2005 Acura RL, quite disappointing

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Reply to
karinhall
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You are certainly entitled to your opinion but it's MY opinion that you're way too hung up on size -- and what you believe is a too small RL. It's really not a small vehicle -- even in comparison with the vehicles you mention a bigger. Personally, I'd not have purchased one of it were bigger.

As I said, we are all entitled to our opinions.

Reply to
Lee Florack

exactly. Too bad they didn't go with a little bigger car. Good car, just too small for the money they're asking.

Bigger isn't the only criteria required to judge a vehicle. It's not even close to being the most important -- at least to me.

Reply to
Lee Florack

Looking at the information below, I'll agree that it's a bit bigger -- but not very much at all.

RL vs Avalon Interior Dimensions

---------------------------------------------------- Headroom (Front) 38.5 38.8 Headroom (Rear) 37.2 37.5 Legroom (Front) 42.4 41.3 Legroom (Rear) 36.3 40.9 Shoulder Room (Front) 58.5 59.4 Shoulder Room (Rear) 56.1 58.2

RL vs Avalon Exterior Dimensions

---------------------------------------------------- Height 57.1 58.5 Length 193.6 197.2 Track (Front) 62.0 62.2 Track (Rear) 62.4 61.6 Wheelbase 110.2 111.0 Width 72.7 72.8

Reply to
Lee Florack

Maybe you should choose a Suburban then...

Reply to
shitdick

I had a '88 Suburban. Great truck, lotsa room, but wouldn't corner worth shit.

Reply to
Venture Rider

I already own one, don't need two surburbans. What I do need for a second vehicle (to replace my aging 1st gen RL) is a full-size sport sedan that is as fun to drive as a sports car, but can also double as a family hauler. After doing a statistical ranking analysis on 13 categories (ranking the top 20 sedans on the market today), it is no coincidence that the top rated car was the LS430 (tied with the BMW

754Li). The M-Benz S500 was 4th and the new Acura RL was 15th. Nuff said.
Reply to
jeffs9000

It might be 'Nuff said' as far as you're concerned, but......

In Motor Trend (6 cars) and Car and Driver (8 cars) comparisons of similar cars, the RL came in 2nd each time. In the Car and Driver review, the Lexus 430 (your #1) came in 3rd -- behind the Acura RL. (Respective links are below.)

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It would appear that these two respected magazines are using different criteria/categories and ratings than you are. Perhaps you'd be willing to share yours with us .

Reply to
Lee Florack

The very first sentence in the car and driver review sums up my feelings on the 'new' RL: "The Acura RL misses the top slot in this test mainly because of the company's habitual restraint. Acura engineers could have made the RL bigger but instead made it smaller (retaining much of the previous model's interior volume). They could have gone to a V-8, but they used a VTEC V-6. They could have changed to rear-wheel drive but chose to adapt a front-drive platform to a novel all-wheel-drive system known as SH-AWD, which can shift torque fore-and-aft for traction and side to side to generate extra yaw for cornering."

I'm sure the new RL is a great mid-size sedan, but Honda missed the boat on rolling out a new flagship. The Lexus in the car and driver review is a GS430 which is a totally different and sub-par car compared to the LS430.

The categories included in my analysis include length to wheel base ratio, width, height to front head room ratio, weight, front leg room, rear leg room, luggage capacity, turning circle, horsepower, torque,

0-60 times & gas tank size. Out of 20 topend sedans sampled, the Lexus LS430 scored the best with the BMW 745Li coming in second. Now if things like rear leg room, trunk size or turning circle (or others) are not important to you, then the results of this test could be totally different. Notice MPG was not included as I am not that concerned about gas milage, if I was I would probably be looking at a Prius or Civic.
Reply to
jeffs9000

Thanks for sharing your criteria. I see that a very large portion of your categories deal with size. I would say that my criteria would include almost none of those items -- at least not anywhere the top of the list.

Now I understand what's driving your dislike for the RL. I hope you find and get what you're looking for.

Reply to
Lee Florack

In the 30000.00 range the Avalon brings more to the table then any other vehicle I've seen . Too bad you lose a year of warranty compared to the Lexus . However ,you probably wouldn't need it anyway. -Dana

Reply to
Dana

Another POS Toyota product.

Reply to
Venture Rider

Concurrence. I've *never* bought extended warranties on Honda, Toyota or Mazda, and it turned out that - even after 10 years in one case - I simply didn't need it. I did, however, buy extended warranties on a couple of GM products, and boy, did I make out like a bandit on those.

I wouldn't worry about warranty on Honda or Toyota. Mazda may be a little more iffy, though it was actually a '94 Miata that the wife had for 10 years and it never had any problem at all, other than normal wear and tear.

Reply to
Dean Dark

you're a d*****ad

Reply to
Jakob Sullivan

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