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2007 Acura TL Type S
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By comparison, I traded a 2002 Honda S2000 with "W" rated tires in at 19,000 miles and they had at least 3-5k left on the rears, 5-10k on the fronts. And my current 911S, with 295/19/30 series rear tires looks better at 12.8k miles than the TL's did.
I sincerely believe that (very) high performance tires for a FWD Acura TL are a waste of money. The suspension isn't that high performance and the 60/40 weight imbalance certainly isn't. A good set of V or even H rated tires would be more than 95% of what anyone could get out of the car, if they are insane enough to take one to a track. It's a great "sporty" sedan, but it's not a sports car. It's certainly a lot closer to my former Nissan Maxima SE that could eek 50-55k miles out of "V" rated Goodyear Eagles .
Is it? :surprise: I didn't think it was.
And anybody bashing the 07 TL-S, go buy the other one and shut up. The 07 TL Type-S is AWESOME in every way IMHO!!!!
I agree the wheel design is just OK but some people love it and I don't dislike it enough to pay to replace it.
I feel the same way. I was going to replace the wheels first thing, but after a week I changed my mind, they are not that bad.
Some little gripes are....The MP3 hook up is awkward hidden down in the centre console, should be a plug in right to the radio on the front stack. Don't need the tape player, wasted space! Don't get a lot of heat into the back of the car through the back vents.
Pluses...The power is amazing. The looks are great, the car draws comments wherever i go. The dash is beautiful, especially the night lighting!
No ice on the road, at -35C?! :confuse: BTW, was it at the north pole? :P
-35C seems unbelievable, but trust me, it's real and it sucks, with the wind chill we have had a lot of temps down to -45C and -49C. Today it's up to -7C though! I was a little bit worried about making that first long trip in the cold, but the car was fine. Incidentally, during those -30C days, when idling for 10 minutes and making 5 minute drives in town, the car is averaging 13 mpg, my F150 is averaging about 8 mpg in the same situatuon. My 02 RSX averages 16 mpg in the same situation. Cold weather kills your mpg!!
It must, because even at 10-20 degrees farenheit, I get close to 30 mpg highway with my 2004 TL 6-speed at 75+/- mph. Back in December, at 30 degrees farenheit, I averaged 26.8 mpg in my 911S at an average of 77 mph over 360 miles.
For you to only get 23 mpg, that cold dense air must be like pushing the car through jello. Although I would have thought the higher oxygen content (due to density) would have helped offset the temperature effect.
Still loving the looks and the power though!!!
What car are you talking about? :confuse:
The 3.5 liter TL-S is rated at 20 city, 29 highway, same as my lighter 3.2 liter 2004 TL 6-speed, which, of itself, is a little suspicious. From my 24,000 miles of experience, you won't see anywhere near 20 mpg in true city driving. I can hit 29-30 mpg on the highway with the cruise set at 70, but the best I do in "mixed" driving is 16-18 mpg. (Pure city is more like 13-14). My TL is barely better than my 911S (15-17 mixed / 26-27 highway). And 25%+ less than my former Nissan Maxima 5-speed in similar mixed driving (22-24). Even my former Honda S2000, rated at 20/26, would beat the heck out of the TL in fuel efficiency in both highway (30-33) and mixed (22-23). In 18,000 miles on the S2000, the worst "mixed" tankful I had was 19 mpg. In the TL, I've never hit that without a fair amount of highway cruising thrown in.
The TL has many good attributes. But fuel efficiency is not one of them, at least as far as city/mixed driving goes.
What car are you talking about?
The 3.5 liter TL-S is rated at 20 city, 29 highway, same as my lighter 3.2 liter 2004 TL 6-speed, which, of itself, is a little suspicious.
My 2007 TL-S (auto with 2000 miles on it) gets 15-17 in city driving, 19 in mixed driving and 21-23 on the highway with one trip getting just under 26. Since the car is fairly new, I expect those numbers to improve a bit but still not get up to where my 2003 CL-S was at 19-21 city and 23-25 highway. A little disappointing, but we don't buy sport sedans for the gas mileage.
