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Sedans Acura TL Acura RL vs. Acura TL
162 messages, Last post on Jul 29, 2008 at 6:24 AM
You are in the Acura TL Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: tommyg29 (Dec 26, 2005 4:55 pm) I agree totally. So what if it looks a little like an Accord. It's not an Accord and once you drive, or even ride in, both, you'll see the difference. As far as the TL, it's a great car for the price, but I wouldn't trade my RL for a TL for any amount of money. |
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Replying to: tommyg29 (Dec 26, 2005 4:55 pm) I can agree with at least part of your statement. If 500+ lbs is "a LOT" than the RL is indeed a lot more car than the TL. Unfortunately, that is a major reason why I was happy to turn in an RL loaner and get my TL 6-speed back from service. IMO, Acura went out of their way to market the RL as a "Super Handling", "300 HP" performance oriented luxury sedan. And that's precisely where it fell well short of my expectations. It felt much heavier, handling and steering were less nimble and precise, and it was noticably slower than my TL 6-speed. I can (and do) say many nice things about an RL relative to it's luxury and comfort. But after taking it for several runs through DC's winding Rock Creek Parkway, I could not label it as "fun to drive", at least not by my standards. I have been accused by others of not recognizing that the RL was never meant to be a luxury "sports" sedan, but rather simply a "luxury" sedan. Sorry, I guess I was paying too much attention to Acura's own advertising. But as I have also responded before, I think Acura would do well to establish loftier goals for it's "flagship". And charge more for it, if necessary and appropriate. As a case in point, if I were to upgrade from the TL 6-speed today, it would be into a BMW 550i 6-speed. The current RL - hell the current TL for that matter - can "outgadget" the BMW. But the RL needs some serious reworking to match the BMW's driving feel and performance. The BMW is priced at $63k +/-. That gives Acura a lot of wiggle room. I hope they use it, rather than continue to produce a rather boring to drive "flagship" that gets compared to a TL automatic and Accord. Even when the RL "wins" over the TL in the luxury amenity and do-dad comparison (as in your case) or the MDX "wins" over the Pilot (as in our case), it still dissapoints me that Acura as a company appears hesitant to reach for more unique and loftier goals. This criticism is "hard love". I still consider my former Honda S2000 as a superb example of what Honda is capable of if they put their engineering minds to it. Their $32k masterpiece was a no-apologies required alternative to the $50k+ Porsche Boxster. Even if my preference for "driver's cars" is not what Acura is shooting for with the RL, they still need to aim higher. In the Buick-like luxury arena, the flagship Lexus LS430 doesn't seem to get cross shopped against or compared with the ES330 or Toyota Avalon nearly to the same extent as the RL does to it's less costly siblings. Just my 10 cents. |
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With Acura's positioning of the RL vs. TL is that the TL is not only more of a driver's car, with comparable luxury amenities, but it is nearly the same size as the RL. In the case of the BMW 3 series vs. 5 series, if you want the sportier, less expensive 3-series, you have to be prepared to give up a fairly significant amount of rear seat comfort and size. In the case of one of our friends, they immediately ruled out the 3-series due to it's size limitations. (They are in their 40's with two kids). But they compared the 530i to both the RL and TL. They ended up going with a TL (6-speed). Had the RL been a notch or two up on performance, they would have gone in that direction, or had the TL been a notch or two smaller (i.e. comparable to the 3 series), they would have gone to the 5-series or RL. But they felt the TL gave them the best of all worlds of size, sportiness, luxury and reliability. They were prepared to spend $50k+, so absolute price wasn't an issue. Personally, I think Acura has too many cars crammed into the $25k to $45k space. Especially for a "premium" brand. I agree with the suggestion that they need to put more distance between the models - in size, performance and price. In fairness, Acura would probably never get me to turn in the keys of my BMW M5, but I do know a lot of 5-series owners that would consider a more preformance oriented RL next time around. |
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| Well, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised. The michelin PAX MXM4 combined to the larger (18in) rim do make the RL a noticeably better handling car. The tranny is still a little on the slow side even when using the paddles, but overall the car feels much tighter and surefooted on the twisties. I don't know if the noise cancellation system has been improved, but the car did also feel significantly quieter. The first time I drove the RL (during its debut) I was a little disappointed with its athletism, great ride for sure but a big downgrade form my manual TL. I'm happy to say that the "upgraded" RL handles now as adroitly as the auto TL. SInce my TL is turning "40" and I really want an AWD car (WI winters) July will probably by my last time with my beloved TL. I will let it go with a broken heart but I think it wont bleed for too long (it will heal right up when the first snow storm of the season arrives) . | |
My sense is that the premium needed to purchase the RL over the going price for the TL can be largely recovered at resale time (check the KBB value for 05 models with 20k miles). Given the technological and safety advantages of the RL over the TL and the fact that those can be have for not much more than the financing cost of the price differential it seems to me that the RL at going prices is a compelling proposition over the TL.
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Replying to: guille57 (Jun 14, 2006 5:19 am) In order to get my attention, Acura would need to take the type of ground up performance engineering that produced the Honda S2000 and put it to work developing a premium sedan that is a true driver's car. Until they do, my jump from the TL 6-speed would be to a BMW 550i 6-speed, not to another do-dad or two in the slushbox equiped RL. But over the last 8 months, I've put more miles on our 911S (7,100) than I have on our TL (3,500), so I'm probably not sedan jumping no matter what Acura, BMW or anyone else does.
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Replying to: habitat1 (Jun 14, 2006 11:37 am)
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Replying to: guille57 (Jun 15, 2006 4:00 am) I think I am a little negative on the RL not because it isn't a very nice car - it certainly is. But Acura created a bit of false expectations with me based upon it's "super handling AWD", "300 hp", etc. advertising campaign. On the real time traffic Nav system - do you have an RL and use the system? I believe it's a service provided through XM Satellite Radio. Here in the Wasington DC market, they just plain suck. We will be sitting in standstill traffic and XM's traffic report says the beltway is flowing smoothly. Or vice-versa. The time I had an RL as a loaner, they might as well have given my daughter 3 crayons to color the routes red green or yellow. She sould have guessed better than XM did. Hopefully, it's more accurate in other areas, but in my experience, it's a big annoyance. I have to tune to AM radio for a real traffic report. |
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Replying to: tommyg29 (Dec 26, 2005 4:55 pm)
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Replying to: ocim (Sep 11, 2006 4:36 pm) |
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