Well, I'm taking the liberty of starting this -- I thought it would be good to have a thread where we can put test-drive impressions of the TL. Not that I've done one myself yet :'( . I could have done it this evening (Thurs.) -- my dealer just got them in and he must be chomping for me to try one because he gave me a call even though he doesn't know I'm Larchmont from a-tsx.com :whocares: -- but my lady is into the whole TL thing too (for which of course I'm grateful) and I thought she'd appreciate my waiting until she could do it with me, which won't be till Saturday. (Ah, the things we do for love. )

Anyway, I thought lots of people would have been able to do test drives on Thursday, but I get home, turn on the site....... and I see that almost nobody has driven one yet. Damn, I could have been one of the first. (Ah, the things we do for love. )

So, let's hear about your drives. Look for mine on the 4th. I figure a couple hundred of you will have scooped me by then.

 

My dealer received 6 yesterday, all AT only one with Navi,

- I took it for a spin around the mall and let me tell you, the roar of the engine when you put the pedal to the metal is awesome,
something that i found very funny was the "Horn" on this car is loud,i'm talking inside the car loud, i don't know if it's coming from the speakers or from the center console,you can hear it like is actually inside the cabin and when i tested it my sales guy jumped! on the passenger seat and said "what tha hell !! where is that coming from! so i did it three more times!! anyways you've got to try that, very weird,

- Also try the rear mirror turn signal lights and is not there, the car does not have them,even on the window sticker said it does.

When i opened the hood i notice the two shocks, i opened the hood with one finger only and the shocks does the rest ,very nice!!
What i did not like was the carpet-like material they used on the rear wheel wells, you know, where all the mud and water gets, maybe they did it for sound proofing purposes, even the guy that was detailing the car was complainning about that, it's going to be a mess when all the armorall / black-magic gets in there,

Also noticed on the window-sticker that the trany is made in Japan, do the previous TL's had theyre tranys made in Japan?

The bi-Xennon lights work great on the same lense and the fog lights right next to it,

Overall the car is a very fine piece of machinery quiet,powerfull and refined.

just my three cents.......................

 

Yep the car is very nice! Quite too. My wife honked the horn and I about Crapped my pants, entirely to loud inside the car I think! All in all I loved the car-- smooth, quick wisper quite and the navi is Badd azz!!! Oh yea the stereo cranks!!

 

amen brother !!!!

 

Castle Acura in Delaware wo uld not allow test-drives until the 6th. Or so they told me. They only had automatics, no 6MTs are expected until next month. They didn't have any navigation units either, but were expecting one tomorrow.

 

I am scheduled to test drive Saturday (10/04/03) at 11 am. Again, I will be comparing the TL to the following: Acura TSX, Honda Accord EX V6, BMW 325i, Inifiniti G35 and Volvo S60 Turbo. I will not be taking any pictures of the cars (enough people have already). Should be intersting to see if my theories about the car are correct.


And yes Larchmont, I will be giving my personal opinion as well as an analysis based on a friend that will go with me that has never seen the car, nor driving anything like it in its class.

 

Hey, TL and Booyah -- Wanna tell us anything more about your impressions of driving the car? Or was the drive not sufficient to get any impression?


Side issue, but: I know that sometimes the dealer doesn't allow a really sufficient test drive. Sometimes it's the amount of time they allow you, sometimes it's where they let you take it. Not that we should be pigs, but it's our right to insist on sufficient test drives, and it's in the dealer's interest, and we should feel free to say all of the above if necessary. Not that it'll certainly work, but it should, and there's nothing to lose.

Regarding where they let you take it, I don't know about anywhere else but in the NY area some dealers are just nuts about this. All kinds of nutty stuff. Sometimes they have a single route which they say you have to take. That might be OK, if it was a GOOD route. But, sometimes it's, "No, we can't let you go on the freeway." Sometimes it's a route that doesn't have some features to show off the car fully. Including a couple of times, would you believe, they only let me take the car on a route that had the crappiest roads you can imagine, so it made the car seem like just a POS, and they wouldn't let me take it anywhere else, where the car might have had half a chance.

