The Acura TLX On The Road to Adventure
Next up in test drives was the 2016 Acura TLX which is a pretty slick looking car, above the price-point of the Honda sedans, but fairly comparable to the higher priced BMW and Lexus but with a much lower cash outlay.
This car comes with 2 types of engines, the 2.4-litre, 16-valve, Direct Injection DOHC, i-VTEC® 4-cylinder engine with 206 hp @ 6800 rpm and 182 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4500 rpm and the 3.5-litre Direct Injection SOHC i-VTEC® aluminum-alloy V6 engine with 290 hp @ 6200 rpm and 267 lb.-ft of torque @ 4500 rpm. The former comes with Precision All-Wheel Steer system and an 8-speed dual clutch-transmission with Sequential SportShift paddle shifters; the latter with a Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD®) that replaces Precision All-Wheel Steer system and 9-speed automatic transmission with Sequential SportShift® paddle shifters.
There’s lots of energy saving when you drive the TLX, the engine stops when you do and start back up when you hit the accelerator, a feature which actually annoys me somewhat as I am yet to get used to this, and the 6 cylinder cuts down 2 cylinders when you don’t need them all.
The cars have an Integrated Dynamic System (IDS) which has four modes, the economy mode, holding the rpm’s lower, the normal mode, a sport mode allowing higher rpm’s and the sport plus with full manual pedals with a good reaction time. The cars steering is also quicker in the full control mode.
The car is smooth and quiet with quieting foam and a quieting windshield and the seats are comfortable and adjustable. There’s 13.2 cubic feet of cargo space, fold down back seats for more room, and a hidden compartment in the trunk for even more storage. The drivers seats are comfortable and the advance package seats are heated and ventilated with a 10 way adjust driver and an 8-way passenger, along with a tilted steering wheel. The backseat room is 34.5 inches and seats also come heated, authentic leather and wood finishes complete the package.
There’s two screens for viewing navigation and the parking sensors on the top and a touch screen for audio, climate control and more. The 4 cylinder comes with 17 inch wheels and the V6 with 18 inch.
There’s lots of safety features, even in the standard, such as tire pressure alerts, anti-lock brakes, 7 air bags, vehicle stability assist, and brake assist. The advanced adds parking sensors, collision mitigation, seat belt pretension, and the tech version has lane keeping, forward collision, parking sensors, road departure mitigation, and collision mitigation braking.
With a comfortable cabin, a wack of power and a high-end look, we’d like to be in this car more often. We’ve driven it twice now, over to the Island above with lots of highway time in sport mode and around town this summer where economy was the better choice
*Acura provided the TLX for our review purposes.
