My TLX SH AWD A-Spec loaner experience
 

Hello folks of the TLX forum, I’m currently an owner of a 3rd Gen TL and while I was getting a new clutch put in, the dealer gave me a TLX SH AWD A-Spec to drive.

The car only had 6000 miles on it and I got to drive it for about 65% of a tank. Overall I liked the car but I didn’t fall in love.

what I liked:
- No touch screen! I was happy to see that, I’m not going to pretend it was instantly doing what I wanted with the radio and map navigation stuff, but I’m old and stupid so I can’t put too much blame on the car. I was just happy that I wasn’t leaving Cheetos fingerprints on the Navi.
- roomy, trunk was a decent size, and we took it to lunch a couple of times at work, 4 guys fit just fine.
- comfy, ride and seats were reasonably good. I drover a 1st gen TLX and I felt it was too bouncy, this one rode pretty well. I took it through a bit of road with a pretty rough surface (no large modulations just pitted and cracked surface) and it handled it better than my 2008 TL.
- sound system was pretty good.
- the interior lighting was pretty cool for the front passengers.
- cooled seats was nice.
- I liked the push button transmission, I thought it looked good, was easy to use and intuitive. Except a few times I pressed D to try and start the engine (did I mention I’m old and stupid?). But yeah, to me if you’re going to have an automatic, I’m ok with buttons, or a knob like jaguar / landrover / ram has. I mean I would still prefer 3 pedals of course.
- engine power was adequate, I don’t think I need more power out of a daily.
- turbo sounds at lower rpm and partial throttle! I found myself turning the radio down a lot to get a better listen to the spool and the blow off valve.
- when compared to my TL, it was nice that the front 2 doors actually stayed opened as opposed to closing on your leg.

what could have been a little better:
- seats were a bit too firm for my delicate bottom. I know most cars have firm seats now, but I don’t like it. I certainly prefer the seats in my TL over these.
- cooling vents; I think they are a bit too small for the volume they need to cool. The car was black and I’m Florida. Going to lunch or leaving work after the car had been in the sun really had those vents taxed. The air coming out of them was more of a jet than the TL which cooled a specific spot well, while the rest of the car was hot longer… Also, since the car was in full blast mode trying to cool the cabin, even though the seat cooling was on auto with the 3 blue lights lit, there was no capacity left, we basically pulled into the office parking lot after lunch before the cooled seats kicked on.
- I wasn’t very fond of the steering. Most of the time it was ok, and with time I would get used to it, it it wasn’t linear. The initial movement was ok, but after a point the car would start turning more than the extra input I was giving to the steering wheel. Only 1 of my cars has EPS (but it’s a 2018) the other 2 have hydraulic steering, so maybe this is just a new thing and I’m not used to it.
- car play was a bit dense to get going a few times and I had to reconnect or just go through the motion of accepting again. My other car that has CarPlay sometimes is difficult as well, but not as often as the TLX was.
- the driving dynamic knob is too dominant in the cabin. If this was an NSX, perfect! But considering how little it did, I felt it was too much if an interior feature. I was driving on an arrow straight road when playing with it and I could tell sport bumped the rpm’s up and comfort max the throttle more lethargic. I couldn’t tell any changes with the suspension.
- gauge customization, I wanted to see the boost gauge all the time not just sport… maybe there is a way to do that I couldn’t figure it out.
- keyless entry, driver door handle often would not lock or unlock the car, so I used the driver side rear door.
- the cool interior light at the front didn’t make it to the back. A bit of a let down I think for passengers back there.

what I didn’t like
- the 4 cyl racket when departing from a light or full throttle. To me it killed any notion of luxury this car has. I felt like I was vacationing somewhere and I decided to spend as little as possible on a rental.
- the brakes, I could not get this thing to stop smoothly without a serious amount of concentration. Seemingly minor pedal modulations had significant braking changes. The worse was when I decided I’m not missing a green light cycle as I was making a left at a large on-ramp intersection. The light was green and I was pretty far away from the intersection, only 2-3 cars going left (2 turning lanes) so right pedal went in the carpet… as I was approaching the intersection I started to ease a little on the brake then before I actually started my turn in I needed to bleed more speed so I pushed a little harder on the pedal. That cause a massive nose dive and deceleration, way more than I wanted. It’s a good thing I was still pointing straight, braking that hard in a turn could have upset the car. Out of all the cars I have driven so far, this was by far the least predictable with the braking.
- gauge backlight with silver dials; it was so hard to read the thing! The middle bit with the lcd display was perfect 10/10. The analog gauges, I was about to dial my optometrist for an urgent visit, what a stupid problem to have. I had too much ambient light in the car, so the red backlight and the silver coloring had very little contrast. I had to turn the backlit all the way up, but then at night, the red part of the tachometer had way too much red blasting through. The TL gauges are far better than these, in fact I can’t think of any gauges that I ever had issues reading.
- the lurching from the stop start when the engine had to kick back on while at a light. It reminded me a little of my old 2001 Acura CL, that sucker surged forward at a light when the ac compressor was cycling off and on, man that annoyed me.