 

Just took a drive. Didn't feel the acceleration was that much different than my '00 TL. Handling is improved. Styling is improved. The interior is much improved. The quality is better. I don't know about the sunglass holder. Dash is cool. I drove non-navi. I didn't see the navi version (being prepped). I didn't feel it cheapened the interior, but of course I can't compare it. The best looking color combo IMHO is Abyss blue/camel. I have dark blue now and probably will do something different.

 

You didn't feel going from 225 HP to a 270 HP, had better acceleration?

maybe you didn't floor it

 

You are right, I didn't floor it. It was my impression of "normal" driving.

 

I certainly did floor it. 20 to 60 on an onramp in what felt like 3 seconds. 35 to 95 in what felt like 3.5 seconds at most.

at high revs it's a lot less noisy than the g35. even when accelerating hard it feels more like a luxury car than a sports sedan. this may or may not suit you depending on driving styles.

 

Went by the local dealer and they had all the colors I had not seen at the R and D , except red. I must say the new green (a gray green) is great and the antracite is maybe the best of the lot. Like someone said, the dark colors are the best for this car. I agree. The black trim around the side windows, stands out too much on the light cars, The black trim is much more subtle on the darker shades.

Short test drive. Great power without even flooring it. Quite, rigid, excellent cornering with little lean and only mild understeer. The short listen to the sound system was first rate. Best I ever heard in a car. My wife and I had just test driven an A4, because my wife liked the looks. After the ride in the TL, she said to me "no contest" The TL blew the Audi away in every way. The roominess of the interior was very impresive. Even with my long legs, there was plenty of room for my wife in the seat behind me. I'm sold. Can't wait!

 

I test drove at two dealerships. Each was green with camel, one had navi, the other didn't.

Power, stability, handling and performance.
Magnificent. Floor it and it flies.

Noise
Engine does not roar, growl or shout on high revs. It's more like a deep rumble. The car doesn't shout 'sports sedan' the way a TSX or G35 does. It's a comfy, luxury car and the engine makes that clear.
There was a small amount of wind noise, but less then I'm used to.
Doing 60 with the enormous sunroof open the noise was not overpowering, and there was very little wind entry. You won't need a moonroof visor.

Seats and such
Very comfy, including very good legroom and headroom in the back, even when the driver's seat is back far enough to accomodate all 6ft 1 of my good self.
You won't fit 3 big people in the back, but that's more an case of limited butt room than head room.

Accoutrements
Front cupholders were good. Back were definitely a bit plasticky. I had no objection to the sunglasses holders, but the expanding front pockets already had a bit of broken plastic.
The storage in front of the gear stick is absolutely useless. It's a lousy shape and is almost inaccessable with the gear knob in park.
The seat pockets on the back of the front seats are just weird. It's hard plastic, and I see no reason for it. Unlike your vanden plas you won't be able to fold it down into a picnic table and ask your neighbor to pass the mustard.

Gears
I drove the automatic, and it was smooth. The tiptronic seems as irrelevant to me in this car as in any other car I've had it in. My gf calls it wanker-mode and it's really just for speed demons. imho.

Exterior colors.
We're in trouble here. Almost all are wonderful. I'm going to have to reconsider my choices. The green is the biggest surprise. It's subtle, and really didn't even seem green to me. The blue was great as was the anthracite. Lucy the cat is charcoal, so I like the anthracite. Didn't see red, does it even exist? Didn't see desert mist either. White is like a cream puff, nice if you like white. Black is black, but all of the dark colors are really multi-colored, with hints of everything in there.

Interior colors.
Black and quartz were as expected. I didn't see parchment. Camel was nice in the front, but maybe a little overpowering in the back. Sitting in the back you're surrounded by the color, and it's a deeper, reddish brown than you might expect. I thought I'd love it, and in the front it's just fine. Might drive me nuts if I was in the back for too long.

