. Also note that some of the features of the Advance package can be added as dealer-installed options, so if you don't want all the features, you can pick and choose (but that may end up being more expensive than just getting the package depending on what all you decide you can't do without).

If money is tight, I'd say stick with the Tech package - you'll be fine. If money isn't an issue, either learn exactly what each Advance Package add-on adds and decide if you'll really need it or use it enough to matter, orrrr ... just get it.

 

I agree with you on some levels and not on some. When I got a base mustang I was so bent on keeping the stock look I refused to even add a bluetooth dongle in it (yes the base model didn't even have bluetooth) but the base model these days have quite a few decent features imo.

I actually planned NOT to have the tech package not because of cost but because it had so many features I really did NOT want and could not justify the difference for just the things I DID want. As for adding Navi to my TLX base, even before I bought the car I started researching to instal a AV module to the dashboard and adding a smartphone mirroring device so I can use Waze or Google Maps. I'm crunching the numbers now and I'm hoping to have all the parts by Jan/Feb but I suspect I'll have spent less than $700 for the whole thing.

 

FYI, in talking to the GM of the dealership I go to, he told me that Acura will be allowing more variety of packages for the next year of TLX (after the ILX roll out) where you can get Advance features in the I4 and mixtures of options.

 

If you think there are too many choices here just try one of the Europe Car Build tools. First, they have way more engine options, and almost everything can be configured, color, type of seating, sunroof, manual/automatic, manual/power seats, and the list goes on. Of course you will get a better deal if one of the packages is selected, and you could wait 6 months for a fully custom car. But the option is there, like it r not.

 

I have not bought a TLX yet. I have been waiting for the SH-AWD Advanced to start showing up in number in Dallas. The features on the Advanced is why I am wanting a TLX. I was ready to buy the Infiniti Q50 because of its technology, but got scared by the initial reviews.


My wife has an Infiniti JX35 (now called a QX60), and I fell in love with the Adaptive Cruise and the Collision Mitigation systems once I played with them for awhile and learned their limitations. I drove her car in Dallas rush hour traffic for a week while she was out of town, and found the Adaptive Cruise worked fairly well even in heavy traffic if I played with the distance between cars setting and the cruise speed. It was somewhat jerky, but luckily my wife wasn't sitting next to me tell me to quit screwing around!


I am hoping the Low Speed Follow on the TLX will help with my long daily commute in Dallas traffic. I keep my cars a long time, so I justify the additional expense of getting the extra options. My 08 TL has 160K miles, so I figured it is time to start looking for something new!

 

I suggest that you arrange a test drive for when you can try it out in typical traffic conditions. This is my only experience in a car with ACC with low speed follow, and here are my assessment of it:

Open highway with light traffic: it provides a smooth drive when set at maximum distance, and is only interrupted when someone cuts in between you and the car in front.

Highway with moderate traffic going below the speed limit: it works well to keep moving and handles fast stops (a lot of trust required) when set it at minimum or second minimum. However, the gap to the car in front is enough to allow another car to cut in front, and then it brakes (sometimes hard) which can be fairly uneven. I assume the brake lights come on which must give the following drivers that you are either a novice or very inexperienced driver. I can drive the car more smoothly with a little work.

City roads with some traffic and stop lights: Similar situation to the previous point with the distance set to the minimum. When you come to a complete stop it does not automatically restart, and you have to tap the accelerator or press resume to get moving. The resume speed is quite slow at the start and a fairly big gap to the car ahead will develop. When it finally recognizes this gap it will accelerate to catch up. Again, I can manually do a lot better.

Slow speed winter driving on the highway: set it at the second minimum, and it works beautifully as cars tend not to try and change lanes as much in these conditions.

 

I suggest you use ACC carefully in the city. Actually, I suggest you not use it at all in the city. Even Acura suggests you only use it on "expressways and freeways and in good weather conditions". I tried using it in DFW traffic once and decided against it because I'd rather live. lol. The technology may not be the robotic chauffeur you want it to be.

 

Acura is just covering themselves from any liability. But would you care to be more explicit on why it should not be used in the city? I know some of the weaknesses but your reasons may be different.