I can live with the mileage of the TL, but I don't give Acura much slack by calling the TL a "sport sedan". I have a friend with a 530i 6-speed that has averaged 26 mpg (60% highway) over 30,000 miles since it was new in 2005. Another friend with a 330cic averages 32+ mpg on the highway and that car is both heavier and faster than the TL. I'm not sure why the TL is worse than average, as my Honda S2000 clobbered it's EPA ratings.
Weight distribution is important of course, but suspension and tires are a huge factor. Doesn't the Porsche 911 have an odd weight distribution (something like 40/60?) with its engine hung out over rear axle? Recall that Porsche company spent a couple or more decades in taming the evil handling and unpredictability of its design with suspension and tires. Read numerous accounts years ago in car magazines about testers swapping ends and putting the 911 car off the road and into the weeds or nearly so.
Acura TL for being a "sporty" entry lux sedan does ok in actual "measured" handling data vs pure sports cars like 911.
Heard of all the talk about feel of 50/50 in cars like 3 series, and that cannot be denied, but neither can actual test data.
It will be interesting to see Edmunds or R&T test data of an 07 TL type S equipped with best tires from Acura. How close can it come in handling with its inferior (60/40) weight dist to ideal (50/50) cars such as 3 series or unbalanced (40/60) dist Porsche?
Don't know what is going on in SCCA autocross today, but would doubt that very few people if any are entering TLs. That is not the purpose nor character of the car.
The February issue of R&T tested an 07 TL-S with Bridgestone Potenza RE-03's which are the "summer performance" tire option. Regular TL-S's are equipped with Michelin all season tires of the same size (245x45).
As for handling, the numbers in the R&T comparo (IS350 & G35) had the TL performing quite respecably by comparison to the rear drivers. Below are a few excerpts from the test (hope the formatting holds):
TL-S G35S IS350
Braking 60-0 117ft. 120ft. 126ft.
Braking 80-0 214ft. 208ft. 219ft.
Skidpad .91G .88G .84G
Slalom 66.0mph 65.5mph 66.7mph
All cars were indicated as having "mild understeer" on the skidpad and slalom.
All in all a respectable performance by the TL-S. I will agree that on a racetrack or roadcourse the TL would likely be left behind; but not by too much. Apart from FWD the TL's other weakness is power and that showed in slower 0-60 and 1/4 mile times vs. the other cars (5.7 & 14.3@99.9 vs. mid-high 13's for the others).
Under medium-hard acceleration, the front end (drive wheels) of the TL lightens up - just the opposite of what you want and what happens in a RWD car. That results in wheel spin and hop, to add to the fun of torque steer.
Under braking, the opposite occurs and the weight is shifting to an even greater front end bias, causing the front end to try to dive down. That causes the plowing feeling in turns.
The 355 hp 911S records faster acceleration times than the similar weight 400 hp Corvette and matches the 500 hp Viper due, in large part, to the efficiency with which it's rear engine, RWD setup puts the power to the pavement. It was true, in the old days, that the handling (at the limits) of the 911 took some getting used to. That has been pretty well covered by suspension advancements, 295 series rear rubber and sophisticated stability management systems. Not quite to the point of making it as easy to drive as a mid-engine Cayman, but its limits are a lot higher than my abilities. Not true of the TL, by a long shot.
For the record, I do think the Acura engineers have done a respectable job of getting the most our of a FWD platform for a rather heavy sedan (my old 1995 Maxima SE was 500 lbs lighter). But if you want a real feel for the handling difference, don't just read reviews, take your own enthusiastic test drives of a TL vs. a 335i. The TL works really well as a sporty family sedan in our 3 car household. But a true sport sedan it isn't, at least by my definition.
Probably impossible to find out, but would be very interesting to know the manufacturer/supplier of these struts. Would hope that Honda/Acura managers/engineers doing extensive consultation with that supplier with regards to failures in one or more of their processes.
anyway, did the strutz fix u up?
I haven't heard about the strut issue up here in Canada, is there a TSB or VIN numbers of affected cars?
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
This makes me so mad, I paid a pile of money for a luxury car. I am guessing sooner or later, Acura will come out with a recall once they have a permanent fix. Other message boards are filled with posts on this issue ... I can't believe our VIN are so close.
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
As the ice leaves the roads I can start to utilize the power of the Type S, lovin it!!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
I'm of the opinion you should avoid dealer installed paint sealants/protectands, interior protectants (Scotchgard!), extended warranties (self-insure...!)...
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)