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Great forum and lots of great info!
Thought I would share my experience with the TLX to day….
Was looking at the TL about 2 years ago and I truly loved the SHL-AWD driving experience, especially how it handled wet pavement in tight corners – very good grip and lots of fun. However, I decided to wait for the new TLX and got very excited when I saw the prototype at the Canadian Auto Show in the winter. I was very anxious to get my hands on the real production car and saw the first demo Toronto downtown about a month ago at some new car display venue. Well, I was disappointed with the toned down exterior shape, the hidden exhaust and the look of the car in general. Kind of lost interest and went back to the drawing board – A4 and Q50. However, a friend of mine reminded me last week about the TLX and I decided to give it a chance.
Got to the dealer and test drove the I4 Tech model. It was late and getting dark so I was not paying attention to the colors and the exterior but somehow the car looked more intriguing to me. The dealer let me drive on my own and wow, I really liked the experience. I think the steering and cornering is just fantastic, very peppy and comfortably to drive. Checked all the driving modes, definitely liked the Sport one. I took my time (the dealer was calling me and asked politely to come back as they were closing for the day
and drove it on tight streets and the highway as well, definitely could feel the luxury and the sportiness of the car combined with the utter silence inside. Two things that struck me, though – you really need some time to get used to all the buttons and screens. There was already so much said about the center stack and I generally agree that it is too busy and, to me, the 7” bottom screen is also way too big for my taste and too bright for night cruising. I am not sure if it can be dimmed separately from the navi screen above (which can be brighter and it should to be useful), but that would be definitely beneficial. That’s my issue here (don’t care about redundancy, etc). Second thing that caught my attention was how the engine and the tranny were behaving when I was going on a 30 mile speed limit street. Well, I felt like the car was trying to push me to go faster all the time and the tranny was constantly shifting gears, RPMs flying up and down; this car definitely does not like to drive slow Switched the screen to show real fuel consumption and the bar was going left and right, showing almost nothing and then shooting to like 12 litres/100 km. Didn’t like the experience, but the car was growing on me and needless to say, I decided to come back with my wife and drive the V6 option.
Next day we test drove the V6 Tech. I just loved it! Felt like I had full control over the car, it did a great job when I pushed it and it was waiting for me when I was just cruising. Didn’t feel the extra weight at all or the heavier nose overhang as some reviews pointed to. My wife had the same opinion and she loved the steering and the cornering with the P-AWS technology. I was really surprised how quickly the car was still growing on us and I really liked it. To be fair, we asked to drive the I4 again, just for instant comparison, and it was the same experience to me as the day before (actually, this model had the aero kit and 19” tires installed and I could feel the difference in ride quality – more firm) and my wife also preferred the V6 driving experience. Strangely, we both initially thought we would not like the push button gear selector but we both actually found it quite intriguing and got used to it in a few minutes (it is actually nicely designed and you don’t have to look at the selector in order to shift from D to P, R, etc. after a while). I also like the larger tires that come with the V6 model.
In summary, I am not looking for a top of the line luxury and/or crazy sportiness but I like good quality and a fun ride too, sometime screeching tires here and there. I think the TLX is a good, practical fit for us and a great package for not some crazy amount of $$. We’ve been also Honda fans/owners and like the reliability as well as their customer service experience, hope our first Acura would prove the same. The looks/ design are very subjective – we are not thrilled, but the car does not look bad at all and it is true that it looks way better in a real life than on pictures. I really like how the thing drives and handles and I think I can live with this large, blue screen (my wife does not mind) in the middle of the stack.
We have not decided on the color and will wait for the Graphite Metallic Pearl to see it first (the initial pick was the white pearl) before we make the choice and I think it will be the V6 Tech FWD; don’t think the additional weight, $$ and mileage penalty associated with the AWD option would sway me to wait till end of November.
J233
Thought I would share my experience with the TLX to day….
Was looking at the TL about 2 years ago and I truly loved the SHL-AWD driving experience, especially how it handled wet pavement in tight corners – very good grip and lots of fun. However, I decided to wait for the new TLX and got very excited when I saw the prototype at the Canadian Auto Show in the winter. I was very anxious to get my hands on the real production car and saw the first demo Toronto downtown about a month ago at some new car display venue. Well, I was disappointed with the toned down exterior shape, the hidden exhaust and the look of the car in general. Kind of lost interest and went back to the drawing board – A4 and Q50. However, a friend of mine reminded me last week about the TLX and I decided to give it a chance.
Got to the dealer and test drove the I4 Tech model. It was late and getting dark so I was not paying attention to the colors and the exterior but somehow the car looked more intriguing to me. The dealer let me drive on my own and wow, I really liked the experience. I think the steering and cornering is just fantastic, very peppy and comfortably to drive. Checked all the driving modes, definitely liked the Sport one. I took my time (the dealer was calling me and asked politely to come back as they were closing for the day
and drove it on tight streets and the highway as well, definitely could feel the luxury and the sportiness of the car combined with the utter silence inside. Two things that struck me, though – you really need some time to get used to all the buttons and screens. There was already so much said about the center stack and I generally agree that it is too busy and, to me, the 7” bottom screen is also way too big for my taste and too bright for night cruising. I am not sure if it can be dimmed separately from the navi screen above (which can be brighter and it should to be useful), but that would be definitely beneficial. That’s my issue here (don’t care about redundancy, etc). Second thing that caught my attention was how the engine and the tranny were behaving when I was going on a 30 mile speed limit street. Well, I felt like the car was trying to push me to go faster all the time and the tranny was constantly shifting gears, RPMs flying up and down; this car definitely does not like to drive slow Switched the screen to show real fuel consumption and the bar was going left and right, showing almost nothing and then shooting to like 12 litres/100 km. Didn’t like the experience, but the car was growing on me and needless to say, I decided to come back with my wife and drive the V6 option. Next day we test drove the V6 Tech. I just loved it! Felt like I had full control over the car, it did a great job when I pushed it and it was waiting for me when I was just cruising. Didn’t feel the extra weight at all or the heavier nose overhang as some reviews pointed to. My wife had the same opinion and she loved the steering and the cornering with the P-AWS technology. I was really surprised how quickly the car was still growing on us and I really liked it. To be fair, we asked to drive the I4 again, just for instant comparison, and it was the same experience to me as the day before (actually, this model had the aero kit and 19” tires installed and I could feel the difference in ride quality – more firm) and my wife also preferred the V6 driving experience. Strangely, we both initially thought we would not like the push button gear selector but we both actually found it quite intriguing and got used to it in a few minutes (it is actually nicely designed and you don’t have to look at the selector in order to shift from D to P, R, etc. after a while). I also like the larger tires that come with the V6 model.
In summary, I am not looking for a top of the line luxury and/or crazy sportiness but I like good quality and a fun ride too, sometime screeching tires here and there. I think the TLX is a good, practical fit for us and a great package for not some crazy amount of $$. We’ve been also Honda fans/owners and like the reliability as well as their customer service experience, hope our first Acura would prove the same. The looks/ design are very subjective – we are not thrilled, but the car does not look bad at all and it is true that it looks way better in a real life than on pictures. I really like how the thing drives and handles and I think I can live with this large, blue screen (my wife does not mind) in the middle of the stack.
We have not decided on the color and will wait for the Graphite Metallic Pearl to see it first (the initial pick was the white pearl) before we make the choice and I think it will be the V6 Tech FWD; don’t think the additional weight, $$ and mileage penalty associated with the AWD option would sway me to wait till end of November.
J233
