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| 2005 Acura Rl Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Final Word
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| Road Test | |||
Within the first few minutes of driving the RL, the first impression that set in was one of familiarity. Being a partial owner of a late-model Honda Accord (a description that befits 400,000 new people every year), I quickly connected with the feel of the RL's steering and brakes, the low "creep" speed (how fast the car goes at idle), the slightly aggressive throttle pedal calibration, and the transmission's eagerness to downshift. The similar suspension setup and Accord-like dimensions added to the impression. When venturing into the brave new world of $50,000 transportation, familiarity can be a comforting trait.The feeling continues. One drive over a dilapidated L.A. freeway demonstrates that Acura's flagship does only a marginally better job of smothering bumps or road noise than a Honda Accord. You feel just as many chops through the seat and the hum of the tires is a constant companion, despite the much-advertised noise-canceling soundwaves emanating from the BOSE sound system. No one else's V6 comes close to matching the RL's smooth, thrilling 300 horsepower. The RL's V6 even matches Lexus' V8 horse for horse and stomps Jaguar's competely. But with a just-okay 260 pounds-feet of torque on tap and the weight of AWD hardware working to its disadvantage, there's no immediate thrust to shove you ahead instantly. No one could rightfully call the RL slow, but even Acura's downmarket TL outruns it. The RL's 6.7-second 0-60 run is more on level with, well, an Accord. There we go again. Feeling so much like an Accord is a blessing because that car does almost everything pretty well, and a curse because it means Honda couldn't do much more with 50 grand than they could with 25. After enough seat time, all that familiarity can turn from "I remember this!" to "been there, done that." I realize that not every target customer will be stepping out of another Honda, and those who aren't will probably sense nothing but competence and solid engineering. But those who have stayed within the family might not sense enough difference to avoid asking questions like "what, exactly, is all this extra money supposed to buy?" To its credit, Acura has one of the smartest manual-shift automatics out there. It's the smartest mainly because, unlike everyone else's, it doesn't assume you're dumb. Its only operating rule is "don't let the driver blow up the engine" (i.e. no shifting to first gear at 120 MPH) and lets you do whatever you want besides. You can rev it to redline and it will happily bounce on the border, and you can floor it in any gear without the transmission kicking down. And, choice of choices, Acura lets you have your shifting two ways - via the lever on the floor or two paddles on the steering wheel (right hand upshift, left hand downshift) - useful for changing gears while turning. Having four driven wheels - supposedly the most drastic change of the year - sets the RL apart from every other car in the Honda/Acura universe, spells instant legitimacy in the luxury class, and qualifies the RL as another great foul-weather alternative to the Audi A6 Quattro and Mercedes E500 4Matic. Mother Nature turned off the rain during our week with the RL, but I have no reason to question its effectiveness. As for dry roads, the system's front-biased nature accounts for much of the car's typical behavior. While it can send up to 70% of the power to the back, it's programmed to usually send that much the other way, which watered down my hopes of the RL being a super-handling all-wheel-drive car. But that's exactly what it is. I know this because it says so on the trunk: "SH-AWD." Those who remember the 1997 Honda Prelude SH have seen this system before. Then called ATTS (Active Torque Transfer System), this handling tool spun the Prelude's outside front wheel at a faster rate than the inside wheel during hard cornering. Its understeer-fighting abilities worked well enough for one car magazine to crown it the "Best-Handling Car Under $30,000." Aside from working on the rear wheels instead of the fronts, the RL's system works the same way. Could Honda's handling magic do for the RL what it did for the Prelude? Whether due to the AWD factor, the SH factor, or both, I can attest that the RL corners in a fairly neutral manner. It feels safe taking higher entry speeds into corners (ever try a 35 MPH right-turn?) and attacking them results in less skidding and plowing going on underfoot. But at 4,000 pounds, the RL isn't going to be the Best-Handling Anything - certainly not at $50,000 - no matter how many computer-controlled gizmos are called upon to redirect engine power to this wheel or that one, and no matter how low the tires go (which are already at 245/50R17). The RL simply isn't very eager. Acura would get more mileage out of sticking the SH system on the TSX or RSX. |
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