I know I was a bit harsh at the end there with the dislikes, but if I needed a sedan, I would definitely cross shop it, I would be curious to drive them TLX-S, the engine noise alone might be worth it :)

I can't believe more people aren't complaining about this (other than me and someone else in my "Farewell to Acura" thread). If you ignore the reduced dollar value in the insurance check you receive for safe driving due to all the "hard brakes", the 2.0 TLX is not what I consider a safe car. The point of a car's braking system is to not only have reliability but also reproducibility! After 2 years of ownership, what good are the brakes if I expect a certain stopping distance and it's way shorter than expected?!!!

Great summary! appreciate your feedback and taking the time and providing a detailed overview of the car for people that are in the market. We as senior members appreciate when people share their experience in a professional way. Good luck in your future purchase.

I can’t understand this. I have no issues whatsoever with the brakes on my Type S. I don’t find myself braking hard very often unless someone slams theirs in front of me. I’m not saying the stopping distance is short but what I am saying is I don’t feel they’re shorter than expected.

Type S is a different animal. If I'm not mistaken, you guys have Brembo brakes, no? There's a 12 ft difference in braking distance (70-0 mph) b/w the Type S and the 2.0 TLX.

https://www.caranddriver.com/acura/tlx-2021

True, but I’ve heard people say this about the Type S too.

also, I’ve driven an ASPEC as a loaner with no issues. But of course that’s for a day rather than every day like y’all have.

Interesting. I don’t frequent the Type S-specific threads so I wasn’t aware of other complaints.

I may very well be wrong. There are people who I thought had a Type S but may not. A lot to keep up with here, lol.

But I’m surprised the ASPEC is so bad for everyone. Again, my time with the ASPEC was quite limited but it felt okay. But I also realized it couldn’t perform like the Type S so I didn’t push it as hard.

No issues with brake modulation with the Type S. I didn’t notice any trouble with braking when I was given a loaner Aspec while my Type S was in for maintenance and emissions recall. Albeit it was only for a short period of time with it including city and highway driving. It definitely did not feel dangerous.

Only one way to settle this, one of you guys with a TypeS needs no come down here to Florida so that I can drive it. :tomato:

Does the ASpec change driving dynamics? I thought it was just cosmetics.

Also have been driving the same model loaner for a week. Additional comments I'd add:

- Surprised that Acura doesn't include rain sensing wipers, seems too common to limit this to an Advance-only feature.
- I never had issues with the brakes, although I tend to drive ACC in the suburbs and let it brake for me.
- I like the latest generation driving assistance technology, similar to my wife's 22 RDX. ACC is much smoother and can follow cars at a longer range than my 2020 MDX. Lane centering goes as slow as 25 if you are following a car (my 20 MDX is limited to 45, never drove a 22 MDX that supposedly can go down to 1mph).
- Gas usage was surprisingly high, I drive a ton but so far I've used up a second tank in 5 days. Thought this would have been closer to my MDX hybrid usage since the TLX was smaller, where I typically fill up once every 5 days.

Only cosmetic. No performance difference and no active dampers for suspension. 90% of the looks of the Type S, which some may appreciate. ;)

I stopped using ACC after I was told I needed to change brakes after my first service. :eek: With the TLX's ACC and LKA on, the car literally drove itself for seconds. A handy feature for late at night when your attention may not be the best.

No one buys a current gen TLX expecting great fuel economy. My fuel anxiety was real so I dealt with it by moving on. Decent sized SUVs can match or even exceed what I got from the TLX. Over a week and I still have over a quarter tank left on the X3!

That should be a wake-up call for Honda to develop a more fuel efficient 2.0T. I even had nearly the same MPG on the loaner A-Spec and my CTR as the Type S.

I'm sure an overly aggressive ACC is part of it. Never tried Honda's ACC but I presume it is tuned to be less agressive than Acura. I remember my 96 civic's cruise control would drop to 5mph below target on uphills in a probable attempt to save gas.

Luckily my MDX Hybrid regen brakes during ACC slowdowns so I save both gas and brakes.

There's about a 500 lb difference b/w that MDX Hybrid and the latest TLX A-Spec. It's funny you called the TLX smaller but you're right only by the smallest of differences. The older MDX is longer by ~1.5" and wider by less than 3". I've had both the TLX and MDX in my garage and they both took up virtually the same amount of space!

