biker

Now that all of the mid-sized luxury sedans are known here's my pick in order of exterior looks:

Infiniti M
MB E class
Lexus GS
Acura RL
Audi A6
BMW 5 series
Cadilac CTS
Lincols LS
Jag S-type
Saab 9-5
Volvo S60

Am I missing others?

dabuda

the exterior is ok, reminds me of the I35 but with a sharper nose. the interior is killer tho, esp with the blue dial lights

Habiib

All this long time for the new RL to come out, and they come up with this? Grant it the interior is hot, except for that junked up center console. What is up with the color scheme?? You have dark wood, black leather, and an aluminum console that sticks out like a sore thumb

But as usual there is no such thing as a boring or bland styled car. It's really 'conservative' or 'classy' or 'elegant' and 'it grows on you'..Oh well another car that blends in with traffic

On a positive note, the leg room in the back looks great, the seats look very plush and comfortable, the features on this car are amazing, the gauges look amazing, and I'm impressed with its
3.5L V6 that puts out more power than the 350z

Here is my predictions.

1. Should this car place anything less than 1st in any car comparo or should it get outperformed, there will be all sorts of "Its not designed for the dragstrip", "Its not a track car", etc.. If thats the case then the SH-AWD system would be pointless being that its marketed as a performance feature..


2. Sales are going to go up big time, it will continue to outsell the Q45/M45 combined...

biker

I seriously doubt the RL will outsell the Q/M combined - they are almost equal now (400-500/mo for the RL, 200/mo for M and 200/mo for Q). A year from now the RL will sell 1000/mo but the M will sell at least 1000/mo and Q will be 300-400/mo. Of course most of those M sales will be of the M35 variety.

SmokeTL

I sat in the rl yesterday.....it was so beautiful!!!! i wish i could have waited a year for it

Habiib

Are the seats as comfortable as they look in the pictures???
Same for the leg room in the rear?

dabuda

and you didnt take any pix?

dom

Looks like 17's not 20's will be standard issue. They could have atleast went with 18's standard.

I'd hate to see what this car looks like with 17's. Go big or go home.

Vans

I think that these two pictures show precisely what Acura did wrong with the new RL. Don't flame me - no one is perfect. Acura was a little too conservative with the new design. Now I know that Acura is trying to stay true to it's tradition of being more conservative than the rest - and the consumers of Acura appreciate that. But when you're designing a car as important as the RL - you gotta take some chances.




All they really did to the front end was slant the lights, grill, hood and create a new bottom skirt and new fog lights.... You gotta step out of the norm to get NEW customers who may not like cars as conservative as Acura gives out. I love the TSX and TL but the RL is just too conservative. They needed more pizaaz on the outside - the inside is fine.

SmokeTL

I did, but some were crappy. friend of mine is going to fix them i will post them tomo

SmokeTL

I was actually just happy to get all of this press kit stuff. I have never experienced the car show like that before.

2focus

Looks like a Camry and corolla? that must be a compliment coming a Toyota-lover like yourself then!!

Davediego

did you see if the nav was a touchscreen or not?

bdt980

Looks a little MBish in the front end to me. at first i was like ehhh, but now the more and more i look at at it the more i appreciate the design. it has a subtle look to it that doesnt just jump out at you. its more like a fine wine, it takes time to appreciate it.

biker

The show car has 20s and the standard will be 17? WTF? What's the point? I mean people are somewhat underwhelmed already by the looks. Acura wants to disappoint some more in the showroom? What is Acura going to provide the mag reviewers? The show car or the showroom car?

Santa Rosa Steve

I prefer your TSX grill to the one on the prototype... much better!

Santa Rosa Steve

biker

The show car has 20s and the standard will be 17? WTF? What's the point? I mean people are somewhat underwhelmed already by the looks. Acura wants to disappoint some more in the showroom? What is Acura going to provide the mag reviewers? The show car or the showroom car?

I'm diggin those BMW like lights....angel eyes?

Mokos23

come to think of it, the new RL has the same shape as the Oldsmobile Aurora, which isn't a good thing

phile

They should be like me and doubt it from the very beginning. I had a feeling 20" were too radical for this car.

Jason

dom

X 2

phile

To me, I see Honda Accord, Corolla, BMW 5-Series, Infiniti I35 in this car. Oldsmobile, Hyundai, etc...I don't know where on this car one might find those similarities.

Vans

did you really expect the car to have 20's when everyone who buys acura is statisfied that acura is more conservative..... acura is gonna give the car buyers what they expect. Acura has never really gone out on a limb in the past 5 years. I wish they would have started with the RL but it's still very conservative.

