A 2010 TL AWD as a loaner & I am quite shocked at how different it is from mine. Although I'm not liking the endless buttons & Navi layout (It seems shoveled) the power of the engine & smoothness of the 6 speed trans cannot be disliked, in fact I love it! The car handles so much better, the engine screams & pushes a surge of power as the RPM's increase & the trans is much smarter then the 07', it kicks up quicker & knows when to hold a gear or not to, & better. This car will smoke my TLS.
The downside? The car ain't pretty at all. Not nearly as good looking as the 07'. My 07' is paid off & I'm happy, I will keep it, but it was nice to do a hands on drive comparison.

 

nice review!

 

You are lucky. My 08 TL was being fixed for stuff under warranty and I got a ZDX. Hate the look and drive of the car.

 

LOL So many people say how Ugly the 4th Gen is... I must agree and would not be interested in getting one or trading my TL-S for one

 

The 2010 loaner your in is not a 6AT i.e. unless your talking about the 6MT.

 

^I was about to say the same thing.

Glad you enjoyed the ride.

 

im almost 100% sure that its a 6AT cuz he did say
"it kicks up quicker & knows when to hold a gear or not to, & better."
if it was 6MT then he would be the one holding the gear...just saying =]

 

I think he means if it is an auto it is a 5 speed....

 

6speed auto's came out for the '12.

 

basically what I thought when I had one for a loaner. I don't think it will smoke my TL-S though, maybe a car length if that. No denying its a better car, but I don't think I'd buy one..its too bad too because it really is a nice car.

 

I've come around on the new bodystyle, originally I didn't like it..

I dislike the little shark fin looking module on the roof now.. I think our's for the 04-08 is the way it should be.

 

You guys are lucky to have nice dealers around you.

The one I go to, all they have is base TSX's with non-navi.

If the dealer is the only one in the entire state, there is no competition.

 

In my endeavors at Acura I have had pretty much every new Acura as a loaner the most recent being a newer TL tech package SH-AWD. I would buy one if they went back to a somewhat similar body style to the 3rd gen. The new ones shape just screams old man especially the rear. Same exact profile as a new Maxima which IMO looks better. I like all the technology of the new one though. One thing I can't stand is the lack of bi-xenon headlights. Love the 3rd gen bi-xenon projectors!!!!

 

I had the same experience when they did my 105k timing belt service. They also gave me a 2010 TL SH-AWD with Nav. Here were my thoughts:

• The car was noticably bigger. I did not like the larger size. When I bought my TL it was already larger than what I would have liked.
• Given that it felt larger, it still handled very well.
• SH-AWD is awesome! Probably part of the reason it handled so well.
• The Nav voice recognition was very impressive. It would ask me "What city?" I would say "Brookfield" . It would show a list of top 4 matches on the display and ask, "Did you mean Brookfield?", etc. Very usable, whereas the voice recognition in my current nav is only used for "Find nearest gas station" or "Find nearest Chinese restaurant".
• The car has a lot of power. I have a 3.2L base, so I can't say how it compares to a TL-S, but it was definitely more power than my base TL.
• The car was much uglier than my 3G TL, especially the grill.
• Despite the nice things about the 4G, I am still happy with my 3G TL and the main thing I was jealous of was the nav voice recognition.

I agree that it is a very nice car and a great value for what you get. Not sure if it is the car for me. I just can't get over the size and looks.

 

Got a ZDX at my local dealer couple weeks ago when I left my 06 TL for front disk resurfacing (for the umteenth time ) and detail. Didn't like the shape of the ZDX although it is an attention-getter. Drove OK and loved all the tech goodies. Took a good look at the new TL - to me, it's massive inside - feels like I'm swimming in it. 04-08 is perfect size in my opinion although I'm not a big guy - 5'8 195 lbs. I hated the front grill although they significantly softened it for 2012 - still doesn't look right. I agree it resembles the new Maximas, but those look nicer to me for some reason. Honestly, if god-forbid something was to happen to my 06 TL, I think I would prefer an new V6 TSX over the new TL - I've had 4 cylinder as a loaner a couple times and I really like it except the engine..