Oops, wrong thread!

I don't understand this, when I have a 1/4 of gas left, I go to the gas station and fill it up. Never after almost 2 years of owning my TLX I worried about fuel anxiety. Maybe people shouldn't drive until its almost gone. Around town I get about 20mpg and on the highway taking trips I get about 33-35 mpg. Since I'm the only one in my car 99% I have no need for a SUV.

Really depends on where you live and life experiences. I had one cold Nov night where my 15 minute commute became 3 hours. My wife came home 12 hours after work on the same night. Thank God she had the big SUV with a 26 gallon tank!

If this can never happen to you, be very thankful and blessed!

One time it happen to you does not make the TLX some kind of gas monster that it gave you anxiety.

I had an MDX at the time. Not sure if the TLX would have kept me warm for 3 hrs in frozen traffic but glad I don’t need to find out.

The TLX works for you. Message received. Can we move on?

Yeah I do regret not trying to get a read on fuel consumption during my time with the TLX Sh AWD. Part of the reason I didn’t is because I was a bit heavy on the throttle so I knew it wouldn’t be representative, and the other reason is because I didn’t explore the trip menus enough to find the reset.
All I can say is that it averaged 20.7 mpg over the past 4k miles.

Holy crap that's bad!
You had a loaner for 4k miles?!!!

He said that he has a bit heavy foot on the throttle, so his mpg isn't going to be good on any car.

sorry I wasn’t clear, it has been 4000 miles since the trip odometer was reset. I didn’t have it for all that time. I only went through 2/3 of a tank maybe.

and yes as frainc said, once I heard the turbo sounds I knew not to bother with a real world mpg test, because it was play time for me… All of my cars are 6 cyl atmospheric engines so I was going to make the most of my time with the loaner.

I drive with a lead foot and after 20k miles in my TLX I am averaging 23mpg. Not great but what its to be expected when you drive aggressively. Gotta remember the twin scroll turbo spools up quickly so boost kicks faster the more fuel youll use. My father in law drives a 2021 RDX. 35k into it, he is averaging 27.8 mpg.

Thanks for your comments and opinions. A few knitpicks -
- the sound system is a lot more than pretty good. Not sure what you were listening to, but I suspect you only listened to the radio.
- I'm 67 and love the red gages. I know others have made the comment, but the info I need is easy to see.
- like others here, I have had 0 issues with braking, I guess my foot adapted quickly to their feel and their sensitivity.
- I wonder what your definition of lurch is because I use the auto stop start all the time and find it to be as seamless as any car I have test driven.
- By the way, you can set preferences to always see the Boost gauges, regardless of whether you are in sport or not.
- Finally, it does sound like your loaner had a few unresolved issues such as the door handle unlock. as for the steering, most reviewers and many owners here generally are positive about steering inputs vs outputs. I keep mine set with very little play in the wheel as part of my Individual Mode settings.

Thanks again for expressing your views. To modify an old saying, one man's desirable car is another man's meh!

Thanks for your response, I’ll add some extra information about your points;

- the sound system, it was mostly radio, I admit, but I played some tunes from Spotify through CarPlay. The audio was a lot better than the TL that I have, but I didn’t feel like it was leagues above my 2011 Odyssey Touring Elite (elite has a better stereo than the touring). Perhaps it’s just my ears (I am no audiophile) but factory systems lack a little low down bass (by contrast finding headphones that are not bass boosted is a challenge). So, I will agree, you are right the TLX audio deserves better than “pretty good”. I will add as a reference that I had a listen to the Burmeister system in a Porsche and I didn’t get anything special out of it and I don’t fully understand the price of that option.
- regarding the gauges, do all TLX have the same colors? On the 3rd gen the TypeS has red and the base models are blue themed. As for the analog gauges that’s the only thing I had a hard time with, the lcd middle bit was crisp. I could adjust the dimmer to correct it, but it depended too much on light conditions. The rental didn’t have tinted windows, perhaps that would help? On my TL though the numbers are backlit white, I think my eyes just struggled with the red, I always needed half a second to regain focus. As for my age, well, I’m 41 years old physically, 11 mentally, and 80+ emotionally (permanently grumpy).
- regarding the brakes, when I wrote that, I wasn’t aware of other thread(s) discussing this topic. Is it something you can get used to, yeah probably. But it felt to me like the braking force was not just a factor of how far the pedal traveled but also how rapidly you pressed on it. I had another small event in the parking lot when someone was coming out from behind a utility van so I transitioned from the throttle to the brake very quickly (light press on both) but it felt like the car registered it as a panic brake and I basically chirped the tires from 5-6 mph to a dead stop. None of the cars I’m used to driving regularly would have done that.
- the lurching was when using the engine auto start stop, and it was in situations when the engine needed to restart before the light was green. It was like going from park to drive or neutral to drive in an older auto transmission. Even with your foot hard on the brake the car bucked forward once.
- good to know the boost gauge can always be there, I did mention it was likely me not exploring the menus sufficiently, I am glad you can display it regardless of driving mode, thanks for pointing that out.
- as far as the steering, that’s definitely something I would get used to quickly and I didn’t tweak anything in the individualized settings. I should have checked how many rotations the wheel does lock to lock, but it just felt like they were trying to get the same wheel turning angle by reducing the full steering rotation by 1/2 a turn (1/4 turn in each direction) so they sped up the last bit of the rotation. As you pointed out, the on center feel and small inputs was very nice, but without being too sensitive. It was just something new to me, the “daily” cars I have still have hydraulic systems, and the EPS cars I have (or have driven more frequently) didn’t do that.

