Ah, the TL. Long we have waited, but peace has been achieved. Also, it turned 20k today so I figure I might as well put thoughts to paper.
The suspension still clunks but I have accepted it as a cost of doing business. Its just a noisy suspension overall, but I have gotten used to it so it doesn't much bother me any more. The other various rattles have largely been rectified by some combination of the dealer, my own elbow grease, and perhaps father time and mother nature.
Exterior StylingIt is what it is. From some angles I actually think its a quite attractive car, whereas from others it looks quite ungainly. The overhangs are way too big but the overall profile is good, and I rather like the rear view, actually, particularly at night.
Acura learned from the 4G TL mistakes, imo, and the TLX happily goes back to styling elements of the good old days of the 3G TL and the original TSX, both of which are still exceptionally handsome cars.
Looking back I think I would have preferred to get white or dark grey instead of black, but black isn't bad on this car.
Also, unfortunate that they killed the "quad pipes" look exhaust on the 2012 refresh. If I could find those for sale for cheap I'd consider paying a visit to a muffler shop for some welding work.
Engine - PerformanceQuite good. Its smooth in the traditional Honda way and delivers solid power and torque. The smoothness is quite deceptive...the car never feels as fast as the 0-60 time suggests, but you can reach serious speed without realizing it. Delivery is very un-lumpy, compared to my old TSX (admittedly, totally different engine, but we're talking "Honda characteristics" here) which had noticeable surges in power at 3K and 6K RPM. Sounds good too, much more refined than that VQ garbage
Fuel Economy Somewhat disappointing. Lifetime average is about 10.7, which is only very slightly better than the CLK550. On the highway at 120 it will do about 8.2 which matches the CLK550. Yes I check my tire pressure (this car makes it easy with actual pressure displayed in the MID).
Transmission (I have the 6AT) Again disappointing. Its not awful but it does seem to always get caught out if you want to hammer it out of a corner, and an awkward shift interrupts things. In sport mode things are better but basically cuts out 5th and 6th gear, so you'd constantly have to shuffle between D and S. No gated shifter this time around, which is a bad call by Honda IMO.
The paddles aren't super useful I find as the trans often doesn't listen when ordered to downshift. It also won't queue shifts. Overall seems like its better to just drop the hammer and let the computer figure it out, or drive in manual mode 100% of the time and be very deliberate about when you downshift.
One very annoying thing, even when in manual mode, the trans will upshift out of 1st gear very early unless you're on 100% throttle. Talking like at 2500 RPM. Weak. The car would be way more fun with proper trans software.
Handling - Twisties, and SHAWD Really good. The car is sprung pretty stiffly and the handling is very solid. Doesn't feel particularly nose heavy at all as long as you're on the power a bit in the corners. A bit weird to drive like this but it works. I find the steering to be really accurate, effort is tight and ratio is quick. Very pleasing to carve corners in this thing in spite of its apparent mass.
SHAWD is really incredible stuff. You can do super tight U-turns just by applying some power
In the snow with new Blizzaks its just unreal how this thing digs in and just zooms off. And on dry roads it keeps all that nose mass out of the barrier like nobody's business.
Highway Cruising Overall good but not great. The EPS is very "stable" in whatever direction you've pointed it. You can take your hand off the wheel and it'll just keep going...it takes a hell of a bump to get the wheel to rotate. So that part is very nice. Unfortunately the tightness and fast ratio also applies on center, which is to say that there is barely any deadzone at all and you're constantly correcting because whatever direction you have chosen isn't exactly straight with the road. Its not as bad as the Z4 was in this regard but its a lot less relaxing to drive it long distances than a Merc. The TSX was like this too.
Ride Borderline too harsh. This is not a comfortable car when it comes to Toronto's pothole filled roads. I have the 18s, and I sure as hell do not want 19s like VMango has. On the highway its much better but still quite firm.
Interior I really like it. The front seats are super comfortable and the steering wheel is really thick. I find the HMI and button layout to be close to perfect. Only change I'd make is to put the multiknob on the center console where the Germans do it, but the current position is not bad. Hard button access for everything with many redundant controls on the steering wheel. Excellent.
