04 TL

I've been driving a 92 Vigor for 14 years and it's starting to 'fracture'. Looking for a replacement I went to the local Acura dealership.... The new TL is narrower than the Vigor, maybe not by much, but enough to say "No, thanks". I'm not a heavyweight, but need a bit more wiggle room for long trips. The RL is a much larger car, but with a much larger price tag. However, it's only around three fourths, the size of the competition's flagships and so loses a lot of impression points there. It really looks like a "Honda Accord in Drag". Since Acura decided to reduce their vehicle size, I'm sure they're going to, commensurately, drop a lot of business.

So the lack of big size prevents a car from 'flagship' status and is a real deal-breaker to you?

Of course, just my opinion though. Smaller outside, smaller inside, less trunk space, no V8, costlier than the larger competition. And, it does just look like a dressed up Accord, which occurs in the minds of many people. Further, it may be very technically advanced, but the thought of trusting your throttle application to a computer chip, gives me a shudder or two. When I bought the Vigor, it was a intermediary between the Legend and the Integra, probably built on the same platform as the previous year's Legend coupe. If I could buy another today, I'd do it at twice what I paid originally. At least, it had some unique exclusivity, whereas the TL, TSX and RSX are all, what appear to be, dressed over Civics.

You never noticed the similarity of your Vigor and the Accord? My '91 Accord looks like the Vigor's sibling. I also have a '05 TL which is very different from the previous generation TL. It's much more sporty especially with the A-Spec suspension.

The TL is based on the Accord Platform, the TSX on the European Accord and the RSX on the Civic's.