Edward'TLS

Is the TLX V6 AWD heavily subsidized by the factory, in order to move sales ?

It is obviously that the new Accord has no factory incentives because it is a new generation model.

KeithL

Not sure about Canada, but the 15 TLX's were a steal here. I was quoted $38800 for SHAWD Advance while the new 16 Touring was rolling out at MSRP of around $35400. It was a no-brainier to go TLX for that small difference. I do not believe the 16 TLXs are as heavily discounted, but my guess is Acura will carry more discounts because Honda does not make all that many Touring Accords. Why discount a Touring that much if a dealer gets a handful every month of the hundreds of cars they need to move. And the 16 Touring seems to be in high demand.

The Dark Knight

iTrader: (1)

I don't remember '15 MSRP numbers exactly, but is that roughly 6k off MSRP?

KeithL

I think it was closer to like $6300 off, but it was a deal too good to pass up. By far one of the best deals I have gotten on a car, well below invoice.

youngTL

Getting below invoice is very hard to do in Canada except when they're clearing out cars. We have very little competition between the few dealers we DO have. They were selling the '15's pretty low though, like $5-7k off, but selection is now pretty limited.

darmok

Since I just bought an Accord Touring to replace my TSX I figured I'd throw in my about why I went with the Accord. So, I present the Six Boneheaded Mistakes Acura Made That Put Me Off The TLX:

6. Steering feel. I'm putting this last because frankly this isn't great anywhere anymore, but ever since Acura switched to EPS there just hasn't been any steering feel or even any weight to the steering. Somebody at Acura thinks that ultra-light steering is the definition of luxury, but frankly it just isn't what I want in a sport sedan. The Accord at least seems to firm up more at speed, and turn-in is a little better, no doubt due to the 19"s. The Mazdas I've driven recently really do this right, so clearly EPS can be made to feel good if you want to.
5. Packaging. You can't get CMBS on the 2.4, and remote start and fog lamps are available only as accessories? By the time you add those and replacement rims (the 2.4's 17"s are, uh, not pretty) you might as well get the V6.
4. Transmission. I know the 9AT is a ZF unit, but Honda + New Automatic Transmission + Owner Complaints does not spell good news. I've driven this transmission in other applications and experienced many of the same problems. The 6AT isn't brilliant, but at least it's proven.
3. Colors. The TLX comes in three colors: bean burrito brown (not my cup of tea), the same maroon as my grandmother's Buick Century, and a decent blue. Of these the blue is the only one I'd really consider, but it doesn't do much for me. Both Acura and Infiniti seem to be afflicted by this boring-color disease, and I can't really figure out why.
2. Safety. Can someone explain how they managed to make the TLX worse than the Accord? The Accord Coupe gets perfect marks in IIHS testing, not just in the overall scores but in every single sub-score. The 15 TLX only got an Acceptable in the small front overlap and the 16 is even worse. Last year Acceptable was good enough for a Top Safety Pick, but this year Good is required, so even the 15 wouldn't qualify under the new rules.
1. Climate controls. If I hadn't had any experience with this dual-screen system it wouldn't even make the list, but I had a MDX service loaner earlier this year and got to see just how frustrating this is over the span of a week. I'm driving for about an hour a day in a suburban area, and at least once a day I'll have to hit the recirc button for some idiot smoking in their car or because Pepé le Pew decided to pay a visit. When I'm driving, the last thing I want to be doing is taking my eyes off the road to navigate some touchscreen interface. Let's look at how this plays out:

• My old TSX: find recirc button by feel, press the button, glance down to verify I pressed the right button, keep driving. Pretty good.
• '16 Accord: find recirc button by feel, press the button, see the recirc status up at the top of the upper display without really taking my eyes off the road. Great.
• TLX: look down at giant touchscreen, realize I'm in the wrong mode, poke at it to get the climate controls, nervously glance back up at the road, look down again to find the recirc button, poke the display again, damn it didn't take, poke it again, crash into tree in a way that almost perfectly recreates the IIHS small front overlap crash, get my leg crushed.

I have a message to whoever designed this system. I hope they can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can.

If the TLX was some brilliant-handling machine that combined the agile, light feeling and road feedback of my TSX with the power of the V6, I'd be willing to forgive some of these things. But frankly the difference between the Accord Touring and the TLX has been overstated here in my opinion. The Accord Touring rides brilliantly thanks to the very same amplitude-reactive dampers as the Acura. It's plenty fast. It's extremely quiet and feels incredibly solid. The new infotainment system on the Accord is as stupid as every other dual-screen system out there, but it doesn't absorb any of the primary controls. The new Garmin-based nav is simple, clear, and comes with five years of free map updates. As far as interior quality goes, the Accord is better than my TSX was in almost every way, and frankly I'm not enough of a connoisseur of plastics to be able to tell much of a difference on the TLX.

Obviously everyone has their own subjective opinion, and this is all just my personal perspective. If you like the TLX better, great! I'm guessing there's a few other 1G TSX / 3G TL owners out there who feel the same way I do though.

Hopefully Acura will address a lot of this stuff at the MMC. It's not a bad car, it's just not better enough than the Accord right now for me to overcome the things I don't like. In the meantime, if Honda is cannibalizing Acura, at least it's better than getting cannibalized by the competition. I'm still in the Honda family, and if Acura gets their act together again and puts some fun back in the driving experience I'd be perfectly willing to consider an upgrade. The good news is that based on Honda's recent products they seem to be firing on all cylinders again, and I'm sure that'll come back to Acura soon enough.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

TL;DR

I at bean burrito brown...

I'm buying a new car soon and I was torn between TLX and Accord. I had a 2013 Accord but traded it for my Explorer. Now I want another car and I'm going with a 2016 Sport, unless I can find a killer deal on a 2013-2015 Sport.

Granted I like bigger wheels, I just wish the sport stayed with 18's.

finebead

I drove a V6 Accord and bought my V6 TLX Tech. Quieter, I like the 9 speed transmission and IDS system, I thought it was more refined. It's a close call, if you can spare the change, the Acura is the way to go IMO. If I didn't have the money (all my kids are adults and off the payroll!), I had an Accord years back and the current model is much better than my mid-nineties version. I also drove a Hyundai Azera, Buick LaCross, Infinity Q-50, Cadillac ATS, VW CC 2.0 (too slow), and Acura RLX (2014). I love my TLX!

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

I give the TLX being more quiet, but I have my radio on all the time.

CoquiTSX

+1 I prefer the slightly more sloped rear; it is what makes it look much better that the Accord.

kevTL888

there's one in socal area (SH-AWD Advance) for $35000 with 3000 miles on it, and it is a CPO too.

CaliAtenza

I got more than $7,000 off my '15 TLX P-AWS Tech . I don't think I could have gotten as good as a deal on a SH-AWD model though.