Originally Posted by Ochdx
Have you heard whats been happening with MB's 7 speed trannies? Apparently they are nothing but trouble. We are yet to see how then upcoming 8 speed Lexus tranny does, but in any case, what is the sense of more than 5 gears in a low power V6 engine? The current 3.2 in the TL has no pull whatsoever in 5th gear, why bother with 7? Considering that Honda has no experience whatsoever in the V8 field, I tend to think they are going to stay with V6 engines and perhaps CVT.
you think the 5 speeds are slow a CVT would be a dog. i know in theory they are all well and good, but i have yet to see one in action outperform a regular automatic. there are very few cars which have tremendous pull in overdrive, and if i'm not mistaken the manual and the suto have the same 5th gear.
with foward thinking i say 7 speed automatic-- you must notice that this is the car what will have to last until 2014, 7 years from now. the 5 speed automatic is now common and the 6 is nearly here to stay, to be competitive i'd think they'd need to find a way to squeeze in another gear.
Originally Posted by Ochdx
They might also go the turbo route for their entire lineup, if the RDX proves to be successful.
yes, i could see this happening, but the only thing is that turbo is all well and fine, but i thnk honda is smarter than to put all it's eggs into one basket so fast. also their rdx is going to be based around a kseries if i'm not mistaken. something that already has two cams and a honest to god vtec system. not the half vtec, one cam system currently found in honda's v6's.
Originally Posted by Ochdx
I doubt Accord will have the same engine, they must increase power to stay competitive, and more importantly, add torque. Accord is one of the most torqueless cars on the market now.
they might swap over the engine to a 3.2, like what is seen in the TL right now... but i still think that they willl want to keep it separated to try and distance the TL to stop people from thinking it's just another japanese sedan
Originally Posted by Ochdx
As far as RWD - forget about it.
it's wishful thinking. last i heard they are trying to separate the brands. this would be the way to make the TL shine. the only gripe many reviewers had with the current TL is that it's drive wheels were in the front and not the rear.