After nearly a year of poking and prodding, I convinced my old man to trade in the '00 TL my mom was driving and get her a new one. I admit it...I had selfish reasons for this - the old TL didn't have LATCH bars and it was a literal PITA to put the car seat in when they took their granddaughter for an overnight. The old man kept saying ''we'll buy a new one when we can pay cash for it'' - I kept reminding him that 2.9% for 24 months was almost the same thing. In the meantime, he traded his '06 Ridgeline in and bought an '08 Ridgeline - why? Because he 'never liked the silver color and they had a white one'. :lol: Yeah...so much for a good reason NOT to buy the new TL. Fast forward to last week. I sent him an email saying ''let's surprise mom with a new TL for Mother's Day. She deserves it". (she had recently decided to teach another two years instead of retiring this summer as planned. I think the part in bold 'got him'. He called me immediately and said '''let's get her an RL instead''. I was :eek6: I submitted a request through Costco for a price on a red/tan leather RL. In the meantime, I put a call into the local dealer who's the largest in the US and I used to do business with at a previous company. My contact was now the GM there (and also where my parents bought the 2000 model). The old man went last Thursday during the day and looked at the RL and the TL. No red/tan RL's on the right coast and the same combo wasn't offered on the TL (only a darkish brown/red metallic). He decided (probably rightly so) the surprise was "off" and that he couldn't choose an alternate color without his wife's approval (40+ years of marriage trained him well). They both went to the dealer last Thursday and my mom drove the RL and the TL. She had owned a '94 Legend before the '00 TL so she was quite shocked at the 'busy dash'. I'd have to agree....sensory overload. :lol: She didn't care for the RL....too big. The TL was signifcantly larger than her older model so they settled on a Royal Blue Metallic SH-AWD Tech model with light grayish leather. 305hp, AWD, basically the top of the line TL but with auto transmission. My parents had the little one last weekend to give my wife and I a break. It was our 3yr anniversary and they wanted some grandparenting time anyways. They were going to the dealer Saturday morning to pick up the new car, baby in tow. My wife and I met them there and kept the little one occupied while they finished the paperwork. for Pohanka Acura - they don't mess around with pricing, normal car dealer games or paperwork. IN/OUT in 90 minutes and we all went to have lunch. Last Sunday, my parents came up to return said grandchild and to have lunch to celebrate our anniversary. I took this chance to 'borrow' the car and put it through it's paces. It was rainy out....good thing the car has AWD eh? First impressions....it would take me awhile to figure out all the gadgets in teh car. Live weather, live traffic, voice controlled everything. Forget all that....put it 'R', backed out and took it out for a spin. I'm no fan of auto transmissions but the 5EAT in my wife's FX35AWD is excellent. The 5sp auto in the TL is also excellent. Crisp, unobtrusive shifts. The motor likes to rev and has ample power on tap despite the 2ton curb weight (ouch!). I didn't expect anything from the handling....the older TL was a boat. I took a left hand turn onto a 45mph road and MUCH to my surprise....I didn't bleed off any speed with the car plowing. It's as if the car said ''that's all you got?". OK. Sport Mode on, traction off. Manual mode. HOLY CRAP.....a sporty Acura? ut: Who'd a thunk it? I'm VERY pleased with the car's handling....245/45/18 rubber helps but more than that, it's got a sporty suspension and the SH-AWD clearly puts the power down. I'd like to get more time in it....it was a nice but short ride. This alone is a 180 from the older car which I never liked. No headroom, ponderous gearbox and floaty ride. Now....the bad part. The front end is quite frankly, hideous. My old man agreed....it ruins an otherwise excellent car. Acura always seems to get so close but never quite nails the homerun. Dealers are offering body color matched center shields....to diffuse the "OMG! WE HAVE A CHROME FRONT END!!" look. $600 for it. :eek6: Rumor has it Acura will offer it through Accessory catalogs this fall. It helps, but you can't fix ugly. The rest of the car's styling is nice though...sharp angles, nice wheels....some silver and chrome brightwork. If it was mine, I'd do the body color shield and black out the silver trim pieces. SUMMARY Overall = 8/10 Styling = 3/10 Handling = 8/10 Interior = 7/10 Powertrain = 9/10
I'll get some pics up this weekend of the actual car in blue but here's a shot I found showing the painted shield on the grille: one in black: and a rear shot of a white one showing the sharp styling (sharp meaning edgy, not necessarily good-looking which depends on personal preference):
The styling is growing on me... a neighbor has a black one and I like what I see except for that ugly mug. I recall most previous Honda/Acura remodels as initially horrendous but when we look back now, we think they're unique and even nice looking. Sometimes, like Bangle, it takes a bit for the design language to get past the initial "WTF??" we all have. That said....the chrome grille is proof that crack is indeed a bad thing. I think the Acura Marketing group knew this....every official photo is of a lighter colored car to decrease the contrast. The renditions for press release that are dark have the chrome darkened to lessen the impact. <shakes head>