Gadgets.
Simply phenomenal. bluetooth worked fine with my sony ericsson t616 once i realised it wanted to treat the car as a handsfree accessory.
the audio quality of the handsfree was not as good as i'd hoped. i may not be throwing away my headset just yet. there's distortion if you shout loudly, but you shouldn't have to as the a/c fan turns to low when you're on a call.

The navigation is magnificent. Super fast, and the voice recognition worked a treat. Find nearest japanese restaraunt, choose number 4, navigate a route, call them. All recognised just fine.

This car's a keeper.

 

I was at the dealer today too and they had a green and grey one parked near each other and both colors look great on the TL. I really liked the green, kind of changes color with the amount of light. The grey/quartz combo looks great together and some lucky sole already purchased it. Now I want to see grey/camel combo.

 

Funny you mention this, because I thought the same with the parchment in the back. The parchment is really light beige color and in the back it was just overpowering because everything was beige. Thankfully the doors have some black, aluminum and wood trim to look at to break up the beige. Overall I still liked the parchment though, I'll just stay in the driver's seat.

 

Has anyone been able to determine if the trip computer offers instant econ? aka instant MPG? I say cumulative, but no instant.

 

Well, finally did it. And we have a split decision. In my book, the TSX is still king. The lady picks the TL.

(You gotta remember, like they used to say on the old site, I just have bad taste in cars.)

In short: The TL feels like a much bigger car (vs. the TSX), both for better and for worse. Even though on the outside it's not a much bigger car (it's almost the same). And the ride comfort is only marginally better than that of the TSX, IMHO.

You definitely become aware of the greater power of the TL, when you need it. And you definitely feel the much greater interior room. For me as a driver, the greater interior room oddly is a disadvantage. I love the snug feel of the TSX driver seat; by comparison, I'm just floating around in the TL seat. But the lady would kill to have that TL passenger seat over the TSX one. She says it's not just the larger size, it's the whole thing -- much more comfortable, better support, more leg room of course, and the power adjustment helps a lot.

About the handling: A little hard to describe the comparison to the TSX, because it's not clearly "better" or "worse," it's different in different aspects, so it's a matter of what aspects of handling you consider more important than others. I like the TSX better, but I could see that other people might regard the TL's handling as better. I think the TSX clearly has much, much more of a "nimble" feel. Part of this is probably just the snugger feel of the driver seat, which has nothing to do with handling per se but which affects my sense of the car, gives me more of a sense of being "at one" with the car and so makes me feel more confident and assertive about whatever I want to do. And also the greater width of the TL, which is very palpable to me, is more limiting about what you can do -- firstly in making the car harder to maneuver, and secondly on a pure geometric basis, meaning that a wider car simply doesn't "fit" into paths as neatly as a narrower car does. (Not a huge factor to everybody, but definitely a factor just on the basis of pure geometry, and to me a great factor.) On the other hand, the TL seems to corner better, with less body lean. BTW, compared to the TL-S (I had an '03), I would say that the new TL's handling is a bit better but not greatly so.

About ride: My main complaint about the TSX is that although the ride in general is very good, it doesn't ride great on rough roads, and particularly you really feel the "thump" pretty hard on bad bumps (like freeway joints). Yes, it's just one thump and then immediately you're right back where you wanna be, but you really feel that thump. I thought that maybe the new TL would be a big improvement on ride. It's not. I think I could tell some difference -- the TL was just a little better, both on rough road in general and on "bad bumps" -- but not much better, and I'm not sure there's any improvement at all. But the lady says that from the passenger standpoint, there's a definite difference in favor of the TL, much more than what I'm saying.

Overall impression: The TL's a great car, but not quite as great as I might have hoped. One might question how objective I was, because obviously I wouldn't have loved to see the TSX being the "loser" -- but I was doing my best to be open, and I was fully ready to like it even better than the TSX. Well, I didn't. If there were no TSX, there's no doubt that I'd be getting a TL. I regarded the TL-S as the best thing out there before there was a TSX, and the new TL is better than that. But I wouldn't trade my TSX even-up for a new TL.

But the lady would do it in a heartbeat. The TL might be her next car, if not mine.