Jason

Not the interior. There's nothing conservative about that. But seriously, when you compare the RL to every other $50k+ luxury car out there, which ones really aren't conservative? Infiniti is conservative (M45 included). The BMWs are not. M-B is. Lexus is (including the new GS). Audi definitely is. Phaeton is. Jag definitely is. The only really radical design is on BMW, and they're poorly received. So why should Acura go radical with their exterior?

SmokeTL

I don't remember it being illuminated. i remember the film used the joy stick at the bottom.....i don't think it was fully fuctioning though.

Vans

What do you mean why? They're selling like 200 RLs a month. They have to lure in more buyers.. thats the whole point in changing things up from the old RL. Did you see the two pics of the front end I posted .... The new front end is the old one - just stretched out. And they don't necessarily have to go radical, i think thats a rather strong word to use. How about - edgier or as I stated above or going out on a limb a little bit.

And btw, the new M is anything but conservative. That thing screams radical especially on the outside. And I do agree that in general - this class tends to be conservative - the age and type of person that is buying this level of car doesn't want too much "radicalness" or too much "edgy". But it's ok to have some - especially when Acura is only selling a couple hundred RLs a month and gets accused all the time of being too conservative.

I like the look of the new RL and there is no doubt that it's going to be a good car. I just wish they would have offered a little more with the exterior - thats all.

Jason

I'm gonna meet you halfway here. The new RL could be edgier, no question. If they had stuck with the grille of the TSX and TL, and sharpened the lines just a bit, that would have been the icing on the cake. They only sell 200 a month because the current car has been a dog for years now. This new car can't be compared to it.

Where is the M45 radical on the outside? The headlights (beautiful) and tailights (fugly) are interesting, but there really isn't anything else to the car. I see Mitsu Galant and Subu Legacy there. It's just a rounded, handsome looking car. But not radical. I think those sweet wheels make it seem more radical than it is. But the inside of the M45 is radical, a bit too radical. If the car mags don't like the BMW interiors, they're gonna hate the M45 interior.

Vans

halfway - yay:phatyo:

AcuraFan

You know...I didn't care for the styling when I first saw it...but it's starting to grow on me a little. I think it will probably look much better in person as well as side by side with it's competition (like the ugly-ass 5 series). So I'm not too upset anymore.

picker

Im almost convinced you people are . You guys have compared this car in the looks department to about every god damn car out there.

SmokeTL

You problably will. I almost lost my lunch when I saw pics of the 5 series. When i went to the dealership and saw it in the flesh, i almost did it. Don't know how i was gonna payfor it, didn't even lke the interior. but it was so much better in person. I had not seen any pics of the rl I only saw it in person and IMHO it is very pretty and classy. Maybe I am conservative....well no i am not. i like crome 20's but i think they did a wonderful job. And I saw the infiniti engineers talking all fast to each other, they liked it too.

dom

Jason

x 2

Davediego

well if you go into the minisite and look through the gallery, you can clearly see the knob is used for text input in the nav. idiotic move acura. at least it still has voice input i guess

TLProspect

I looked at the Prototype website on Acura.com and didn't see pics of quartz interior- just ebony. Where exactly should I be looking?

vtecura

Funny. When I saw the TL at last year's show, I wasn't at
all impressed.
Looking at the press photos for the RL, I'm not "too" impressed
either. But when I look at photos taken at the show, the car
looks much, much better, IMO.
Also, in the press photos, the car looks kinda small. But in the
photos at the show, with the rep standing next to the car, it
doesn't look that small.
Anyway, can't wait till Monday.

Mokos23

it does look like it, it has the same length and overall shape as the

just look:



it has the comparison you see after you've either or

smoked pot for awhile. :P

BrutusBuckeye

I'm wondering, assuming the new NAV is not a touchscreen, does that mean that you also won't be able to input a destination while driving like all other manufacturer's NAVs? It seems logical to me that no touchscreen leads to no moving input. I really hope not. These are probably the two biggest reasons that the Acura NAV is the best one out there. Taking away these two features would move Acura right back to the middle of the pack.

Also, I think the traffic info sounds cool, but I'm not sure how useful it would be in reality. Only major cities have the information, you have to pay a monthly fee for it, and I doubt if it's all that accurate.

biker

But you gotta admit that Indy proven V8 in that Aurora is pretty sweet. Too bad it was sorounded by that ugly sheet metal.
Olds - RIP!

Jason

I know, I'm gonna really miss putting in my destinations on the go.