Where did this come from? Since the pert little RSX of 2002, Honda’sAcura division has been shoveling ever deeper into the styling mush ofconfused grilles and flabby flanks (doubters, please see the RDX,MDX,TSX.Just when we stopped caring where this sequence would lead, we get thisfascinating TL, decisively carved to appeal to your inner Batman. and
Bruce Wayne, your car is ready.
Finally, an Acura sculpted front to back with a single theme inmind, rakish, ominous, one step short of menacing. If ever there was acar meant to look sinister in the images transmitted from a Predatordrone circling overhead, it’s the 2009 Acura TL. This is brave, and the more we look, the more we see a breakthrough design.
Judging from his off-duty ride, Mr. Wayne’s taste runs moretoward all-weather sure-footedness than pure performance. And he hashigh expectations for quality and comfort.
We’re focused on the top-dog TL packing Super Handling All-Wheel Drive,abbreviated “SH-AWD” in chrome letters on the decklid. The optionalTechnology package includes nav with an eight-inch screen, a reversecamera, voice recognition, hard-drive media storage, and perforatedleather seats. Our test car had the maximum-performance tireoption—summer-rated 245/40ZR-19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s—availableonly with SH-AWD. Cha-ching, that’ll be $43,995.
You could spend much less. The good-dog TL, the base front-driver,starts at $35,715. Wisely, we think, it’s available with only the3.5-liter V-6 of 280 horsepower, thereby limiting the TL’s well-knowntorque-steer recidivism. The top-dog SH-AWD version comes amped up witha 3.7-liter variant of the same all-aluminum powerplant, whirring out305 horsepower at 6200 rpm. Either way, a five-speed automatic is theonly choice, and both dogs get sequential-shift paddles behind thefat-rimmed wheel. A manual will be available in SH-AWD models for 2010.
There’s a helicopter mood about the TL’s cockpit: a mosaic of blackbuttons—dozens of them—marked precisely in white and grouped around twocentral knobs, a big one below for twisting, turning, and togglingaround the screen, a small one above it for entertainmenton/off/volume. You’ll need training before lifting off, preferably afew hours of familiarization when you needn’t keep your eyes on theroad. Time in other Acura or Honda models helps, but each one has its peculiarities. The good news is the system avoids detouring you through the menu hell of BMW and Jaguar
This top dog’s personality is athletic, but it’s never a jock. Call itquick and mannerly. Speed in the quarter-mile is an excellent indicatorof a car’s actual power to weight. By today’s standards, anythingsub-100 mph doesn’t make the fast-car cut. This TL checks in at 97mph—decent, no better. Elapsed time is testimony to traction as much asto engine vigor. The TL grips like Krylon, as you would expect of all-wheel drive. So the timeslip shows an ET of 14.8 seconds, with a 0-to-60 along the way of sixseconds flat.