P.S. My assessment sort of supports Skull One's advance declaration that the TL couldn't be that great because there's only so much that Acura could do within this price range. I still think that in terms of reasoning process, he was wrong to think he could make such an assumption, but having tried the car, I'd have to say that his blind assessment was close although not completely right. The power of the new TL is significantly greater than in the old TL (especially the "non-S" version), and the handling is a bit better. But the ride isn't much better than the old TL ride, if at all, at least from my standpoint as the driver.

 

I finally drove the car today and would like to share two observations....

The sportshift was no more responsive, if not slower than my 03 TLS-Navi.

The GIANT moonroof that Acura is bragging about is a BIG let down. In typical Honda fashion, it does not open very far, it is just much w i d e r than the previous car. I want a bigger opening towards the back of the car, not wider. Give me a targa roof instead of the width.

 

Thanks for the review, Larchmont! You are definitely from the "if it's gotta be done, just do it yourself" school. (as far as TSX-TL comparison)

I think your review was well-written and you did try, mostly successfully, to be objective. I only disagree with you on one point...I have to tell you, having owned the old TL, the handling on the newer one is far and away better than the old. The TL-P has pretty scary handling at high (80 + mpg) speed in stock form. Once I put new springs and rubber on it, it simply stuck to the road, but at the cost of comfort. The new car handles quite well at high speed at the a minimal cost to comfort. It's no BMW, but it's OK enough for me.

Maybe I should go test drive a TSX. Wanna come to Cleveland and swap for an hour?

 

Larch, great job as always

I would like to hear a few other comparisons on ride. I can't believe the upperscale TL still bumps u areound on theose freeqay humps. TSX was real bad when I took it out. Could TL have same high tire pressure prob TSX did. Anyone check?

 

I'd like to hear other impressions too. And remember, my lady thought much more of the TL ride than I did. Maybe I wasn't objective enough, maybe there is more of a difference in the passenger seat. And that's a good point about the tire pressures -- I have no idea what they were, or whether this might have been a factor.

But for what it's worth, I can tell you this: The other day, since I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do the test drive for a couple of days, I asked one of the Acura salesmen who had done a drive about the ride, and his impression was exactly the same as what I wound up feeling -- it's about the same as the TSX. I was shocked when I heard it -- not only that this was the case, but even more so that he'd say it, at least so outright. If anything of course you'd expect him to be talking up the greatness of this new car that Acura has, or at least to hem and haw rather than to just say the ride wasn't much improvement over the TSX.

BTW this serves as another example to those who doubt that any dealers are decent people.

 

well, ultimately, the TSX and TL are both fancy Accords.

 

Maybe we'll do that.

Yeah, I might not be remembering the old TL well enough -- but remember, I had the TL-S, and that's the comparison that I was making. As best I can recall, it's as I said -- its handling was very nearly as good as in the new TL, but I could be wrong. However, for what it's worth, according to what we've seen on this board over the months, it has seemed that if anything I've tended to underrate the TL-S, not overrate it.

It'll be interesting to hear other comparisons of the new TL's handling to that of the TL-S.

 

Larch maybe you should have let the lady drive the car, and you sit in the passenger seat

 

You wanna be flamed to death or something

Wrong forum to say that in

 

One possibility is that the tires themselves are contributing to the harsh ride (not necessarily the tire pressure). Several reviews on Tirerack.com of the all-season EL42s mention that it is a noisy tire that transmits every imperfection in the road to the cabin. I'd love to hear comments about the perceived tire noise from people who have driven the TL. The 7-series and G35 both use this tire as well -- from my test drive of the G35, I remember the ride being somewhat firm and C&D faulted it for being overly loud in a recent comparison. I've never driven the 7-series, but I can't imagine that its owners complain about noisiness or harsh ride...

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....l=Turanza+EL42

 

Did anyone else think the moonroof was still typical Honda small?

 

Yes, I noticed it too. The one sitting in the showroom had the roof open and it didn't go back as far as I thought, about the same as other Honda/Acuras roofs. I imagined it would be larger since they mentioned the new larger opening of it under improvements/changes.