Haha! I enjoyed the “another man’s meh” comment!
The TLX was better than Meh! I did say at the bottom that I would definitely cross-shop / consider a TLX if I was in the car / sedan marker. However, if my message conveyed that my thoughts on the TLX were “meh”, that’s on me. I should have been more clear.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how bad the TLX is or isn’t, at least it’s not an suv :tomato:.
(sorry I couldn’t help myself, too many nice folks with X3 in here, I had to throw in a dig :) )

thanks!

Went to get my plates today. I put the X3 in Sport Plus and hit the throttle on short entry highway ramp. Never once did I fear for my life like I did doing the same thing on the TLX in Sport mode. I'm sure the Type S would have been a different story but it wasn't around in the Fall of 2020.

what a boring car, where is the thrill that your life can end at any moment? That was the beauty of an old Countach for example, you’re missing out :)

The only Countach I've ever driven was on older computer games like "Test Drive" (you may be old enough to remember it....maybe not).

I prefer all my accidents to be virtual!

Wow, thanks for the trip down memory lane! Yes, I definitely remember, that game, good ole cracked windshield.

So what should we do now? guys! please buy X3 lol

I don’t understand this at all. I drove the ASPEC in Normal/Sport modes and not once did I feel the brakes were unresponsive or “scary”. This is after driving the Type S so that says something. My friend with an ASPEC doesn’t have any concerns either. So I don’t really know

Because he is taking over for Bear, now that he has a BMW and the TLX is now a POS. I guess his sh1t doesn't stink anymore. Sorry but I'm tired with bullshit like this from ex or one's who never drive a TLX.

if it’s Test Drive Unlimited I remember that game and recommend a replay on the PC version with the “platinum” mod literal fun for hours upon hours

I think he was referring to the 1987 Test Drive game. Test Drive Unlimited is much newer. The original Need for Speed came out before unlimited as well.
Im showing my age here, but it was fun playing those games.

While I agree the TLX is a fantastic car I also can’t discredit someone who prefers something else. Maybe they really had an issue with the TLX because they’re used to a different feeling from the responsiveness from a car. I’m glad, as a car enthusiast, that @ELIN now has the car he wants. I was asked today by a co-worker, if I could do it again, would I still buy my exact car (Type S). My answer was absolutely. But that’s just me — I’d likely have chosen an ASPEC again if asked had the Type S not existed.

Thats not to say I understand his braking concerns. Never once, even at higher speeds, have I ever felt the ASPEC couldn’t stop properly nor did I feel slamming the brakes was necessary.

hey! Stop derailing my thread! We are talking about computer games now!

JK.
‘Yeah I would be really curious to see how a typeS is compared to the loaner I had. Funny enough, I had couple of 3rd gen TL loaners ( I had a CL typeS before the TL) and it was fine, but I didn’t have a crush on it. When I was looking for a sedan, I looked at bmw and Lexus but they were a bit more money than I could / wanted to spend so they happened to have a TL typeS that day at Acura. I really liked it immediately. It was a bit firmer, had more sound, I also wasn’t a huge fan of the blue interior lighting of the base TL, TypeS was red. They let me keep that car overnight, not that they needed to, decision was made very shortly after pulling out of the dealership. Next morning I was back at the dealer and ordered my TL-S which I still have 14 years later.
sometimes just a small subtitle change can make a big difference.
Krylon, I hope you enjoy your TypeS as much as I have enjoyed mine for the past 14 years!

When someone is sorry about what they got, then you get something else that you are happy with. I'm sure ELIN is now happy but then don't come back and say this and that about the TLX that he had problems with. I very happy with my TLX and after 23,000 miles with zero problems.
He doesn't have anything good to say now about Acura so he should enjoy his BMW and input his love on their forums.