 

The issues I have using ACC on my MDX within city limits are:
- Local traffic is usually 1/2 - 2 car length in space at hwy speeds (65-80 mph in ABQ), ACC min range is further than that, as a result your vehicle is always slowing to put more distance between vehicles. You end up being the slowest car in any lane.

- Any space more than 1 car length invites A-holes to cut in-front of you causing ACC/CMBS to activate, sometimes abruptly. If it kicks in too hard, I might have some rear end me when I can judge the situation and just change lanes or let off the gas to coast.

- A road with a lot of twist/turns on city hwy and ACC only looks straight ahead. It can activate to slow down on a curve when the vehicle in-front is in another lane.

- ACC and get fooled with low obstacles like bridges/overhead walkways, narrow tunnels, or driving up hills with a bridge at the top. At best the ACC slows down, at worst the CMBS kicks in.

I find ACC works best on long, straight, level hwy with avg/below avg traffic. Anything else ups the false positives several times higher than real emergencies. I can see CBMS/BSI working with-in city limits, ACC and lane departure warning might work best on the open road.

 

Very good review on the ACC. Thanks! Had to laugh at your comment about "Any space more than 1 car length invites A-holes to cut in-front of you". I know exactly what you mean. Amazing what you see drivers doing at 70 miles per hour.

 

The TLX 2nd Gen ACC with low speed follow should be more user friendly in more situations compared to my old 1st Gen ACC. The good thing about all of the Adv features on my MDX is I can turn one, some, or all of them off at any time (turning it into a tech model). Another good thing is the added safety features are always on scanning the road 100% of the time. If you think about it, a person might be focused on the road about 40%-80% of the time and avg (changing stations, talking, reading street signs, checking out scenery, following Navi, hands free cell call, etc...). There have been times the system did activate and might have prevented an incident a lot faster than I could have reacted. Adv features is a good addition if you travel a lot. My next Acura will be an Adv model (RLX, RDX or MDX).

 

Wow! I am amazed that you can do 65-80 mph in the city. Our traffic is not as bad as L.A.'s but most we can drive is 45 mph when traffic is light.

When in DC, around the beltway I went to work in 70 mph traffic that was bumper to bumper but this was on I-95.

 

I leave for work around 6am and off around 3pm. I beat the rush hour crowd both ways (reason for the higher speeds). Average speed is around 40-55 mph during peak times after 7:30am and after 5pm.

 

mrgold35's post basically outlines everything that has happened to me while using ACC in the city. I tend to turn it off now during in-city driving. But :

1) I've had some false reading when exiting from one freeway to another where the exit does a bit of a curve. While I'm doing about 60-70 mph at the time, the car starts slowing down for no apparent reason and with a car bearing down on me from behind. This one nearly scared me to death. The guy behind me was luckily far enough away to where he didn't have to swerve.

2) Once as I was approaching a highway crossing light, I had ACC slow the car down gradually, but before I was really that close to the car in front of me, the light turned green, and the car in front of me turned right at the light. ACC just kept slowing me down as if there were still a car in front of me. This annoyed the guy behind me (I can't really blame him) and he went around me.

3) This is more CMBS, but as they both use the same radar/detection system : there is a spot I have to cross a railroad track along my drive. The speed limit is 30 mph. I'm usually going right at 30 mph. As I approach the railroad tracks, the "head up display" begins to flash at me and it starts warning me to BRAKE. There's nothing in front of me other than those railroad tracks. Not sure what's throwing it off other than there's a slight curve there and maybe it thinks I'm about to nail the railroad crossing arms or something.

4) The fact the system allows other cars to cut in front of you in city traffic due to the spacing sometimes makes the possibility of some of the failures above to increase because the probability of the situation arising due to "close" proximity is increased and there's not much room for error. Sometimes the braking starts so early people behind are wondering why the heck you're braking so early.