Overall material quality is quite good, not far off the midsize German triumvirate. And of course real leather.
It is also rather quiet at speed. Some of that might be the MLV I installed behind the rear seat though while searching for the source of that suspension clunk.
The rear seat headrests all fold/flip down, which is a nice touch. However the outboard ones don't look particularly interesting...they're just....squares.
A few cheapouts here though. The passenger side heated seat only heats the bum, not the back (wtf?). No auto up-down windows for the rear row. The front door map pockets are not padded on the inside. No rubber pad on the cupholders, nor in the sunglass holder. No lumbar adjustment (even manual) for the passenger.
One nice thing - when reversing, if you flip the power mirror switch to either left or right, that side's mirror will aim downward, and then back to original when you go to drive or turn the switch back to the center position.
The Homelink buttons work even when the car isn't on, not even on ACC mode. Good and bad I suppose.
Front seats are super spacious, rear seats are pretty nice too although could use a bit more foot room below the front seats.
The middle seat straddling the propshaft tunnel is terrible.
Trunk / Cargo Its decent volume wise, but its a stupid shape. Look at the picture and if you buy one budget for some duffel bags to replace your suitcases. The Germans do trunks much better.
Audio System Ungodly. DTS Audio CDs are incredible if you can find them. The iPod interface is also pretty good with the voice search thing. The USB interface is much less good, but meh. Just buy a used iPod if you have to.
Unlike Audi and MB, you can just plug whatever iPhone cable into the USB connector and it'll recognize it. No need for some special proprietary connectors...at least not more proprietary than 30pin / lightning.
Nav System Overall its good. The screen is big, if not particularly high res. Unlike the 2014+ models it lets you enter stuff while moving. While on the move its quite functional in terms of telling you what lane to go into, how far to next objective, etc.
A few annoyances though:
-no way to set "city center" as a destination...so you can't just point yourself to some city, you have to choose the street and house number or at least an intersection.
-the voice control is terrible. Totally useless for entering addresses. You can't say complete names, only one letter at a time, and every letter rhymes with E so you have to clarify your choice after each letter. Hilariously awful.
-can't mute voice guidance, at least I can't figure it out.
-Honda recently switched to VIN-coded NAV update CDs.
Maintenance It'll happily take pretty much whatever 0W-20 you throw at it. OCI is about 9500km or so. $60 at the dealer. About 4.4 liters.
Crappy part? The "B" service is close to $300. A lot of that is useless, but part of it is a $85 fluid change for the SHAWD differential. Apparently that needs to be changed every 18k!
At least standard wear parts are super cheap. Whatever oil that's on sale at Crappy Tire will work, $5 filters at RockAuto, etc. and with basically zero risk you can happily use your indie.
Overall the maint costs are lower than German dealer costs...but its costing me ever so slightly more to maintain than the MB due to
1. I can service the MB myself as the oil filter is up top
2. That annual SHAWD fluid.
3. Much shorter OCI (9500 vs 15-18k)
Reliability A whole bunch of crap, some cosmetic some not, some exacerbated by poor dealer work. Cosmetic stuff aside:
1. battery was bad, a few times it failed to start. Replaced.
2. wiring harness for steering wheel controls went bad. Replaced.
3. interior temp sensor broke. Replaced.
4. something is chirping on cold starts. probably accessory belt. haven't gone to dealer about it yet, might do it this winter when its more apparent.
5. it came from the factory with misaligned front toe
Overall I am happy with it. Its a good driver, its big (I rather like larger cars now, find the C/A4/3er etc. a bit on the squishy side these days), high apparent quality, excellent stereo, great ergo and HMI. Should be quite reliable. For the price I paid (around 38k+HST) its a steal.
I have ended up with few regrets over this one in the end. It will be the family runabout for the next few years, certainly big enough to handle 1 kid easily.
Despite the rapsheet on the reliability front I am still confident it will be pretty trouble free for a long time. And being a Honda sedan should be easy to offload privately when the time comes.
