Acura TL Review
By Bill Howard

You should look this good in the last two years of your life. The Acura TL has been around since 2004 with a minor freshening
for 2007, meant to last until a 2009 replacement. The technology offerings continue to make the TL the best mid-size sport
sedan you can buy—especially since it's priced competitively with Germany's best compact sport sedans.

This is the best tech-savvy sport sedan you can buy for under C$45,000. One option provides every tech feature not found on
the base car. Integrated Bluetooth and superb audio. Simple buying process.
Excellent navigation system with backup camera. Powerful, roomy, affordable for its class.
Tiny cockpit controller, awkward mid-dash location. Cluttered center stack.
Lacks some leading (and costly) features such as active cruise control.

For a price in the mid-thirties, you can either have a BMW or Mercedes emblem on the hood, or you can have a TL with a back
seat that adults won't mind riding in for hours on end. With BMWs especially, if you play the options game, you can have a 3 Series
with a price tag approaching $50,000. The most you can spend on an Acura TL is C$45,140, and that's for a high-performance
version most people won't need.

One thing I love about the entire Acura line (including its sibling, Honda) is that much of the good stuff comes built in
and a single options package adds the rest. In the case of the TL, an excellent Bluetooth module comes standard
and the base audio package—also the only audio package—is an ELS DVD-Audio system with eight speakers,
a disc changer, a cassette player (remember them?), and a line-in jack. "ELS" is Elliott Scheiner, a industry-legend
record producer who knows what audio should sound like.

Bi-xenon headlights, satellite radio, leather seats, alloy wheels, and tire-pressure monitoring are standard, too.
To this, you need to add only one option, the Alpine navigation system with Zagat ratings, GPS control of the air conditioning,
and a backup camera, for $2,500. Alpine makes some of the most usable nav systems year in, year out, with voice recognition
and real-time traffic data. The GPS-linked air conditioning knows which way the car is pointed and where the sun is in the sky,
so it steers additional cooling to the sunny side of the car.

The only choices you must make are exterior and interior colors, and if you opt for the performance-minded Type-S variant,
you decide between a five-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual; you also have two choices of high-performance tires.
The Type-S costs $4,500 extra but includes the $2,500 navigation system.
The TL also incorporates active noise cancellation inside the cockpit and paddle shifters.

On the Road

The TL provides comfort and luggage space for four (or five) with plenty of entertainment options.

But as with other Acuras, the complexity of the center stack takes some getting used to.
I counted more than 40 buttons and two displays on the navigation-equipped TL.
(Some Acuras have 60 and three.)

My biggest concern is the control knob: It's a smallish pointing device (as on a ThinkPad laptop) just below the LCD screen,
with no wrist support other than the gearshift lever. Newer Acuras such as the Acura MDX have bigger knobs, which are still center-stack-mounted. You'll probably find yourself using the voice input system more and more over time, in part because
of the controller size and location.

The steering-wheel buttons are also a bit small and set flush with the steering wheel. It's no worse than on the average car,
but this is no average car, and it's a far cry from the big steering-wheel buttons on Porsches that can be operated with ski gloves.

Type-S: Both Louder and Quieter

The performance-oriented Type-S dares you to flog the throttle (I plead guilty), especially since the car comes with high-performance
brakes from Brembo, the current darling of the performance crowd. But on the Type-S, the active noise-cancellation system inside
the cabin counteracts some of the road and engine noise. (A future technology might use ANC outside the car in place of mufflers.)
Not everyone thinks ANC can be effective, but I figure hundreds of corporate jets can't be wrong (they use ANC to coddle passengers),
and I thought the Type-S sounded particularly quiet at speed.

Both cars use the same front-drive V6-engine configuration, 3.2 liters and 258 hp in the TL, 3.5 liters and 286 hp in the Type-S.
The TL is fine in daily driving, but when you're of a sporting bent, you must hold the wheel tightly when you step on the throttle,
or all that power (torque) tends to want to make the car accelerate at an angle. This may be why Acura is rumored working
on an all-wheel drive TL for 2009.

What's Missing: Bleeding-Edge Tech

A reason the TL stops at $40K, while a BMW 3 Series can approach $50K and a 5 Series (closer to the TL in size) surpasses
$60K, is the options that provide more comfortable and marginally safer driving for a price:
a head-up display ($1,000), active cruise control ($2,000), lane-departure warning and blind-spot detection ($500 apiece),
and night vision ($2,000). These things are nice to have, and they do increase your safety—but nowhere near as much as
shoulder harnesses, stability control, and airbags do.

Much of that technology is available in Acura's high-end RL, a superb car that sells in small quantities and doesn't provide
significantly different cockpit room compared with the TL. In a week of long-distance driving, the only option I really missed
was ACC. It's a valuable helper late in the day when you're still awake but attention isn't 100 percent; it prevents you from
getting too close to cars in front.

The other option I missed was backup sonar. The LCD panel is typical of most cars and washes out in sunlight; and sometimes,
if you're backing into the direction of the setting sun, you can't see hazards such as hard rocks when there's no parking sonar to
assist. Ask me how I know (and I discovered this on an earlier TL test car, no less).

Buying Advice

You simply can't go wrong buying an Acura TL, either new or used. The 2004 to 2008 models are more alike than different.
The only problem with buying a used Acura is that the cars hold their value well; there are few distress-sale bargains.
The base car is excellent, the design is classic, and Web site is easy to navigate. I'd recommend the navigation and
backup-camera package. Have the dealer install an iPod adapter (about $200 plus shop charges).
The Type-S, available since 2007, is overkill for most drivers, though I'd love it.

Unlike some cars, the TL looks fine in lighter shades; even white. Some TL exterior color choices include a darker taupe,
 which hides dirt better than the too-light, too-common parchment leather but isn't as somber as black leather.
If you're partial to matching exterior and interior colors and don't want black and black, try the carbon-bronze-pearl TL
with taupe leather.

Even though they might lack the absolute cachet of BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis, Acuras excite your neighbors more than Hondas.
But if you're not into ego gratification, also look at the revamped 2008 Honda Accord.
For about $5,000 less, a high-end Accord EX-L provides even more interior room, the newer Acura/Honda cockpit controller,
variable cylinder shutdown from essentially the same engine as Acura uses, a gorgeous cockpit (so long as you don't order cloth),
and bland alloy wheels, especially noticeable since Acura's five-spoke wheels are some of the most attractive designs available.

I recommend the TL highly for people who want technology, performance, space, comfort, and reliability in a single car.
Especially if you don't need a status symbol on the hood.