Acura is dumping some serious money into marketing for the new TL. It was all over Fox last night, and some other channels..

My disdain for the car is slowly going away, although I do think the front is still pretty hideous. Motor Week also does some of the most boring reports ever.

All of those words combined are confusing to me. Are they renting his GTR so they can show that the NSX is better?

I watched the Motor Week video.  The commentator states at one point "for much of its existence the fortunes of Honda’s Acura division have rested on the tires of one car, the TL," and refers to the new TL as a "critically important model."  He refers in passing to the "gladiator shield grille" as "controversial."

The "gladiator shield grille" is slowly growing on me in the sense that it does not look as bad to me as it did when I first saw it, but I still do not like it. I think it was a major blunder on the part of Honda.  I would be surprised if the TL sells well, because in sports sedans I think that looks does matter. But then I have been surprised by a lot of things before.

Oddly enough, I just spent some time with the new TL at the Texas State Fair. They had two there, but the one I played with was this white one:




Reason is, they had it powered up so you could listen to the sound system, see the gauges, play with the nav system, etc.

Although I still don't like the shnoz on that thing, I could maybe come to like the TL again (especially in SH-AWD guise, since it eliminates torque steer and adds 25hp or so). The center stack is a bit "busy" with knobs and buttons, etc., but the nav display is awesome and I know from 3 times experience it is the best nav system in the business by far. And nav means that much to me.

I also played with the nav's in the G35 and the M35, as well as in the Caddy CTS, and all three were absolutely lame by comparison. I was especially surprised by how muddy the display was on the two Infinitis, since I don't recall my M45's display looking that fuzzy and indistinct. The TL's display has been amped up in resolution and is about like looking at HD TV compared to SD on the others.

The trunk is another mild disappointment for anyone who travels and needs to stuff suitcases and things in there. It's big enough, I guess, but the lower sill is high and the opening is narrow vertcally, so that a suitcase would have to be lifted up high to clear the sill, then angled down through the letterbox-shaped opening before again going horizontal on the trunk's floor.

Another disappointment is the 5-speed transmission ... everybody and his brother is going to 6 and 7-speeds, so that's a cheap-out on Honda's part.

The other biggie is that I don't know is if the TL is going to be built better than the previous generation ... the rattles and squeaks in the outgoing model are legendary, and one of the reasons I fell out of love with my '06 so soon.

I need to go drive one to see what they're like.

All Acuras have a 5-speed auto trans. It's a really nice one, but it's a 5-speed anyway.

I had zero rattles or squeaks with the RL ... it was tight as the proverbial drum. It was built in Japan, whereas the TL comes out of Ohio.

BTW - I am invited to the official debut of the new TL at my dealer this Thursday. I'll drive one and see what I think.

You won't buy a car assembled in the states?  You should at least look at something
before totally taking it off your list.    

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