Well, while I was at the dealer today to get some regular maintenance and warranty work done on my TSX, I stopped by and talked to my salesman Antonio at Ed Voyles here in Atlanta, GA. They have one 6 speed TL on the lot and after talking to him for a bit, he asked me if I'd like to take it for a spin to check it out. So, here are my opinions of the new TL:

I drove the 6 speed with navi. It was NHBP with Parchment interior. Very nice car. First thing that grabbed my attention was the navi unit and it's huge screen. I've never driven a car with navi before and let me tell you, I will probably get the navi unit in my next car. Just being able to know where you are everytime you get in the car is a big plus IMHO. I guess I never gave it a shot in the TSX, and I should have, because for $2k more I think it might have been worth it now, but money was an object when I bought my TSX, so that is why I didn't even think about the navi at that point in time.

The clutch on the 6 speed is very soft, a lot softer than my TSX. I about put my foot through the floor the firs time I pushed the clutch in. The release point is fairly high just like the TSX. The actual gear shifter though was kind of weird. Instead of putting a straight stick in there (the shifter actually being straight), the one in the TL feels like it's angled a bit. This just took a little getting used to, but was not a big deal. The gears are very close ratio, probably a bit closer than the TSX, but it's hard to say with only driving the car once. The gears were very notchy going in and out of gear though, and I suspect this will loosen up over time (even though this particular car had 110 miles on it).

The engine is superb, with great pickup (can really feel the 270/238 in the engine). The car did show a little body roll when I put it around a corner, as well as a little torque steer, but with all that power, I kind of expected it a bit. It didn't seem quite as tight as the TSX when cornering, but the raw speed it possessed made up for that quickly.

Now, some things I wasn't too caring for about the car was the large rattle I heard in the back when we cranked up the sound system (especially with the bass above 0). Antonio was not too happy with that either, and I have a feeling it'll be going back to the back for them to take a look at it this weekend. I did not care for the radio screen to be up at the top where the clock is either. I'm not sure if you can put it on the navi screen, but I did not care for it to be up there as I always had to hunt to see what the volume was or what I was listening to. The steering wheel also did not move upwards very far. I could have used for it to move up just a bit further, but I had it at it's max.

Overall, the TL is a great car. If I had an extra $5k or more when I bought my TSX, I probably would have waited for the TL, but I didn't and I'm still very happy with the TSX and am glad I made the purchase. Cheers.

 

Great writeup Dave.

 

Nice review, thanks. It's a good comparo with the 6MT TSX.

By the way, you can place the radio info on the navi screen by pressing the "audio" button on the far right side of the dash. I use it only when I'm listening to XM.

 

Ahh, that's good to know...well ok not really for me as I won't be getting rid of the TSX anytime soon, but I figured there was a way to do this. Thanks.

 

Did you "accidently" chirp or burn 2nd?

 

Heh...no I didn't, although I have a feeling the car could have chirped 3rd and 4th. I actually didn't get above 4th, but I did get it up to about 5500 RPM's in 1st and 2nd...the thing really moves.

 

I haven't driven a 6MT yet, but I drove the 5AT when they came out. Is it just me, or does the car sound amazing. That thing just growls at ya.

 

I agree about the body roll and the general handling compared to the TSX, but I didn't notice any Torque steer in the 6MT. I did in te 5AT. Are you sure it wasn't the LSD kicking in?

 

Are you sure the sub was set to 0 as well? I missed that on my first TL test drive and I had a lot of bass distortion. I made sure on the normal settings were flat and the center channel and sub were also. These controls are only on the TL because of the DVD-Audio and DTS compatibility.

 

i listened to the sound system on maximum volume with the both sub and bass settings at maximum and there was no distortion whatsoever. Nor was there any rattle coming from the back; however, i did hear a very slight rattle coming from the driver's door flip out pocket thing, but this was very slight and not bothersome, and again only at full volume.

 

It could have been, I really don't know. I didn't get a chance to really push the car and was paying more attention to what I was doing than what the car was doing.

 

Yup, because the salesman cranked it up, but once he heard the distortion as well as the rattle, he turned it back down to 0 and the rattle was still there, although very faint. No distortion with it at 0 though.