The kind with 4 wheels, 280 horse power and leather interior. It was with a teensy bit of sentimentality that we traded in our 2005 Acura TL, for a brand new ... 2012 Acura TL. We test drove a number of cars, but our experience with Acura was so positive, I couldn't justify jumping ship to a new car maker.
Back when we bought our 2005 Acura, the TL was a Consumer Reports top recommended car. In fact, they didn't give us sales material that year, they just gave us a copy of the Consumer Reports article. Then, and even the car dealer echoed this, in 2009 the redesigned the exterior of TL and add "a beak." All agree, it was hideous. They've since improved the aesthetic, and while Consumer Reports no longer reports it as the top option, it's still ranked quite well.
And many of the reasons that the 2005 appealed to us, are still around. The service center is open till at least 11pm, maybe later. There's a limited number of packages available (it's either Base, Tech or Advanced. And the dealer recommended against the Advanced option, saying it was a whole lot of money for relatively few features), which means that you're easily comparing apples-to-apples (versus having dozens of random options that may or may not be on the car the dealer has available). Finally, kbb.com has both invoice price and fair-market price data on the car, which gives you some idea of what you should pay (still, if the let you purchase the car, by definition, you've paid too much). Oh yeah, the car is still comfortable to drive, has plenty of oomph and has all the cool gizmos I could ask for.
So, here she is. Alas, Acura no longer makes a blue exterior (which was almost a dealer breaker!), but we were happy with the graphite.
I never really thought I'd be devoted to a car brand, but Acura has me hooked. You should definitely drive one if your in the market for a new set of wheels.
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