 

Lucky! All i got today was a 2011 TSX. I guess that's all they use here in Diego. One thing I did notice with the TSX is better turning radius, but that's about it.

 

I got a 4th gen a few months ago. not the awd but it was Tech.
To me the interior blows the 3rg gen away, much better stereo and nav system and overall tech. The outside is NOT as cool as the 3g tl-s(what is )
But I think the 4th gen looks sharp in black or white with the nice wheels.
And the new maxima is a great looking car IMO...much better than the 2012 TL.

 

What doesn't have a better turning radius?

 

My car feels like it sometimes. I don't even bother with u-turns on busy streets.

 

I hear you on the size thing. I didn't even realize how big my 3G was until I drove a 335i.

And I think the 4G's interior is a train wreck, personally. I like voice recognition too, so I bought a Garmin 2360 with free lifetime map updates. Does the trick for me!

 

My friend who works for acura dealer said the front grill can be color matched to the body. My loaner was black but had a god awful brown looking leather interior, the type of color from the mid 70's. The steering on the AWD and response was great, my TLS seems lazy by comparison. I had the rear brakes done & AGAIN a alignment, driving to ontario next friday so can't deal with the car drifting.

 

How's the 808 Bra?! I noticed that my turning radius improved a little by switching up to 18"wheels with 235/40/18, but I think that's standard for type s models. I still avoid certain u turns and keep a close eye when my fiancé is parking the car. But to answer your question...I haven't found a car with a worse turning radius yet. 18 wheeler big rig!

 

I think my TL-S has a cooler looking interior but I definitely liked the extra room of my 4G loaner. I'm 6'1" and carry four passengers fairly often to the extra room is definitely worth it for me. The 4G grill is butt ugly but Ron Jon can fix that. When my car breaks 200k miles I'll definitely consider a 4G, especially the 2012 with the better beak.

 

The 808 State is doing good. Lots of rain and wind lately. I'm tired of reversing when making U turns in my 2nd or 3rd gen TLs, while my wife's Pilot just whips around or cul de sac.

 

The TL has about the same turning radius as my GN but at least it's RWD so I can make ANY u-turn. It's by far the worst I've driven. My friend's CL65 Mercedes which is longer literally has about twice as short of a turning radius. I got used to that car for a while and ended up making unexpected 3-point turns when I got the TL back.

Back to the topic at hand, the new TLs are no doubt a better car in some ways. However, not for the reasons mentioned in the original post. It's a driver's race with a TL-S in a straight line. Bigger engine with more low end torque is going to feel quicker than it is. Take them both to Willow Springs and I guarantee you the TL-S will be considerably quicker. That's the problem here, people associate body roll with good handling when there's so much more to it than taking a couple corners quickly on the street will tell you.

 

I got one for a loaner as well, not a SH-AWD model but a loaded model with navi. Only things I like are the push button start, the better hd screen like navi screen, the navi in general works a lot better especially with real time traffic and rerouting, the back up camera is better along with the lines to help you out.

 

Drove a 2012 TL with Advanced Package a couple of weeks ago while TL-S was in for a service. Ergonomics and technology is newer, really like the ventilated seats, wish I could figure out to get them on my TL-S, very nice. Outside of that, not really impressed overall.

 

You guys are lucky. My TL went in for a new tranny and I got nothing (Hopefully I get the car back this week) Similarily when I took my M3 for service, the dealer gave me a Ford Focus

 

I think I understand what you're talking about.

One of the first cars I had was my dad's 1984 Benz 190E that was passed along to me (when I convinced him to buy a 1996 Acura TL). The 190E had very little body roll, but handled very poorly. Take a turn too fast and there was a pretty good chance the back end would fishtail out of control and you'd end up with the car completely turned around. It was a very unbalanced car. The current gen Camry has the body roll of Noah's Ark, but probably handles better than that 190E did.

Now, I'm still talking about corners on the street and not what might happen on a track, but is this the sort of thing you're referring to?