 

Jason has already banned one person recently, are you working on being number two. Joking!!

 

Larch and Bob, thanks for your driving impressions. It is nice to have comparisions between the old TL, TSX and new TL. Keep em coming.

 

hey, i say that as a true compliment to the Accord, not so much as a diss to the TSX or TL . and honestly, is there anyone that denies that the TSX is a rebadged Euro Accord? i do admit it may be a small stretch to say that the new TL is like a Euro Accord with a larger version of the U.S. Accord engine (v6). my original response was directed to larchmont who "complained" that the TL had almost the same quality ride as the TSX. of course they would ride similarly because they basically share the same "Accord" platform. unless that is someone feels that the new TL is a brand new platform. maybe i should stop while i'm not too far behind .

 

No. I was driving tonight and looked up through the moonroof and noticed that the driver's side edge was over my left ear. In the previous TL, it was narrower, with the driver's side edge over the middle of my head. It it true that when seen from outside, the retracted moonroof doesn't travel all the way backward (e.g. the front edge doesn't go under the rear of the moonroof opening.

The ride is not bad on these tires. The improved soundproofing keeps much, but not all of the tire noise out. The tire noise is certainly not onerous enough for me to have commented on, I'll have to look at that later. Once these EL42s wear out, I plan to change to something else, perhaps Bridgestones LSs. What I'm really concerned about is snow performance. Cleveland is well-known for its $hitty winters (darn Cleveland wife who keeps me here! ) and I'll try them, but based on others' reports, I'm probably going to end up buying a set of Blizzaks or something.

 

i test drove an automatic today. i have a 99TL modded out, and i have to say that the new TL feels MUCH more rigid than the told TL. they claimed they greatly increased torsonial rigidity and man did they ever. i have sways, springs, shocks, and tires on my 99TL, and i felt the new TL could easily give mine a run for its money. i didnt get to push the new TL too hard, but i did drive it on a twisting country road and then the freeway, and it was MUCH more composed than my car would have been. i think im overly sensitive to handling/ride of a car, so my impressions might have been more pronounced than some peoples

the engine is also great. i drove an automatic but there was still plenty of power. people complaining about lack of low end torque have to remember this car has drive by wire, which limits the throttle if the car decides you arent trying to drag race. floor the car and you will feel all 238ft*lbs. my 99TL has a CAI and a UR crank pulley for engine mods, and the new TL has significantly more high end power. it was very quick when getting up to freeway speeds

exterior and interior are simply beautiful. i went with my dad (a surgeon who has plenty of dr friends with exspensive cars) and he couldnt believe how nice the car was for only $33k. of course opinions on styling are always goign to be subjective, but thats how we saw it.

also popped the hood for a little bit. the headers look like they will be very difficult to swap out, so thats one 30hp mod that wont carry over from the last generation also the stock "CAI" really just seemed to move the resonator to have its intake at the front bumper. definitely an improvement from the last generation (i installed my own CAI and couldnt believe the stock system got any air to it at all) but i think an aftermarket CAI will still help the car, plus give the wonderful CAI sound

overall i was very impressed with the car. if i had the cash availible, id trade in my 99 for a black/quartz/navi/stick in a heartbeat. sigh one can dream

 

test drove one at david mcdavid in austin today. couple of them were sold already. overall pretty much in accord with other peoples test drive experience. still prefer the tsx though for my personal tastes. a TL would be nicer to have if i were a bit older.

leather is really nice!
no navi model radio and ac display looks really cheap
cup holders are bad
dont like the steering wheel
factory rims gotta go

not as much chrome trim on the TL is a plus
overall a really nice car. got some good power

drove the auto but didnt really push it around turns. pretty good straightline power though

 

I've yet to see one but I'd agree the stock rims must have been given as much thought as the...

The TireRack had a special on a large quantity of an unpopular wheel maybe.

