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Acura was clearly instructed to give the TL a distinct personality. Some of its differences hit you early on in the drive, such as a gas pedal that's clearly a lot stiffer than in any other car wearing the Honda or Acura badge. The TL's got the juice, but it wants you to work for it.
Some differences hit you later. Honda/Acura veterans are accustomed to driving on the freeway with two hands thanks to steering that's too slow to keep up with one-hand inputs. Here in this TL, the ratio was dropped all the way down to a quick 15.4:1, and it feels even lower. The car reacts urgently; glance over your shoulder and you might find yourself lane drifting. As a fan of quick steering racks, I liked it after getting used to it, though it is a little strange adapting the dual habits of shoving your foot while restraining your arms.
Then there's the part you knew: the excelleration. A lot of people (critics, mostly) have complained that Acura went overboard here, overloading the TL with an onslaught of torque that overwhelms the front tires when the driver actually uses it. Maybe, but most of them were driving stick-shifted TLs. Our sample was among the 85% that are sold with automatic, and one blessing of this inefficient transmission choice is the indirect connection between the engine and wheels, which dampens the forces of torque steer. Flooring the pedal does chirp the tires, but the TL never twisted the wheel out of my hands. So don't worry: the TL's 238 pounds-feet of torque is lots, but not too much to handle.
And you'll want to ride those 270 horses all day. That's great output for a 3.2 liter engine (compression is up to 11:1 these days) and they energize the TL with a fantastic-sounding high-end rush. Little price was paid in reaching that number, as the TL earned the Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle award and returned all of 25 MPG, proving once again that as long as you keep engine size under control, there's no such thing as too much horsepower. In fact, let's switch those cylinder heads from SOHC to DOHC and add VTEC to the exhaust side of the equation! Do I hear 290 horsepower? 300?
An Accord is still an Accord, and the easier you drive, the more you recognize the TL's commonalities. Light steering around town. A not-too-great turning circle (hmm, those wide wheels). Smooth drive-by-wire throttle (new for this generation). A long front overhang that's prone to driveway scrapes. A five-speed automatic transmission that's smooth but heavily biased in favor of downshifting (difference: Acura gives you a SportShift gate that works great). Even the automatic TL's dual double-wishbone suspensions feel nearly identical in setting, which means the ride can get a little snappy sometimes (especially at illegal speeds) but is comfortable overall. It's really quiet until the road noise turns on, and then it really turns on. That's the natural symptom of P235/45R17-sized tires on 17x8-sized wheels - shallow shoes on big feet. Such thin rubber also lets the bumps in the road occasionally steer the car.
The tires do help the TL fulfill its mission of being a handler. Our test car might not be the most accurate example, since TLs are supposed to come with Bridgestone Turanza tires (with optional hardcore Bridgestone Potenzas on manual) yet our sample reflects Acura's loyalty to its usual supplier, Michelin. Whatever it counts for, these Michelins hold the road well in normal driving. Take a sweeping turn at much above 30 MPH and they squeal - monstrous all-season tires are still all-season tires - but they can handle moderate aggression and break away predictably. The TL is averse to rotating its tail, but it doesn't lean much in turns and the stability control can be switched off.
None of this makes the TL a roller coaster ride. 3,582 pounds is quite a bit to toss around, especially when 61% of them are in front, adding a distinct reluctance to every move. Speeding up the steering and hardening up the accelerator didn't make them any more emotional. The extra horses and rubber are nice, but you only notice the advantages when really pushing the car. Lastly, the TL retains the quirk of power steering that can't keep up when manhandling the wheel in parking lots, resulting in sudden spikes of effort. In the end, the TL comes off as an Accord with an extra dose of grip and power.
It's not that there's much wrong with the generally pleasant-driving Accord. It's fast, solid-feeling, and easy to drive, and so too is the TL. But Acura's every effort in making the TL a distinctive performance machine centered around raising its limits. What it needed was a surge in sensation.
After years of constant growth, the latest TL actually shrunk for once and now measures shorter in length than the first Vigor. But there's more room now thanks to better space allocation and the TL's engine sitting east-west instead of north-south. The smaller dimensions help it feel more lithe on the road, and you just know you're looking the part with all those sharp lines. Those angled dual exhaust pipes look cool. To the stylists: good job on creating Acura's most stunning sedan ever.
Though a tad less roomy than the Accord, the TL has enough space to maintain mid-size status. Adults occupying the back will find adequate room in all directions (the TL's tall, wide body helps) though a low seat cushion. Note the missing head restraint in the center. The fronts are of course great, the driver has two-position memory, and there's been a pretty noticeable upgrade in leather quality (or at least softness) on this generation.
