TL Type S

I've had one a bit over two months. Overall, I'm quite pleased. About

1 mpg less than my "04, and it had a rattle in the rear going over bumps. Dealer said this was an issue, and replaced the rear struts with a factory rev. 2. That fixed 95% of the noise. The factory and dealer are aware it's not a total fix, and the rev. 3 will be installed when available - all under warranty.

Esthetic-wise, I'm not a big fan of the red-light dashboard motif (preferred the blue one), but you get used to it. The back-up video cam is really nice.

Good luck.

-- Roger

Excellent vehicle and Consumer Reports, Motor Tend, Car & Driver have given their thumbs up on the TL. I just purchased one several weeks ago and cannot believe the amount of headroom this car offers. It's quick and the seats provide great support. The car gets great gas mileage to boot.

Take one for a test drive.

Good luck

Ken

I took the car for a test drive and was disappointed in the amount of torque-steer. It really need SH-AWD. I also thought, that while the brakes were great, the peddle feel was a bit soft. That could have been the particular car I was driving. Straight-line it is very quick. Just don't try to use it for hard cornering.

On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 20:05:12 GMT, Robert Peirce

It sounds to me like you could be ready for a (gasp! shock! horror!)

*rear* wheel drive car.

Fact is, in anything larger than a very small car, front wheel drive just doesn't cut it on the performance front. All wheel drive is a bit better but it's different and at the end of the day all that all wheel drive on a front wheel drive platform is doing is compensating somewhat for the shortcomings of front wheel drive scaled up to a larger and more powerful car being driven by someone a bit more alert than your grand-dad.

Toyota and Nissan have realized this over the past few years in many models in their Lexus and Infiniti lines. BMW and Mercedes have known it for years.

It's time for Honda's Acura brand to catch up. I *really* wish they would. And don't talk to me about the NSX and the S2000, I'm talking about the mainstream bread and butter stuff.

I have a 1977 MB (RWD), a 1999 NSX (RWD), a 2000 Prelude (FWD) and a

2006 RL (AWD). I have some knowledge of what I am talking about. Torque steer is pretty well tamed in the RL, and it isn't too bad in the Prelude. It could be handled in the TL-S as well. The problem is getting more than about 200 hp to the ground in a FWD car is fairly difficult, but it can be done. Look at what Real Time Racing has been able to do, as well as that team that keeps winning in British Touring Car -- Hareford or something like that.

So why bother with FWD?

There never has been a *really* good FWD performance car of any decent size, and IMHFO there isn't likely ever to be one. I'm on my second NSX now, and it's closest to the most perfect car I've ever driven. I'm saving up for an F430 (though an F355 may be more within my reach...) and if that ever happens then I expect even the memory of the beloved NSX will be eclipsed. I bought an '04 TSX new for a runabout and it was a damned near faultless car - apart from the

*wretched* FWD yukkiness when you stepped on it. I sold is a year later with less than 10K miles on it.

The fact remains that FWD sucks big time in the performance car market. There just ain't no gettin' around it.

Dean Dark wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Don't count on it. Honda is run too much by the enviro-weenies these days.

Note their absolute refusal to consider an engine bigger than 3.5L or six cylinders.

The Ridgeline?

Robert Peirce wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.verizon.net:

You can't ever get rid of torque-steer completely in any vehicle driven by its front wheels. It's inherent in the design, and the more powerful the car, the more the torque steer.

My '91 Integra has equal-length halfshafts (for torque-steer reduction) but you still have to hold on well to the steering wheel on aceleration from a standstill. That took some getting used to after all the RWD cars I had previously owned.

Consider a powerful car without equal-length driveshafts or any other attempt at reducing torque-steer: the Pontiac Sunbird Turbo. I drove one of these in 1991. This piece of crap had torque-steer so BAD it wanted to shoot right into the ditch when you floored it. The Integra was much better behaved.

Dean Dark wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Because it's cheaper and lighter to build.

OK, what I'm hearing here is that the main complaint seems to be torque-steer. I drove a Type S over the weekend, and the torque-steer was not that pronounced, at least to me, and yes, I put the pedal down a couple of times.

What I was hoping to see were more comments about things like build-quality, bad ergonomics, etc.

Tom Simchak Law Offices of Thomas G. Simchak

5424 Katy Freeway Houston, TX 77007 (713) 864-6822 [TEL] (713) 864-6592 [FAX]

Rumor has it that SH-AWD might be available next year.

I believe the Infiniti G6 might be a good example. Most FWD cars I tested had the torque steer. I don't know how an AWD vehicle can suffer any Torque steer though.

Ken

What do you propose they do with people that live in states where FWD or AWD are needed? Should Acura add AWD to the TL?

So, what was the problem with that? Oh, that's right... the driver goes in the ditch too.

Those are things you can find out about from places like Consumer Reports magazine. The more subjective things like "how much fun and enjoyment is it to drive?" are a bit more subjective and that's where opinion rather than fact kicks in.

States where FWD or AWD is *needed*??

No. I think that people such as you describe should learn how to drive. That's, I'd say, 85% or so of the problem.

Isn't that AWD?

"Michael Pardee" wrote in news:X4OdnYea1tqCm7nbnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@sedona.net:

And so does your insurance...

Tom Simchak wrote in news:hltSh.2470$zC.1881 @newssvr22.news.prodigy.net:

The TL Type S is new this year? I could have sworn I'd seen them in the past...