It's not a broken system by any means, but it's got its quirks. I may re-visit later, but I doubt I'll use it much in the city. But then I realized I'm too impatient on highway trips to just sit behind a vehicle going 5 mph below the speed limit, so I just go around it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

Ok, we are more or less on the same wave length. I agree with your first three items, but have not encountered "phantom" vehicles that fool the system as my driving area tends to be wide open areas.

The other failing is where you are in two lane traffic approaching a red traffic light but traveling below the ACC speed setting. The car that you are following changes lane so ACC starts to speed up but there is a stopped car at the traffic light in your lane. The ACC is slow to detect it and you had better be paying attention and brake because the system will likely not have time to react correctly.

 

It sounds like TLX and the Infiniti ACC share some of the same limitations. They both are most likely designed for light to moderate traffic, but Acura mentions "Low Speed Follow", so I take that as a green light to check it out in rush hour traffic!


The Infiniti will follow a car ahead of you all the way down to a stop and resume when that car starts moving again without having to touch the gas or the brake. It isn't as smooth as a human would drive, but it does work. I was looking in my rear view mirror while my Infiniti was braking under a bridge, and the ACC does turn on the brake lights.


The comment from mrgold35 about how easily the ACC gets fooled on the TLX concerns me some. The Infiniti looks straight ahead, and only has issues if someone breaks in front of you or if there is a sharp curve ahead of you and it appears to the car that someone is in your lane. I was hoping the TLX would drive itself so that I can make some friends and spend my commute texting and talking on the phone like everyone around me!


I'm actually a conservative driver that is looking for some safety features that will warn me or take action if I'm not paying attention to the hazards ahead. The warning beeps on my wife's Infiniti while changing lanes let me know that I was driving too aggressively, and has made me a better driver. I joke about pushing the envelope, but I just want an easy drive to and from work, even in heavy traffic.


My dealer just paged me and said he got some SH-AWD Advanced cars in. I plan on check out the ACC features on the TLX out myself tomorrow!

 

Any idea if there is a way to have the heated seats store with the remote, in a 4 cyl tech model?
From what I can find, that is not something that happens, and it seems plain stupid to not make it so.
Not much point in starting your car at -20, then sitting on cold leather seats wearing a pair of dress pants.
Would this be a software update issue, I wonder?

 

Assume you mean tall or portly adults as I have had two adults in my back seat who found it quite comfortable. Most of the reviews support that.

 

As the Tech package in Canada has the heated seats, front and back, heated steering wheel, and LKAS, i didn't really want to spend the extra for the 3.5 Elite (similar to advance). Honestly, I would have liked the ACC, but otherwise, the ventilated seats, additional collision and road departure mitigation systems, headlight washers, and fog lights, although nice, were not worth the extra money FOR ME. My upgrade was to go to a 3.5 SH-AWD from my originally targeted 2.4 Tech. That was worth it!

 

I'm starting to see fwd 2014 RLX Adv with 5,000-15,000 miles going for mid to upper 30s. That is over $20,000 of depreciation the first year. Other than poor sales, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the RLX. My point is, it might be worth waiting for a used RLX sh-awd sport hybrid if the depreciation numbers are the same.

I would consider a used RLX sh-awd Adv over a new TLX sh-awd Adv if it is within X amount of $$ (+377hp and 30 mpgs).

 

^^ I am glad we had a choice. Mine was for the Elite features over the SH-AWD.

 

Surprised that the 2015 CRV Touring has the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) but the TLX Tech doesn't.

 

Seems the CRV is the first to get the system in the Honda line up. I thought the top of the line Accord Hybrid had it too.

Honda CR-V goes high tech to prevent crashes

 

With only 250 RLX Sport Hybrids available for sale in the U.S., many being sold for minimal to no discount, depreciation is likely to be much more favorable than the PAWS RLX, which is a sales dud selling for up to $12k off sticker at the end of the model year.

Just saying.

 

Honda had to put it on at least one model in order to get a top safety pick plus rating...which then applies for the whole range....as long as it is "available" thwen it can get a + rating (in fact as long as its crash scores are good or adequate. Bizarrely a car with an all good rating but no cmbs cannot get a + rating.

Another of life's illogical iniquities....