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Comments
Not really. RL uses P245/50/R17 tires which translates to having a sidewall height of 4.8 inch (typical of non-sport tires). BMW 530i, OTOH, gets P225/50/R17 which is a low profile rubber (this is, before moving to sport package which gets you P245/40/R18 tire).
A-Spec package may move to P245/40/R18 tires with performance rubber, however. But stock tires are “average profiled” with all-season rubber.
From the assortment of comment and talking to owners, I have two concerns on any present day cars.
1. My cell phone, with a speaker and voice command has worked fine for me. Blue tooth phones seem to cause a lot of problems for the resulting rewards and I would pass on this.
2. Nav's- Being one of those anal individuals I have to have it right if I am going to own it. It's expensive & big bucks to repair. What can't I get off of MapQuest and my compass? I have never been lost. The technology is certain to change within 5 years or less. Would I have a great car with a totally out of date Nav? Look at all the late 90's BMW's & Mercedes with built in Analog phones all eye sores. There was a post from a guy the other day who was so happy to get updated software, now it shows the two streets (on his way home) that was not shown before, he was a happy man. This would probably be me, driving myself nuts.
My two cents worth.
I would say that it will still look “current” in many cars. Face it, the class of cars you’re looking at, or talking about have to have excesses, otherwise they wouldn’t be luxury cars.
Hmm, take my power seats, even take my dual zone climate control (leaving me the A/C and heater, of course); heck, take my power trunk release and automatic-lock power locks (leaving me with manual power locks, if you get my drift). Take my cassette deck (leave my CD changer, tho) -- just pleeeeeeeze don't take my sat nav.
What once were vices are now virtues! Add Acura Real Time Traffic to the mix and . . . well you get the picture.
Q: What would happen if Pheobe Snow married one of the Doobie Brothers?
A: She'd be named Phoebe Doobie of course.
I am REALLY getting old. . .
My two cents worth.
Nav's aren't for everyone - if you rarely drive outside totally familiar areas, have an excellent sense of direction, etc. It's wonderful that you've never been lost and that Mapquest works so well for you. As for me, I would never buy a car without one. It's not just a matter of getting lost, or even using Mapquest. Three times since I bought my new RL I've been in cities with which I was not familiar. With my nav I could get around with total confidence. I had no access to Mapquest while gone, and one city, Pittsburgh, is so difficult to get around in that I couldn't have done it without my nav.
As far as worrying about the nav getting out of date, it's not really a big problem. I had my 99 RL, with nav for 5 1/2 years. I only had a couple of occasions where a new street wasn't included. I updated it once in the 5 1/2 years, at a cost of $60, and was good to go. The technology was perfectly adequate, though the 05 RL is far superior. And the nav on the 99 was never an eyesore.
I've known several individuals who swore they would never use a nav system, but now that they have one, would never be without one. But, each to his/her own. Just my two cents worth.
Good assessment HENDJAZ. Thanks
Chuckle....Mark, I used to listen to a talk jock out of Chicago years ago ...last name of Mathews... brilliant mind ...he did a great regular feature as a character named Jim Shorts who did sports casts and his traffic gal was called "Lane Closure". We've come a long way since "Lane Closure" kept everyone informed about traffic conditions. There will come a day in the big cities when Nav and XM Live Traffic and Weather will become regular instruments in most vehicles. Oh, and one regular comment from Kevin Mathews character Jim (Gym) Shorts when referring to age was... you're not getting older...you're getting longer! (Followed by his ogre-ish laugh NNNN...yuk,,yuk yuk!!!)
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I've had CD changers need replacing (Jeep); I have had my heat and ac controls go south (Cordoba aka Chrysler); I have had my power actuated steering column go south on two different Audis (1997 & 2001). I am certain nav systems do break -- but the "expensive to maintain and or repair" remark does not track with my personal or observed experiences.
FWIW. And, BTW, have you ever tried to enter information into MAPQUEST while driving for Pete's sake? It's an accident waiting to happen and, in my case, the extension cord isn't long enough.
I crack myself up.
The friend I sold my TL to says that the unit (not the screen, but the computer that resides in the trunk) in the 1999 TL can be swapped out for any model's unit up to 2003. And you can find places on the Internet selling them between $300 and $500. Point being, it's possible these Nav Units can be easily replaced and possibly even cheaper than paying Acura to repair it.
I occasionally like to stop by this discussion and see how all ofyou knowledgeable (and polite!) RL enthusiasts are doing
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The navi-systems do break. My co-worker's navi-system on his '03 Lexus RX300 failed weeks ago. The whole unit was replaced under warranty. Talk about Lexus's bullet-proof reliability...
But at least we now have proof that they are NOT perfect.
Thanks.
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/74/03740506.html
see item #7.
Not so rare...I did a little research...here are some more.
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/01/04012947.html (2004 RL item 5)
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/01/03012947.html (2003 RL items 2 and 6
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/01/02012937.html (2002 RL items 2,6,19, and 20)
That issue may not hit the news stands for a bit...would you please give us a brief summary of their impressions?
