fastball

I agree Honda may look into a DOHC V6, but that's way too much power for front wheel drive. Without RWD or AWD, over 300 horse will torque steer like crazy, no matter if there's stability assist, equal length drive shafts, and a positive diff or ATTS or any other device.

I drove a 1998 Eldorado ETC with the 300 horse Northstar V8, and when I laid the pedal down from a stop, that thing TS'd so hard I couldn't hold the wheel.

mayonaise

not to mention that even if they did manage to control the torque steer, the negative image it'd get from being yet another FWD luxury car from acura would be terrible. the general public may not mind so much, but if they really want to be taken seriously in the luxuruy/performance realm, well we all know what they have to do.

sherwood

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.
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.
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
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.

MtViewGuy88

I drive a 1998 Honda Civic HX CVT coupé and never had any complaints about low acceleration.

I think you maybe pleasantly surprised at the acceleration of the 2007-model CVT-equipped Nissans (the 2007 Maxima just started reaching dealers); what Nissan did was to change the programming of the CVT so you get more acceleration from stop and slow speeds, which minimizes the "slipping clutch feel" of older CVT designs. I've test-driven a Maxima and the car pulls strongly and smoothly (so much so that 100 mph is too easy to reach! ).

autofreak

I think that Acura should atleast modify the TL's platform to make it an AWD or SH-AWD for that matter. I know it would probably make it slower but it would separate it from being the average FWD sedan.

fastball

Honda always seems to put things off, but when they do something everyone asks for, they do it very well and surprise everyone. That's my thinking here. The next TL, whatever or whenever it will be, will be a very pleasant surprise.

sherwood

right now i see the main competitor for the TL being the G35. I'd rather see RWD and AWD as an option. honda has never been too keen with options, but after the RL fiasco i dont think we'll be seeing another botched "this is what you get, take it" design

This is very true, and with the TL being a tailored vehicle for the US i find it a perfect cantidate for a major change.

autofreak

noob question:
Do the Honda People actually read this or any other consumer related forums and take it into consideration for the production of their vehicles?

sherwood

who knows, but honestly, does it matter? this is a community of individuals that is comprised of many different people. this means that they will mose likely find the same information in other ways, like focus groups and such.

on another note a VW executive has actually come out as being an involved member of online forums like this, and that he takes their suggestions seriously and takes the tiem to respond in a casual manner. i wouldn't mind seeing honda/acura start doing this, but who knows.

M Type X

"put off?" Honda has limited resources and deploys them quite wisely.