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Sedans Acura RL 2009 Acura RL
138 messages, Last post on May 14, 2009 at 12:42 PM
You are in the Acura RL Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: desert_rat (Oct 07, 2008 8:54 pm)  ) The driver was a 45ish dapper dressed executive looking man and when I rolled down the window of my 2005 he immediately knew what I was probably going to say. He smiled and said he just bought it and traded in his RL like mine. Said he really liked it a lot. I told him before he went away to just leave his key fob so I could check it out. We laughed and as he walked away I went over and checked it out. It's a great car but it makes sense to wait 2 more years to find out what comes with the MAJOR changes to the 2011. (don't know why you use the ID Desert Rat but we recently returned from a trip to Arizona and while there we toured the Desert Museum in Tucson... really getting to appreciate that part of the country... especially after the crazy winters we've had in Wisconsin in recent years.)
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Replying to: vavavavolvo (Oct 15, 2008 3:58 pm) Yes, I agree. While I've always liked the TL styling and really like the 09 TL, it just doesn't have the feel of a luxury car, in my opinion, and the RL does.
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Replying to: jjacura (Oct 16, 2008 8:48 am) |
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Replying to: nebraskaguy (Oct 16, 2008 10:20 am)  ) I have never been exposed to that kind of thing before but it was truly a worthwhile experience and those of us who stayed with it learned a lot about the car and were able to make a decision whether or not it was the right luxury performance sedan for us at the time or not. In another 15 months or so I expect there may be a new RL forum that could possibly take off like the 2005 but until then I will be content to drop a regular e-mail to my good friend ACURAPHILE in New York (Whom I met in here) and compare notes on how well we are doing with our 2005's. and our lives. And I expect George will be back in here again posting supurb contributions..... after all he is only 84!  JJ
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Replying to: jjacura (Oct 16, 2008 9:06 pm) George |
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Hi jjacura, I grew up in Wisconsin, graduated from the U of WI in Madison, and one of our cars is a '99 TL. It's been excellent, and we're happy with it, but I'll amplify on how I feel about Acura below. I think the styling of the 09 RL is improved over the '05-'08, but my main disappointment regarding the RL is that Acura didn't take the opportunity to convert it to rear wheel drive for '05. I think Honda-Acura should have followed the Nissan-Infiniti business model in terms of drive wheel architecture; FWD for Honda and RWD for Acura, with optional SH-AWD for whichever models of each brand is appropriate. AWD makes sense in Wisconsin, but doesn't make much sense in most of the sunbelt, for example. I think that Honda, even more than Nissan or Toyota, is the most promising Japanese company, from the standpoint of engineering resources and corporate culture, to take on the German luxury brands. To do that successfully, in my opinion, the Rl and TL must be RWD, and since the TSX is now a larger car, they might as well make the TSX a RWD direct competitor to the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes C-Class. From what I've read, the next generation RL will probably be RWD. That's good, but also disappointing that it took so long. It suggests that Honda has lost some of the entrepreneurial spirit it used to have, and has been playing it too cautious, hoping that SH-AWD would trump RWD and RWD based SH-AWD. Or maybe they were counting on the fact that most drivers neither know nor care which set of drive wheels move the car. Incidentally, FWD made perfect sense for the first two or three generation Acuras, when luxury cars had significantly less power. The game changer was when, several years ago, horsepower and torque rose dramatically. That amplified the shortcomings of FWD. My conclusion is that each drive configuration involves various tradeoffs. That means that one or another is better for certain applications. Of the Japanese manufacturers, I think that Nissan-Infiniti has done the best job of sorting out the tradeoffs.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Oct 17, 2008 5:30 am) What is going on with our Badgers this fall?  Your thoughts regarding the RWD based SH-AWD platform are consistent with much of what we have read in the Car Mags. It suggests that you have gone deeper into the competitive engineering aspects of performance based luxury sedans and comparisons are important to you. How do you feel about Acura adding a 420 Horsepower, 4.8 liter, V-8 to the mix? We have seen Spy photos of the 2011 but indications are that the designers have gone back to the drawing board. Many of us really count on THIS one to be designed exceptionally well with show stopper distinction. Acura has an opportunity to knock 'em dead with a true flagship leader this time. I look forward to it.  Good Luck to you. JJ |
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Well, the badgers aren't doing as well as last year, when they won 69% of the games versus only 43% so far this year. However, there's time left in this season, and one can hope that they'll turn it around. Regarding a V8 for Acura, just this morning I read in Automotive News that... " Acura dealers: A V-8 engine is on the way - Acura dealers say they have been told that Acura will offer a V-8 engine option within 18 months. 'It's confirmed,' says Dave Conant, principal owner of the multibrand Conant Auto Retail Group in Cerritos, Calif., which includes one Acura dealership." Since I'm not a subscriber I was unable to access further details, such as which model(s) will get the new V8, its size, power, and features to be relatively fuel efficient. I'm sure more details will come out soon. This will be a big opportunity for Honda to establish Acura as a credible competitor to the German luxury brands, plus Lexus and Infiniti, and Cadillac. It'll be interesting to see how Acura balances the need for a flagship and the increasingly stringent fuel economy requirements. In the meantime, the RL is merely a place holder. That doesn't make it a bad car, but "not bad" isn't good enough in the current environment. With auto sales as weak as they are, the consumer has too many choices and too much power for anything less than an excellent product to succeed. For this reason, and the fact that there's insufficient differentiation between the RL and the new TL to justify the price differential, means that RL '09 sales will be weak, and the cars will be heavily discounted.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Oct 20, 2008 4:05 am) The v8 has been well rumored for the past couple of years. It's really no secret but the actual specs are. The v8 could be a 8 cylinder version of the NSX replacement's v10. |
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| According to Automotive News, Honda has cancelled plans for a rear wheel drive V8 Acura. | |
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