"...the new RL proved itself a satisfyingly easy ride..., yet most of us agreed that the double A-arm front and multilink rear suspension needs to lose some initial impact harshness while gaining some resistance to body roll, which is a tad too abundant for a sedan with such sporting intentions. Moreover, the 5-speed automatic, though smooth-shifting, occasionally feels reluctant to quickly downshift."
Owners: do you agree with this? What's meant exactly by "initial impact harshness"?
It's on the newstands ...I'll give you a better summary than Bartalk2 a little later.
Larry...It's at Barnes & Noble" ....I sat and read the article again and decided that to summarize it would not do justice to the report. But on balance its more positive than negative and their performance stats looked very good. One nitpick was that they had at the beginning expected Acura to build a big rear-driver to compete with LS430 and Q45. Instead they built a luxurious SPORTS Sedan aimed at the younger, more affluent buyer, a technology-packed all wheel driver that's TRUER to Acura's SPORTY ROOTS. One performance comparison was with BMW 530i and MB E320 where it out-performed both in the 1/4 mile. In his closing paragraph he said Its far sportier than the "Couch -mobile it replaces and is content being what it is: A STYLISH SOLIDLY BUILT ALL-WHEEL DRIVER THAT PUSHES THE ENVELOPE, NOT WITH HORSEPOWER AND TORQUE BUT WITH FASCINATING TECHNOLOGIES AND A UNIQUE ALL WHEEL DRIVE SYSTEM. Hats off to Acura for taking a decidedly different approach toward building its new flagship sedan.
What numbers did they get for the 0-60, skidpad and slalom? Not that they matter to me but I am just curious.
As for the comment about it being a tad harsh over bumps...I agree based on the test drive I had. It is better than my IS300 (most cars are) I am trading in but not close to the LS430 or even the ES330 with taking bumps. It was harsher than I expected but not enough for me to not buy the car. I do wish it took bumps smoother but I can live with it.
0-60 was 6.7 seconds
braking from 60 mph is 126 ft. and from
80 mph is 224 ft. with control rated excellant
Lateral acceleration 200 ft SKIDPAD...0.86g
Speed through 700 ft SLALOM...65.1 mph
fuel ecomomy 19 mpg for their driving
Comment: (Buy the car...never had so much fun!!!)
No need to go buy one since I already did last week:) I take delivery of it sometime next week.
Sorry to hear about the A6. Have you thought about the Volvo S60R? It seems similar to the RL but with more sport.
Category RL S60R
HP 300 300
Torque 260 295
0-60 6.7 6.5
70-0, ft 180 168
interior space, cu ft 99 95
skidpad .87 .88
trunk, cu ft 13 13.9
The S60R 0-60 number is for the automatic (apples to apples) - the S60R manual is faster still.
Both are AWD. The S60R has adaptive suspension - Comfort, Sport, Advanced. Volvo's AWD is equally advanced except for the ability of the RL to force the outside wheel to go faster. I would say the Volvo develops torque lower in the RPMs. The Acura has the clear lead in gadgets. Volvo's NAV is excellent. The Volvo has extremely comfortable and supportive seats and the rear is a 60/40 split folding design. Some have said that the Pro Logic audio in the Volvo is better than the RL - they're both very good in that area.
The Volvo is less expensive but the RL has lots of little things the Volvo doesn't, so it's something each person will have to weigh for themselves. I wish the RL had a Sport mode suspension. If you're looking for a luxury sport sedan, it's just a tad soft.
Thanks again.
nextlife1
I was able to burn about 200 MP3's onto a CD and play them in the RL that I had out for a test drive a couple of weeks ago. I used DeepBurner to burn them as data files. I haven't tried files from iTunes or Napster. I assume the files you tried are straight MP3 files and not the proprietary files that those services use with DRM in them, correct?
I'll hopefully be picking up my new RL some time this week, so I'll be able to give you some more feedback then.
- Lawrence
Easy Three-Step Solution:
1) Burn the downloaded files to an AUDIO CD.
2) Rip the files back to your computer using a program capable of encoding MP3s (NOT Windows Media Player, which rips to WMA format).
3) Burn the newly ripped MP3 files to a data CD.
Arguably, that solution violates the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), as you have circumvented measures designed to prevent copying (the newly ripped MP3s will not contain the copy protection inhrent in the downloads). Then again, maybe it's fair use. At this point, the question is unsettled (the 3-2-1 Studios case, which might have answered the question, has been essentially mooted by 3-2-1's bankruptcy). However, it's not likely the recording industry would ever try to enforce the DMCA against you, provided you didn't share the songs you've stripped of their copy protection.
The torque on the automatic is only 258, slightly less than the RL (only the manual transmission has the 295).
The S60R is really a much smaller car as it is 13.4 inches shorter.
The RL has several other luxury features which are not available on the Volvo. They are both very nice cars but the Volvo is in a completely different class than the RL. I would suspect that most potential RL buyers would not consider the Volvo (myself included) but rather compare to the Audi A6, BMW or Mercedes.
Worse case scenario... read the manual.
I want to know how the Michelins handle in snow because at tirerack the rating is junk.
If people got snows put on their RL please tell me which model you got. Thanks
I am hoping the michelins that come with the car will be fine because I really do not want to get a new set of tires right after getting the car.:)