Jason

http://www.edmunds.com/new/2004/acur.....reviews..2.*

This review has been around for a while but now it is on the front page. Another satisfied customer.

Iceman

It was actually not the Edmunds review I was waiting for. They still haven't done a full Road Test of the TSX.

phile

Edmunds complicates things. There are 4 types of write ups: the first drive, the follow up drive, the full test drive, and a review (which is exactly just a review - a brief one).

IMO, the review is nothing more than a run down of what the car comes with, and just a dash of real journalism.

Count Blah

Earlier this week, the little car picture atop the NEW car section was a blue TSX.

Jason

That's why I entitled the thread "Editor's Review."

EDIT: I just got this e-mail response back from customer service:

Dear Jason,
Thank you for your recent correspondence. We love hearing from our readers. Our full test of the Acura TSX should be up the first week of August. I hope this helps. Thanks again for visiting Edmunds.com.


Tiffany Nagai
Edmunds.com
Customer Support

That should be interesting!

LiamG

While the review language has been around awhile, there is now an Editor's Rating: 8.7 as compared, for example, to 7.6 for the BMW 3XX series.

jcg878

That is surprising. I'd take it with a grain of salt though, since they are quite obviously in love with the 3-series.

larchmont

What do those numbers mean? (What's the scale? What's a good score/average score/crappy score?) I couldn't find any explanation over there.

Also, do I understand right -- TSX got a better rating than BMW 3????

(I mean I'd give it a higher rating, too -- but from what y'all are saying, it seems like maybe I'm misunderstanding it.)

jcg878

I think it's their attempt at judging cars objectively... distinct from their reviews that seem weighted on driving dynamics. They rank cars from 1-10 in different areas, then use the mean score as the 'editor's rating.' It seems it may help avoid an ergonomic nightmare, but not choose the ideal sports car for a drive in the mountains.


http://edmunds.com/new/2004/acura/ts...body..0.Acura*

Hmm... seems like they disagree with you about the headlights, larch.


http://edmunds.com/new/2003/bmw/3ser...gsbody..0.BMW*


It also seems like the 3-series got zinged for it's cargo/passenger areas, and (no shock here) value.


p.s. who says 'y'all' in NY??? j/k

larchmont

Thanks, JCG -- that helps. I still couldn't get an idea of how the scale really works; I would have had to see a bunch of scores for different cars to get an idea of what TSX's score really means, and I didn't see a way to easily do that -- but I get the general idea. For what it's worth, I did see that the TL-S got an even better rating than the TSX, "which just goes to show" -- since I couldn't wait to get rid of my (almost-new) TL-S for the TSX, and even paid extra as part of the deal -- and it was well worth it.

Yeah, they sure do disagree about the headlights -- a perfect 10, for cryin' out loud? But then again, they also give a 10 to the sound system, which doesn't bother me too much but I know that a lot of people on here would have fits over that.

P.S. About "y'all" -- I know you were kidding, but it's a good question. Part of the reason I use it is that it makes me feel folksy, but the real reason is that I think the English language needs a specific plural form of "you," and doesn't have it -- unless you use "y'all." The plain "you," when intended as the plural, can sound too sharp and personal, or at least be misunderstood. No such problems with "y'all."


So, y'all, please help me out -- let's ALL use it, and spread it around, and see if it'll catch on. (I smell a Nobel Prize for this site.)

jcg878

lol. That is an adequate justification. I had to ask because I've just returned to the NE after two years in Dixie and "y'all" has penetrated my vernacular for better or for worse. Every time I say it around a fellow Yankee I receive abuse though. I do agree that it's a superior term for the 2nd person plural - better than 'you,' 'yous,' or 'yins' (Pittsburgh-speak, or so I hear).

About sounding folksy.... a friend of mine who is a community pharmacist in North Carolina told me that after he began using a Southern accent and said stuff like "how y'all doin'?" to his patients, they were noticeably nicer to him. I adopted his technique in the hospital as well and found the same thing. Now I have a hard time suppressing it sometimes!

fdl

Alot of these "editors" and magazines get money (not to mention the odd dinner etc) from various car companies. This money could be advertising, or whatever.

Its kinda like how 3 years ago all these financial analysts were pumping stocks....saying how great they were ...mostly because they owned them. Now we later found out these guys were all full of crap.

Not to put emunds down..I think its a great site. But a 10 for the soudn system...hmmm.. Anyways..I am more making a general comment I guess. Dont believe everything you read (including this)

larchmont

Cool!

You know, I was thinking that my justification was cool and creative, but come to think of it, that must be exactly why they started using it down south. And they're right.

Eternal TL2k3

i hate edmunds reviews... everytime they review a honda/acura they have one thing to say - bland styling. find some real faults with the car instead of saying its bland while other competitors have ugly cars and they say 'UNIQUE STYLING' as a pro to the car

larchmont

Right on. The NY Times review did the same thing. Liked everything about the car, everything -- except the "bland styling," and that was what they put on the headline!

LiamG

The TL-S did not get a higher Editor's rating than the TSX. You must have been confused by the Consumer Rating; these are always higher than the Editor's Rating. The 03 TL got an Editor's rating of 8.0 (there is only one rating for each series; thus, nothing separate for the S-type). Some other 03 ratings are: BMW 7 series- 8.0, Lexus IS300- 7.4, Accord- 8.2, Infiniti G35- 8.1, Mercedes C-class- 6.8, Audi A4- 8.3. In other words, the TSX score of 8.7 is excellent!

larchmont

Thanks very, very much, Liam -- Great job -- and WELCOME, too!.

Yes, I must have made exactly the mistake you say. (Too lazy to go back and check for sure, but you must be right.)

Seeing all those ratings together is exactly what we always need to do with things like this, since the rating scale seems intuititve but isn't really (as you can tell more clearly from the surprisingly low ratings of some of those other cars).

There was the same problem, only worse, with the Consumer Guide ratings, where TSX's overall score ("62") as well as its score in each category seemed mediocre. It was only through comparison with the competitors that one could realize how extraordinary TSX's scores were.

And same thing here. Anyone would have "realized" that 8.7 is pretty good -- but they'd be wrong. It's extraordinary. And you can only tell by those comparisons.

Wow. Maybe it wasn't so crazy when I called the TSX "Best Car Up to $80K."

lshenretty

Larch, y'all, what didn't you like about the TL-S? I'm waiting on a TSX, but after 5 weeks or so, I still don't have any information about when it might come in. Thinking about going back and taking another look at the TL.

larchmont

The TL-S was a great car, just not my kind -- too big, really "boaty" (a lot of people have used the word), not nimble enough. Also it didn't seem greatly "put together" -- lots of "rattles" and whatnot (haven't had any of that with TSX, even though some others have).

In a way I'm splitting hairs here. I did lots and lots of consideration and research before getting the TL-S, and it was by far the best car (literally at any price) for my needs in terms of what was on the market at the time -- but I knew from the beginning it wasn't what I wanted, and I had my eyes wide open either for something new or for an existing model to maybe evolve a bit (or, in some cases, improve their reliability). This was very unusual for me, because generally I like to keep a car forever. I knew right away that the TL-S was basically a place-holder for me.

I couldn't believe my good fortune when something like the TSX came along so soon.