At least my stock TSX rims are excellent versions of the BMW 7-spoke 17' wheel offered on the 3 series for the last couple of years. hmmmm...that's why it's been dubbed a "3 series killer"

 

just thought id add a few more things: ive test driven a manual tsx also, id have to say it was more "nimble" and the steering responded quicker than the new TL, but ther was also more body roll

anyone play around with the SS? i couldnt get the 04 TL to stay in 1st gear for the life of me. the car goes to 2nd whenever it feels like it, dissapointing to me

anyone try to park it? if the 39.7ft turning radius is for real (seems way too big to be true) this will not be a fun car to park at colleges, shopping malls, etc

one of the sales rep claimed 5.8 0-60 for the auto and 5.6 for the manual. the auto i drove definitely felt fast, but i havent really driven a car that fast so i dont have any real idea, that would make it half a second faster than the old TL-S. it would also make the manual a bit faster than the CL-S 6 speed.

 

The SS is programmed to shift automatically from 1st to 2nd gears automatically. It was a feature of the prior generation too and, frankly, generated a lot of complaints. I think it makes the SS useless.

As for parking, the prior generation had a similar pi$$-poor turning radius. When I bought my '02 and put new 17s and rubber on, I had to learn how to do 3-point turns again. However, as long as you're not parking in tight spaces, it's OK--I garage my car at home and my offices have large parking spaces.

 

I still can't believe w/ ACura's attention to detail that they still couldn't give a anythign lower than this monstrous turning radius

 

Well, I finally got my turn...

So you know where I'm coming from, I've got a 95 Volvo 850 Turbo. I've already driven the Accord V6 and the TSX, and was hoping the TL would be the happy marriage between the two...

As others have said, the car is much better looking in person than in photos. The black is especially sharp.

The interior is very nice, IMO. However, I think I actually like the gauges on the TSX better - the extra glow of the TL's gauges didn't do it for me (I saw this in many of the pics and was hoping it was due to exposure rather than reality).

One thing I did notice - the front seatbacks are plastic - when I tried pulling the pocket part back the entire bottom of the back popped off. Hmmm, not good w/my kids... more usable back seat room than the TSX, but not as much as my 850.

The trunk is smallish, but not tiny. Still, if we're heading to the airport for a weeklong trip, we'd be taking the minivan, not the TL.

I thought the parchment interior was a bit light and too buttery for my taste. I'd like to see what camel looks like but for me at this point quartz would be the front runner. If you could get the quartz with the plood insead of the carbon it would be no contest.

The seats are very good. Coming from a Volvo owner, that says a lot. Almost audi like in their firmness. I really liked the power lumbar.

Driving - frankly I was somewhat underwhelmed. When the turbo on my 850 kicks in you get the push in your seat feeling. I got it with the 530 as well. But with the TL I never felt it. It felt more like the TSX to me. My memory might be off, but to be honest my impression was that the Accord V6 had at least as much low end oompf.

Ride was firm, similar to the TSX, but not as bone jarring as the Volvo. Feels more solid than the accord, which has a more 'comfortable' ride. I really didn't get to test out the handling but not surprisingly, the TSX felt a lot more tossable.

One thing I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned. I came to a right turn to get onto a freeway ramp. The opposite direction traffic had a green left turn. Sitting there I noticed the slope of the front pillar completely obscured my ability to see the traffic. I actually had to move my head sideways to look from the side window. Could be the combination of seat position and everything else on the road combined for an isolated incident, but the size of that blind spot really surprised me.

In all, I was hoping the TL would render my debate between the TSX and the Accord V6 moot, but all it's done is to complicate it. The usable (vs measured) power of the TL isn't appreciably more than the Accord. I'll have to do a back to back with a TSX on some twisiter roads before I can really pass judgement on handling.

 

Great write-up, bikngld. Surprised at your impression of the power. (From what Skull One said on another thread, he wouldn't be surprised at all.) Agree with just about everything else. Interesting stuff.

About the vision thing: Yeah -- and isn't it similar in the TSX? (Maybe not quite so much; not sure, because on my TL test drive I probably didn't encounter a situation like you did that would have really brought it out.) But I think it's all better than it was in the "old" TL and TL-S.