As with the outside, the TL's interior marks a success in fulfilling the conflicting design goals of distinctive design and Acura familiarity. The steering wheel is shared in the family, but with such a convenient design, that's the best part. It tilts and telescopes manually, but it's easier that way. The LED blue/red/white gauges are crisp and legible, the consoles and cupholders work well, the seatback pockets are adjustable (that's new), and for a change, Acura left the clock up high where you can see it. The simplified trip computer lives in the instrument cluster instead of the navigation screen, which I found more convenient. The column-mounted ignition calls for too much wrist twisting, though, and the rapid BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP Honda chime is timelessly annoying. Unlike Acura's MDX, all vital systems get their own buttons, and the layout makes good sense: touch-screen navigation in the middle, dual-zone climate controls on the left and right, stereo below.
That stereo makes Acura a pioneer in bringing the "500 times greater resolution" of DVD Audio to the automotive universe. Through the 7.1 speakers (two in the front doors, two dash tweeters, two in the back deck, a front-center speaker, and a back deck subwoofer), the six separate channels of DVD Audio let you hear individual instruments coming from all around you, creating a more inspiring listening experience. I'm not sold on channel separation making a quantum leap difference in music (you can't call it more "realistic" as you can with movies), but the unit does sound awesome, possibly even more so than the top-of-the-line Acura RL's. The likely reason is that Acura turned to a real company, Panasonic, instead of wiring the TL with the usual Bose crap. One problem: unlike the RL's, this TL doesn't accept MP3s; Acura's stated reason being that MP3s are not high-quality enough to be worthy of playback in such a magnificent system. (Then explain that cassette player, wise guy.) In sum, the stereo sounds great, but the attitudes of its creators could use some fine-tuning.
The navigation system is standard Acura fare. There's the occasional goof like a non-constant scrolling speed and a directory that, after performing a search for "Round Table Pizza," makes you choose between one list of "Restaurants" and another list of "Eating Places." Acura also slanders an entire nation by classifying Pizza Hut as "Italian food." Otherwise, it's one of the easiest to use, and unlike many others, Acura lets you use it all you want while driving. Strangely, this system seldom prompts you for voice commands even though the TL is wired for auditory commands (and Bluetooth-compatible cell phones), and you can't adjust the frequency of the guidance mode's voice reminders as in other Acuras.
Back at the hind end of the car is a 12.5 cubic foot trunk, which is right around average. The seatback doesn't fold down (there is a trunk pass-through portal that skis will fit through), no doubt to keep TL's structure as stiff as possible for performance reasons.
To make room for its new kid brother the Acura TSX, this TL starts a bit higher than the outgoing one. $33,670 buys a TL with either transmission; choose the manual and you also get a limited-slip differential, bigger stabilizer bars, Brembo front brakes, and somehow, a 93-pound weight reduction. The only option on all models is the $2,000 navigation system; $200 performance tires are also available on manual models. Everything else - heated leather power seats, driver memory, sunroof, dual-zone climate controls, stability control, six air bags, HID headlights, 3 months of XM radio, and that head-of-the-class stereo - is already in the box. And it probably doesn't hurt that the TL was named one of the Ten Vehicles That Will Best Hold Their [resale] Value by Kelley Blue Book.
Competition is hard to pin down simply because very few automakers choose to throw a front-drive family sedan into battle with more dedicated machinery. Going by price and brand name, Acura's TL goes up against such stalwarts as the BMW 3-series, Lexus IS, and many others - cars that essentially trade useful back-seat space for greater driving pleasure and rear-wheel-drive.
Judging by mechanical layout, the TL has exactly one competitor, the Toyota Camry-sourced Lexus ES330 (starting at $32,825, though with less standard fare). These two are more alike than different, but Acura went for performance while Lexus ran for the ultra-plush end of the spectrum, which should make this dichotomy a fairly easy decision after personal preferences come into play. To cite one example, TL fans would probably find 45 horsepower a lot to sacrifice.
Up through last year, Infiniti had a TL equivalent of its own, the Nissan Maxima-based I35. But this ended up being a temporary holdover until Infiniti released the G35, a far more advanced car whose rear-wheel-drive, multilink-suspended chassis gave it a strong shot of legitimacy and potential that was utterly lacking in the I35, while giving up nothing. Once the G hit the streets, the I was mercilessly killed.
Unfortunately, the G35 isn't such good news for the TL, either. A quick glance shows the G35 taking the trophy in space, price, 10 or 28 more horsepower, and that all-important rear-wheel-drive to put the power to better use. Acura might be able to use the "we may be stuck with front-drive, but we're roomier and faster and more reliable" against the Germans, but there's no hiding from the G35. With Infiniti's Acura-matching quality and Acura-matching luxury, it's hard to make an argument to pay more for the TL.
Finally, any analysis of the TL can't end without a mention of that Honda Accord EX V6. Knowing how similarly they drive (from the seat of my pants), extra front-wheel power, bigger wheels, a manual shiftgate for the automatic transmission, and DVD Audio does not equate to a $6,305 premium in my book. Honda quality is also too high to make Acura's longer warranty anything but a moot point. And on it goes.
Step up to Infiniti or stay with Honda. Pass on Acura this time.
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